New London Pop-Up Venue Brings TopGolf’s Digital Razzle-Dazzle To Footy

October 20, 2021 by Dave Haynes

A pop-up venue in London, that you could very loosely describe as TopGolf for football players, is using interactive technologies to measure and celebrate skills.

Called METRIX, the site at a shopping mall in the White City area creates a reactive sensory experience for players and fans who want to test or show off their soccer skills. There is real-time digital signage for leaderboards, and an interactive station that allows players to create the digital equivalent of fan cards that show tangible outputs such as speed, power, touch, accuracy and efficiency.

METRIX: FOOTBALL RE-CODED, the first location of its kind, uses the German software firm Sensape to create the player cards, using background segmentation for the player photos without needing a green screen.

Says Sensape:

In the near future, a personal 3D avatar is planned to be added to the player card. Using Sensape’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology, players will be able to create personalised avatars based on their own appearance, thanks to the software which automatically recognizes the person in front of it in real-time, converting external features such as hair type, skin colour and facial shape, as well as hairstyles and beard shapes to create a 3D avatar.

The 10,000 square meter pop-up is at Westfield, White City, and is the first METRIX experience in the UK.