10,000 Google Cardboard headsets handed out to fans during the Patriots’ practice

By Albert Khoury December 6, 2015

Visa and Bank of America present: New England Patriots 360° Video Experience

Google is teaming up with the New England Patriots to give fans a virtual spot on the playing field. Bank of America and Visa announced that they’re giving away 10,000 Google Cardboard virtual reality headsets at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, ahead of the Patriots-Eagles game. Fans are taken, virtually, from the training facility to the gridiron, where they get a look at what goes on during training day, giving them a chance to “Travel Inside the Game.” The headsets were first made available during the Patriots’ FanZone pregame activities.

This experience is built on the Strivr VR training platform, reports TechCrunch. This tech from Strivr Labs in Silicon Valley has been a popular training tools for numerous NFL teams, including the Patriots, Cowboys, Jets, Vikings, and 49ers. Earlier this year, the Wizards, along with the Caps and Mystics, became respectively the first NBA, NHL, and WNBA teams to sign partnerships with Strivr. The VR startup is working on bringing the technology to additional teams and sports.

While this is not true virtual reality, it’s about as close as most sports fans will ever get to the field. While viewing the video above, use your mouse to move the view around. And if you have access to a Cardboard headset, strap it on and enjoy!

You don’t have to be a fan of the Patriots or even a football fan to enjoy this experience. However, if you’ve always wanted to get close to Tom Brady, here’s likely your best chance.

The Cardboard headsets handed out at Gillette field are limited editions. Visa promoted their BankAmericard Travel Rewards Visa credit cards as they handed them out. This giveaway is also going a long way toward bringing the VR experience to everyone beyond the hardcore gamers and techies who have been following these innovations from the beginning.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Al started his career at a downtown Manhattan publisher, and has since worked with digital and print publications. He's…

Computing

Why AI will never rule the world

image depicting AI, with neurons branching out from humanoid head

Call it the Skynet hypothesis, Artificial General Intelligence, or the advent of the Singularity -- for years, AI experts and non-experts alike have fretted (and, for a small group, celebrated) the idea that artificial intelligence may one day become smarter than humans.

According to the theory, advances in AI -- specifically of the machine learning type that's able to take on new information and rewrite its code accordingly -- will eventually catch up with the wetware of the biological brain. In this interpretation of events, every AI advance from Jeopardy-winning IBM machines to the massive AI language model GPT-3 is taking humanity one step closer to an existential threat. We're literally building our soon-to-be-sentient successors.

Mobile

The best hurricane trackers for Android and iOS in 2022

Truck caught in gale force winds.

Hurricane season strikes fear into the hearts of those who live in its direct path, as well as distanced loved ones who worry for their safety. If you've ever sat up all night in a state of panic for a family member caught home alone in the middle of a destructive storm, dependent only on intermittent live TV reports for updates, a hurricane tracker app is a must-have tool. There are plenty of hurricane trackers that can help you prepare for these perilous events, monitor their progress while underway, and assist in recovery. We've gathered the best apps for following storms, predicting storm paths, and delivering on-the-ground advice for shelter and emergency services. Most are free to download and are ad-supported. Premium versions remove ads and add additional features.

You may lose power during a storm, so consider purchasing a portable power source, just in case. We have a few handy suggestions for some of the best portable generators and power stations available.

Gaming

Don’t buy the Meta Quest Pro for gaming. It’s a metaverse headset first

Meta Quest Pro enables 3D modeling in mixed reality.

Last week’s Meta Connect started off promising on the gaming front. Viewers got release dates for Iron Man VR, an upcoming Quest game that was previously a PS VR exclusive, as well as Among Us VR. Meta, which owns Facebook, also announced that it was acquiring three major VR game studios -- Armature Studio, Camouflaj Team, and Twisted Pixel -- although we don’t know what they’re working on just yet.

Unfortunately, that’s where the Meta Connect's gaming section mostly ended. Besides tiny glimpses and a look into fitness, video games were not the show's focus. Instead, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wanted to focus on what seemed to be his company’s real vision of VR's future, which involves a lot of legs and a lot of work with the Quest Pro, a mixed reality headset that'll cost a whopping $1,500.