Amit Pate (Express Image)
While most people associate Cannes only for the star-studded film festival it hosts every year, which is attended by many international and Indian film stars, a Maharashtrian has now brought home another reason to remember the city.
Amit Pate (30), who hails from Chalisgaon in Maharashtra and whose family is settled in Pune, has won two Gold “Lions” at the recently concluded 2018 Cannes International Festival of Creativity. Pate has invented “Snaptivity”, an Artificial Intelligence-based technology start-up that enhances live sports experiences by allowing fans to focus stadium cameras on themselves to create an “event triggered extended selfie”. In a competition that consisted of entries from over 90 countries with companies like Google, Nike and Audi in the list of entrants, Pate stole the show by winning not one but two Gold Lions under the categories “Mobile Technology-Activation by Location” and “Social-Real Time Response”. The festival ended on June 22.
“I first got the idea for Snaptivity during the Boston marathon in 2013. There was a bombing and the police requested photos from all participating athletes. But they ultimately could not sort through so many images to find the culprit. Using mobile sensors, you can sort through images very fast, and find the culprit quickly. That is how Snaptivity was born,” he said.
But while the app was born as an idea triggered by a serious security concern, it has now moved to being one that caters to mostly sporting events.
Pate grew up in Bangalore but owing to his father’s job, his family stays in Pune. The IT Masters degree holder, with Business Management, from Sussex University, has been living in London for the past four- and-a-half-years.
His start-up, of which Pate is both the founder and the CEO, consists a team of 10 people financed by the UK government. “All of us founders are sports fans. I myself love cricket, someone else loves football, another one loves ice hockey. That is how we decided to use the app for sports,” said Pate.
“When I used to go for cricket matches, I lost all my time taking selfies. But now, the app takes care of that for you,” he said. Explaining how Snaptivity works on the basis of IoT (Internet of Things) sensors, he said stadiums are equipped with high-power robotic cameras, which are aimed at live audiences. Through his app, stadium audiences can use the robotic cameras to capture their candid moments without bothering to take selfies.
The technology is already being used in some of the world’s largest stadiums, like Edgbaston Cricket ground in Birmingham, Wembley Stadium in London, Etihad Stadium (City of Manchester stadium) in Manchester and the Orange Velodrome in Marseille, France, claimed Pate.
“We plan to expand to the US and South East Asia soon. We are particularly looking into expanding to the IPL in India”, said Pate.
In addition to capturing candid sporting moments, the technology is also a data collecting mechanism that has helped reduce stadium energy consumption by 4 per cent.
“The technology is not only useful for sports, but is, overall, very useful to build Smart Cities of the future. Since the IoT sensors capture 16 data points, including data for light, sound, audience movement, we were able to see that light was being used in places where it is not necessary and hence, suggest remedial measures,” he said.