April 15, 2016

Jayhawks360 Now Available in Virtual Reality on Mobile Devices

LAWRENCE, Kan. – More than 20,000 users have digitally experienced Kansas Athletics’ facilities over the last eight months using Jayhawks360, and the tour is now even more immersive. Kansas and tour development partner Circlescapes upgraded the more-than-75-spin, 360-degree panoramic photo tour on Friday, enabling compatibility with virtual reality (VR) headsets in a Google Cardboard-like interface.

Users can now virtually visit the competition, practice and training facilities of their favorite Kansas Jayhawk squads in an enhanced view on mobile devices, in addition to also being able to browse student-athlete support, campus and community panoramas from a first-person point of view. The tour, originally launched in September 2015 at KUAthletics.com, is still available on a multitude of devices, including desktop computer, smart phones and tablets, and can be updated and expanded to accommodate future spins.

Google Cardboard is one of many handheld or head-mounted devices that enable VR viewing, placing users inside an experience, rather than on the outside looking in. The Jayhawks360 VR experience is the first iteration of an emerging technology and is designed to be upgraded and enhanced as the technology improves. Some VR viewers experience dizzyness or motion sickness and users should keep in mind that the tour is intended to show a single, stationary position in a room and steps forward or backward, or to the left and right are not advised and will have no effect on the position of the user inside the tour.

Jayhawks360 mobile users are now prompted to select the sport tour they would like to navigate and have the option of experiencing the spins with or without a VR viewer. Users are then instructed to momentarily turn off sleep mode – web browsers timeout after short periods of inactivity unlike watching a video – turn the phone to landscape, insert the device into the VR viewer to explore the tour. To navigate from one VR photo scene to the next, users can look down at their feet and center the Jayhawk icon over the next or back buttons for a couple seconds, until the next screen is loaded.

KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.