2023-10-27 16:58:00
Esports is traditionally associated with video game competitions, big tournaments and the adrenaline that comes from them.
But in the era of Industry 4.0, where digitalization, automation and interconnection are at the heart of technological advances, esports and industry have discovered unexpected commonalities.
Industry 4.0 refers to the fourth industrial revolution and refers to the integration of digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, robotics, and big data analytics, into systems of production.
It aims to automate, optimize and personalize manufacturing, while interconnecting machines, products and humans.
Virtual reality headsets, popular in the world of esports, have quickly become valuable tools for Industry 4.0.
By offering total immersion in a digital environment, these devices not only enable intense video game experiences, but also simulate complex industrial scenarios.
Companies like Siemens or General Electric are already using virtual reality to train their employees, visualize engineering projects or even test production processes before their real implementation.
For example, augmented reality allows you to see how to repair a complex machine by letting yourself be guided by virtual images through connected glasses.
Virtual Reality Bringing Industry 4.0 to Life at the World’s Biggest Show on Earth: Hannover Messe ©Microsoft
The potential of esports is not limited to VR headsets.
Certain games, due to their realism and complexity, have been used to train professionals in real-life situations. For example, “Kerbal Space Program“, a game that simulates building and piloting spacecraft, was used by NASA to familiarize young engineers with the concepts of space mechanics
Kerbal Space Program ©KSP
The US military uses software called VBS (Virtual Battlespace) for some training and educational purposes, and this software is a derivative of the game Arma, created by Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BIS), a sister company of Bohemia Interactive (BI), which is the company behind the Arma game series.
Esports, with its global community of passionate gamers, also offers an unprecedented testing ground for new technologies.
For example :
Data collection and analysis: The technological nature of esports allows researchers to collect massive amounts of data at different levels of analysis. For example, one study collected player input from replays of 90,678 professional StarCraft 2 (SC2) matches to develop a machine learning algorithm to detect unexpected strategies.
Although not an esports-specific example, the 2020 Youth Olympic Games were used as a testing ground for new technologies developed in the laboratory before their implementation on the field. This approach might be similarly applied in the context of esports, where player performance can be improved or analyzed using new technologies.
Esports definitely leads to advances that benefit both the world of entertainment and the industry and this is probably only the beginning when we imagine what AI might bring to both sectors.
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