Visitors to this year’s Australian Open who are blind or have low vision are benefiting from Action Audio technology that turns spatial data from live sports into sound.
The Grand Slam tournament is making tennis more accessible to blind and low vision audiences thanks
to its partnership with Action Audio, a collaboration between Tennis Australia, Monash University and AKQA.
Action
Audio turns real time ball monitoring technology from the Australian Open into 3D sound, emphasising ball speed
and trajectory, proximity to line and shot type. It augments critical moments to allow audiences to
follow the game without seeing the ball.
Available via the Australian Open website, the Action Audio stream
contains Action Audio overlaid onto the broadcast commentary and on-court sounds.
With the Australian Open underway
and positive feedback from blind and low vision tennis fans, Action Audio hopes other tennis tournaments will
take on the technology as well as sports such as cricket and football that also use
real time ball monitoring technology.
Samples of the Action Audio feed are accessible on the Action Audio website.