New software to revolutionise football coverage on mobile phones

News has come through from Engadget Mobile today, about the latest project from engineers in Umeå University, Sweden. Their new wheeze is a system that lets mobile phones give more physical feedback to someone using them to keep track of a football match. Setting aside my intense dislike (ah, what the heck, hatred) of football for a second, and looking at it purely from a ‘mobile phones’ perspective… well, I’m still not sure it’s that brilliant an idea.

Basically, it works like this: When the ball is kicked, your mobile phone buzzes. There are 5 zones on the pitch, and the intensity and duration of the vibration depends on where it is, and who’s kicked it. Oh, and if it’s a goal, it’ll be a long, powerful buzz. So, your mobile phone will be giving out thousands of different buzzes depending on what’s happening.

That’s going to be confusing as all hell, and let’s not forget, having a mobile phone that vibrates every time the ball’s kicked (presumably including when players dribble it) for 90 minutes (plus stoppages), is going to make the battery melt. Plus, we can’t overlook what I reckon should be a key factor: football fans, if it’s a big match, will more than likely be watching the match in one of the following locations…

1/ at home, with a beer

2/ at the pub, with lots of beer

…and therefore won’t really need to be listening to it on their mobile phones, and it’d still need a huge amount of attention, and watching the telly’s probably easier. So I’m not 100% certain how well this could even potentially take off.

Shame, really, because it is really quite clever. I just can’t imagine people wanting to do this over watching the match on the telly. Tell you what, though, tie it in with other media, like videos (just think, your Nokia N96 buzzing along to whatever action drama you’re watching on iPlayer…), and this could be on to a real winner.

It won’t vibrate when your team scores (yet), but the N96 is one of the best mobile phones in the world for multimedia! Grab yourself the Nokia N96 today!