NHL officials will start wearing Apple Watches on ice

The Apple Watch is now the smartwatch of choice for National Hockey League officials. Apple and the NHL just announced a collaboration where on-ice officials will wear Apple Watches that are running special software to receive important in-game information.

Using the custom-built NHL Watch Comms app, on-ice referees can view the game clock directly from their wrist. They’ll also be able to receive haptic alerts for when NHL players leave the penalty box or when time is running out in the period. The haptic patterns for each timer are different, so as not to confuse the officials. The Apple Watches will also be synced to the NHL’s Oasis feed, a cloud system that enables player tracking, game telemetry, and other data, which will ensure that all officials receive the same information.

“We wanted to make sure that the officials had really good awareness and were able to keep their eyes on play,” says Andres de Corral, vice president of digital services at Presidio, a tech firm that helped develop the app. “So by enabling haptic responses, we were able to provide non-visual cues to the officials.”

Situational awareness is a major challenge for officials on the ice. On t …

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