Qatar has offered all the support, capabilities, and technologies necessary, to build an infrastructure capable of hosting an event of the magnitude of the FIFA World Cup 2022. This has aided in the emergence of numerous startups that have invested in the chance to emerge and use cutting-edge technologies to aid in the superb organization of international events.
The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar has provided an opportunity for the creation of numerous technologies and startups in the Middle East and around the world, both directly and indirectly. This is particularly true of sports technology, which aims to enhance team performance, match analytics, and create an unforgettable experience for audiences engaged in sports tourism.
There are significant efforts made by Qatar to use multiple technologies to enhance the experience of players and fans within and outside of stadiums. This accomplishment has included using a variety of technology to amuse football admirers without ignoring anyone’s rights, including those individuals of determination with disabilities.
Qatar has been successful in utilizing navigation, artificial intelligence, and locating technologies to facilitate assistance and support for football teams, fans, and people with disabilities, as well as the use of engineering, mobility, and stadium cooling technologies, even the football of World Cup 2022 called “AL RIHLA” applied sensor technology. Here are some of the uses of technology that one needs to learn about at Qatar 2022.
Here are 10 Technologies Featured for the First Time in Qatar’s World Cup 2022:
- Blind’s Accessibility by Bonocle Technology
- Feelix App for the Visually Impaired
- NavBuddy for Easy Navigation
- Autistic Rooms
- Stadiums Cooling
- Detachable (974) Stadium
- Electric Buses
- AL RIHLA 2022 Football
- Semi-automatic offside technology
- FIFA Player App
1- Blind’s Accessibility by Bonocle Technology
The Bonocle project app was one of the outcomes of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) Challenge 22 competition in Qatar, which stimulated a technological revolution. Abdul Razek Ali and Rami Suleiman founded the Qatari company Bonocle in 2014 intending to improve the lives of blind people, integrating them into society, and giving them access to the appropriate digital reality. The app enables those who are blind to take part in the World Cup in the same way as everyone else to enjoy the experience.
Bonocle is transforming World Cup content into Braille, allowing blind football fans to access and enjoy World Cup, and Bonocle’s strength comes from its use of technologies that interact with smart devices. The application was developed as a tool for working, learning, and playing by braille or voice, allowing interaction with it through buttons, movement, and talk.
2- Feelix App for the Visually Impaired
Feelix, an American startup that creates wearable tactile communication devices, has invented an interactive tool that provides Braille-like messages for disabilities fans to enjoy the matches. The company was able to obtain a patent, by providing customers with real-time wireless access which makes them more interactive with the world.
3- NavBuddy for Easy Navigation
The World Cup in Qatar offers the NavBuddy app to achieve easy movement for individuals without getting lost, as the application provides information about all stadiums, hospitals and restaurants, and the fastest way to go to them, even making navigation easier because it relies on real-time data.
Using NavBuddy, users can search for specific points such as seats, bathrooms, kiosks, and parking lots closest to the entrance gates near their seats, and directions of the fastest routes to their destination. The application has a dashboard that allows venue management to obtain analytics about the audience to extract insights and use them in crowd management to improve the event experience.
4- Autistic Rooms
People with integration issues or autism can watch the matches in sensory-friendly viewing areas in Qatar’s World Cup. Fans will have a safe place to unwind and watch the game in the room, as well as a wealth of supplementary tools to ensure an interactive experience. Tools for fidgeting and visual aids can help fans maintain focus in a relaxed setting.
5- Stadiums Cooling
Seven of the eight World Cup stadiums feature advanced cooling technology to keep the atmosphere cool inside the stadium. Qatar’s stadiums for the 2022 World Cup used advanced cooling technology designed to ensure a constant temperature of around 26 degrees Celsius, constructing energy centers near the seven stadiums that push cold water into a pipeline connected to the stadium to ensure the air cools in the seating areas of spectators and players.
6- Detachable (974) Stadium
Qatar’s eighth stadium, 974 is naturally cold due to its proximity to the sea, as the stadium is located on the coast of the Arabian Gulf, it is not just a unique stadium built of shipping containers and steel structures. It is fully detachable and may not be there even after the World Cup, supporting Qatar’s sustainable environmental vision and direction.
7- Electric Buses
For the first time any World Cup organiser has done so, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is offering carbon-free electric buses with state-of-the-art cooling technology to transport fans to and from their stadiums. These buses are accessible and friendly for people of determination who face mobility difficulties.
8- AL RIHLA 2022 Football
AL RIHLA is the fourteenth consecutive football game developed by Adidas. AL RIHLA has a sensor that can detect maximum playing speeds, and it also includes semi-automatic technology for the detection of offside incidents and a data transmitter that gives accurate detection of the kick point, where the ball will transmit data in real-time to the video assistant referee (VAR).
9- Semi-automatic offside technology
FIFA is using a new football location detection system to help referees make offside decisions accurately and quickly. This technology uses 12 tracking cameras, providing an automatic alert to offside referees each time a player makes this mistake, reducing reliance on prolonged VAR restarts to determine if a player is offside.
10- FIFA Player App
FIFA in collaboration with the International Professional Footballers’ Syndicate (FIFPRO) has developed the FIFA Player app, which is being used for the first time in Qatar 2022. The app provides an opportunity to access individual player performance data shortly after each match so that players participating for the first time in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar can get insights into their performance in the match.
The World Cup in Qatar in 2022 generated a variety of new technological innovations that came to light, in order to create ideal mobility and sporting experience, which was built on the foundation of smart digital navigation sciences, sports IoT, sports medicine, virtual reality, and augmented reality. This produces the extra potential for future technological advancements in Qatar, the region, and potentially the entire world.
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