Telefonica highlights real-time VR over 5G in Vuelta a Espana demo

Telefonica has demonstrated a new immersive real-time video experience around the 9th stage of the Vuelta a Espana cycling race as part of its 5G Technology Cities initiative.

For the demonstration, former Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana winner Pedro Delgado has completed a circuit of the race viewing only images captured by a helmet-mounted camera and projected onto virtual reality glasses.

The head-mounted camera transmitted images from the course and transmits them to the virtual reality glasses using pre-5G technology.

According to Telefonica, the camera behaves like the human eye and substitutes the cyclist’s vision with an immersive image that arrives in the glasses in real time, enabling the cyclist to navigate the road.

According to the telco, the pre-5G network at Talavera de la Reina, where the demonstration was carried out, uses a Distributed Core Network that allows a significant reduction in latency, making it practicable to process the environs of the user in real-time.

The demo required latency of less than 40 milliseconds. Telefonica said the technology could be applied to a wide range of applications, including entertainment and sport, with immersive video experiences in stadiums or augmented reality experiences in real time.