At Brooklyn's Barclays Center, visually impaired fans are now experiencing basketball like never before, thanks to a groundbreaking device called OneCourt. FOX 5 NY's Jennifer Williams has the details.
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the Nets, they did do something very special today as our Jennifer Williams found out how
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visually impaired fans are getting an up-close experience at Barclays Center. What's it like to be able to experience a game like this at Barclays
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You know, it's incredible. The atmosphere is amazing. And it just, this device is a reassurance
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of what's happening. At Barclays Center, a breakthrough. Fans can now follow the action
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with their fingertips. Having a fully immersed experience as somebody who's blind
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is really unlike any other type of sport event I've ever been to
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It's a really fast game. You don't really know where the ball is, but experiencing it this way with the new one-court system
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it lets you kind of live the action as you anticipate it
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What we're able to do with our tactile broadcast is essentially take the position of the ball
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and convey it through haptics and vibration so you can feel where everything is happening in real time
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So if I can grab your hand real quick so you can feel, this is the center point
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Here's Brian demonstrating how the one-court device makes the game more accessible
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for visually impaired fans like himself. I was born blind, so this has been my life for the past 34 years
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And it's allowed me to learn life differently, learn life through exploring a whole other world
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Like experiences like this. I would have thought I would be sitting here with the device giving a play by play of a game
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Nets are up 74 to 64 So the Knicks are down by 10 points And with just the touch of a button users can know the score as quickly and as often as they like My co Jared saw a video of a deafblind soccer fan with a sighted woman at a game
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And the sighted companion was watching the game and moving his hands around on a game board
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And so that process is called tactile signing. And it's really intuitive, but it's not an independent experience
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This is the tactic. Feel that. It's, oh, it's, because there is a foul
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So, let me take, there's a Brooklyn foul. And for fans like Brian, the device also allows him to bring his A-game
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You're not really as lost of what's happening, and you actually know where the ball is going
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You get to feel where the ball is going. You're like, oh, wow, oh, and they made a, oh, they made a free throw
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We have partnered with Ticketmaster to bring these devices to fans free of charge
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The Nets are the first pro team on the East Coast to pilot the technology
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and on Sunday hosted a group from Visions, an organization that aims to help the visually impaired lead more independent lives
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Obviously, nothing's going to replace the visual aspect, but this comes very close
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Even if I can't see the court, I like being at a game
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And, you know, like even I can't see the court or field, at least being part of the atmosphere and being part of the cheering section and, you know, booing the bad guys
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Like that's part of the experience. I really enjoy that as a fan
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That brings to other sporting events live. It's been fun, but this adds so much a layer of enjoyment to this. This is amazing
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In Brooklyn for Sports Extra, I'm Jennifer Williams
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