Project title: A sustainable and accessible alternative golfing experience.
Product name: MR TEE
Topic/problem description: The game of golf has had a surge in popularity since the Covid-19 pandemic but factors such as cost, location, and time make golf inaccessible to many. Other factors such as land use, natural disruption, water usage, and pesticides make the sport unsustainable. Two key research findings are one; several barriers of entry prevent golf from being accessible in its current format, and two; golf courses themselves are unsustainable, inaccessible, and inconvenient. In conclusion, to make golf more sustainable and accessible the game must be moved away from a golf course.
Solution: MR Tee: An alternative golfing experience that incorporates extended reality technology. The goal is to maintain the physicality of the game, a golf swing, and build a virtual interaction around it. This will bring golf away from a golf course, and into the hands of users wherever and whenever. It is a design system that uses both physical and virtual elements to replicate the experience of golf. The design utilizes several sensory elements including: haptics, visual, and auditory. The foundation for the physical design is the immersive mat, a physical turf mat that uses a camera and infrared sensors to communicate to a mixed reality headset. The mixed reality headset is the basis for the virtual design, and generates a virtual golfing experience within your physical environment. To further convey haptic feedback, a vibration grip is placed onto any more golf club to replicate the physical feedback one would get when you hit a golf ball off different lies. Lastly a pair of headphones is used to replicate the hitting sound, a critical component of the experience of golf. MR Tee is an example of an alternative golfing experience which utilizes extended reality technology. It shows that golf can be more sustainable and accessible when brought away from a golf course.
