Why does Japan no longer surprise the world after 57 years
The six major robots are busy with the audience, and AI is scoring athletes… Is Japan’s “High-tech Olympics” still fragrant?
Three days ago, at 8 pm on July 23, Tokyo time, Japan, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which was postponed for one year, finally opened in 2021.
After the much-watched 40-minute cultural performance of the opening ceremony, it aroused ridicule from the global audience. The famous Japanese director Kitano took “too shame”, and more than 100,000 netizens in China silently opened the opening ceremony video of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The highlights of Olympic technology that the Japanese government called out in 2019 were rarely presented at the opening ceremony of this year. Except for the Tokyo Olympic logo composed of 1824 drones, does Japan, a global technological power, want to overturn at the Olympics? We must know that about 60 years ago, it was also the Tokyo Olympics. The Japanese surprised the world with the world’s first high-speed rail Shinkansen, the first satellite broadcast event and other high technology.
The Olympics has always been the vane of human cutting-edge technology applications. Although the opening art performances are somewhat improvised, will the technological power behind the Tokyo 2020 Olympics be equally improvised? Why don’t you come to a plate?
From the forced postponement due to the new crown epidemic, to the resignation of the composer at the opening ceremony, to the dismissal of the director the day before the opening ceremony, the Olympics was destined to be full of twists and turns from the beginning. Netizens joked that this is a “three no opening ceremony” with no audience, no composition, and no director.
Compared with the previous Olympic opening ceremonies, this year’s opening ceremonies seem to be less joyful, replaced by a little sadness and sadness, so that part of the program is full of weirdness.
Officials say that these programs are aimed at expressing the memory of the people who died due to the new crown epidemic. However, most netizens did not buy it and shouted: “Art cannot be grounded!”
However, this opening ceremony was not without highlights. The appearance of the classic Japanese show “Super Change Change” made netizens leave messages “full of memories”.
At the climax of the opening ceremony, 1824 drones slowly rose up to form the logo of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and then slowly spread out into a crystal earth hanging in the night sky, bringing audiences around the world. A visual spectacle.
▲ Tokyo Olympic logo composed of 1824 drones
▲ “Drone Earth” hanging in the night sky
01. From 1964 to 2021, can Japan once again use technology to conquer the world?
The Olympic Games has been dubbed the concept of “science and technology” since the preparatory period. The Deputy Secretary-General of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee Masaaki Furumiya once said in an interview that he hopes to make this Olympic Games the most innovative in history. International Olympic Committee President Bach also said that this will be the Olympic Games with the highest level of digitalization.
When it comes to the Tokyo Olympics, one has to mention the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The main venue of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games-Tokyo Olympic Stadium is the main stadium of the 18th Summer Olympic Games in 1964. The Olympic Games that year was considered a feast of science and technology, and it was also considered that the Japanese economy took off Turning point.
▲ Comparison of the old and new Tokyo Olympic Stadium
▲ 1964 Tokyo Olympics main torch
▲ The main torch of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Nine days before the opening of the 1964 Olympic Games, Japan’s Shinkansen began to open to traffic. This was the world’s first high-speed rail to be put into commercial use. At that time, the Shinkansen shuttled between Tokyo and Osaka at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour, shortening the original 8-hour journey to 3 hours. The athletes and spectators who came to participate in the Olympics were amazed. Since then, the Shinkansen has once become a national symbol as famous as the cherry blossoms and Mount Fuji.
▲ Japan Shinkansen ribbon cutting ceremony
This year, the United States launched the first geostationary communications satellite, Syncom 3, and used it for the live broadcast of the Olympic Games. This allowed audiences all over the world to see the Olympic athletes on their televisions at the same time. Shine in the arena. Since then, Japan has carried out a lot of research and development around satellite live broadcast technology and its significance has been implemented, which has stimulated the rapid development of Japan’s communications industry.
▲ Sinkom 3 satellite
Another highlight of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics was the use of electronic computers. For the first time, the Olympic Organizing Committee stored the results of the games in the computer to assist the referees and make the results of the games more accurate.
▲ 1964 Tokyo Olympic Data Center
After World War II, Japan’s international image plummeted. Although Japan’s economy developed rapidly in the late 1950s, and its GDP growth rate reached around 10%, the international recognition of Japan is still not high.
The successful hosting of the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 greatly improved Japan’s international image, and it was also considered an important turning point for Japan’s economic take-off. Only four years after the Olympics ended, Japan’s GDP surpassed that of Federal Germany and became the second largest economy in the capitalist world.
▲ Changes in the total GDP of Japan in the 1960s (data source: World Bank)
Different from the spirit of the last Olympic Games, Japan has entered a period of economic stagnation in recent years, and GDP has even shown negative growth, and the aging problem of the entire society has become more and more serious. It seems that the whole of Japan has fallen into a stagnant water.
▲ Changes in the total GDP of Japan since 2010 (data source: World Bank)
Perhaps it is precisely because of Japan’s successful experience in the history of the Olympics in driving economic development that Japan has the motivation to withstand pressure from all parties to continue the Olympics and try to create a miracle of economic take-off once again through the Olympics.
So this year’s Japan can still replicate the success in history and conquer the world again with new technology?
02.5G, AR, 8K… The Olympic venue is also a training ground for technology
It is understood that the partners of the Tokyo Olympics include local Japanese companies such as Toyota and Panasonic, as well as large technology companies such as Intel and Alibaba. 5G, AR, 8K, artificial intelligence and other technologies will not be lost. Appeared in the Olympic Games.
For example, the Tokyo Olympics will cooperate with Intel Corporation, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Company (NTT) and NTT DOCOMO to take advantage of 5G and combine AR and other technologies to bring a new experience to the audience.
In the past, spectators watching sailing races had to stand on a nearby pier and watch with binoculars, which greatly affected the viewing experience. Using the super-realistic communication technology brought by 5G, the real-time scene of the sailing race can appear on a large 50-meter-long screen floating on the water of the port, and the video resolution can reach 12K, allowing the audience to feel that the race is right in front of them.
Thanks to the high-speed transmission capability of 5G, the Tokyo Olympics also plans to provide AR equipment on specific seats in swimming competitions. After the audience wears the AR equipment, they can watch detailed game information in real time. But this year’s audience may not be connected with this technology.
In addition, the Japanese public broadcaster NHK broadcasts the Olympics to the whole of Japan through the 8K broadcasting satellite channel, and plans to provide about 200 hours of 8K ultra-high-definition coverage for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. This is the highest resolution Olympic broadcast ever.
In swimming, track and field competitions, Intel’s 3D athlete tracking technology is introduced, which captures videos through multiple cameras, and then uses pose estimation algorithms and biomechanical algorithms to extract the athlete’s three-dimensional shape and movement, so that the athlete’s real-time speed and other information can be intuitive Show in front of the audience.
▲ Schematic diagram of AI scoring system
03. Six robots help the Olympics, or become the only live audience
In the field of robotics, Japan has always been at the forefront of the world. Obviously, it intends to use robots as a major attraction of this Olympics to show the world its strength in the field of robotics. It’s just that they never expected the emergence of the new crown epidemic at that time, making these robots one of the few spectators at the scene.
On March 15, 2019, Japan launched the “Robot Plan for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games” and showed a series of robots to the outside world. These robots have both cute mascots and hard-working “troopers”. Imagine that after the athletes from the stadium returned to the Olympic Village, a service robot came to face him and said: “Can I help you with your luggage?” At this time, which athlete has the heart to refuse?
There will be six major robots in this Olympic Games, divided into two categories. One type can interact with people to bring a better watching experience to the audience, and the other type is a diligent player who serves the game wholeheartedly.
▲ Robot, the mascot of the Tokyo Olympics
1. Not only selling cute, but also allowing distant audiences and athletes to interact
The official mascots of this Olympics are two robots that can interact with humans and act as welcomers. The Olympic mascot (the first left in the picture above) adopts the blue and white Japanese traditional “Ichimatsu appearance” (checkered pattern), which echoes the design of the Tokyo Olympic emblem. Its name is Miraitowa, derived from the Japanese words “future” and “eternal”, meaning that in the hearts of people all over the world, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will lead to a future full of eternal hope.
The mascot of the Paralympic Games (the first right in the picture above) was designed with cherry blossoms as a prototype and named Someity. Its name comes from the Japanese “Somei Yoshino” and the English phrase “so mighty”. “Somei Yoshino” is a popular cherry blossom variety, “so mighty” translates as omnipotent, representing those Paralympic athletes who overcome all difficulties and redefine the possibility.
The two mascot robots can make gestures such as waving and shaking hands, and are also equipped with cameras to make them have the ability to observe words and colors. When someone comes to them, they can make various expressions to each other to interact with each other.
There is also a humanoid robot named T-HR3, which has the appearance of a human and can be remotely controlled by a human. When the operator puts on the corresponding VR device, he can be transformed into this robot and manipulate it to do whatever he wants, including talking with athletes. According to the developers, manipulating them is like actually doing these things.
The other is a robot named T-TR1. This robot does not have the appearance of a human, but has a screen the size of a human, and a camera is mounted on it. Through this robot, people who cannot participate in the scene can interact with the athletes virtually. The full-length images of the participants will be displayed on the screen, giving people an immersive feeling.
▲ T-HR3 humanoid robot and T-TR1 robot
2. There will be no spectators in the Olympics, and robots “beating workers” may lose their jobs
There are also three main types of “worker hitting” robots that appeared in the Olympics.
The first is the Field Support Robot (FSR), which is equipped with an automatic driving system, which can automatically retrieve the items thrown by the athletes in throwing items such as javelin and shot put, which will effectively reduce the time for staff to search for items and reduce work It can also reduce the number of staff deployed in the area.
▲ On-site support robot FSR
The second type is Human Support Robots (HSR), they can guide the audience into the auditorium, and can carry out simple object handling tasks, such as water delivery, etc., so that the audience can watch the game more at ease. The other is HSR’s partner, called the Delivery Support Robot (DSR). The audience can place orders for drinks, food, etc. through a dedicated device, and then only need to wait for DSR to deliver these items to the front.
The deployment of the latter two types of robots is intended to serve the audience of 500 wheelchair accessible seats. However, due to the epidemic, this Olympics is almost empty, and these two poor robots are probably “unemployed”.
▲ HSR and DSR robots
04. No driver, you can still pick up athletes
As a veteran automobile country, various new technologies related to automobiles cannot be absent in this Olympics. This time, there will be a variety of unmanned vehicles that will be used to serve the Olympics. In addition, the widespread application of new energy vehicles is also a highlight of the Olympics.
The e-Palette driverless minibus will be used as a circulating bus in the Olympic Village to provide travel services for the Olympic Games-related personnel. It has L4 level autonomous driving capability and can transport up to 20 passengers between the main stadium and the Olympic Village. It does not require a driver to operate, but for safety reasons, there will still be an operator to monitor the whole process.
Another car named TOYOTA Concept-Ii also has L4 level driving ability. It has a fairly sci-fi appearance. It is a line-up vehicle for the Olympic flame and a pilot car for marathon competitions. This car has a powerful AI assistant that can recognize the driver’s emotions and guess his preferences, and of course it can also have a smooth conversation with humans.
In addition to these two autonomous vehicles, there are also various new energy vehicles such as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles “MIRAI”, fuel cell buses “SORA” and fuel cell forklifts that are official vehicles for the event to provide support for the entire event.
▲ Various vehicles that will appear at the Tokyo Olympics
05. Concluding remarks: It is all set off by peers,
After the Eastern Olympics, the “Beijing Winter Olympics” is more fragrant?
In terms of scientific and technological strength, China 13 years ago was certainly not the strongest in the world, but in 2008, under the brains of the director team of the “National Normal University”, the LED large screen was used to play a trick, and no one has surpassed it so far.
The giant LED reel of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 29 footprints stepping towards the Bird’s Nest made the Chinese amaze the world with the interpretation of technology + technology.
Therefore, the Tokyo Olympics cannot surprise the world. It is obvious whether the brains and intentions are not enough or the technology is not enough. Judging from the highlights of the opening ceremonies of the recent Olympic Games, it is the creativity that makes the use of technology shine.
▲ LED scrolls slowly unfolding at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games
At the 2012 London Olympics, the main torch made up of 204 copper petals that rose slowly also left a deep impression on people.
▲ The moment when the main torch of the London Olympics rises
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Dumont, the “Father of Aviation” flying a 14BIS aircraft, shuttled between the holographic projections of Brazilian landmarks, which gave people an instant exposure to the beauty of Brazil.
▲ Kitano commented on the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics in the program
Every Olympics is branded with the era of technological development, and it will often become a showcase of the most advanced technology of this era. Unsurprisingly, 5G, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and other technologies that are maturing and landing have also appeared in the Olympic Games this year. Obviously, the Japanese have also made considerable efforts for the Olympic Games. However, from the current performance, it does not seem to make people feel how novel. In the next schedule, you can also pay attention to the robots and 5G/ VR live broadcast application.
Perhaps for the full display of science and technology on the Olympic arena, we still have to watch the Beijing Winter Olympics in half a year. It is now less than 200 days before the opening.
For more such interesting article like this, app/softwares, games, Gadget Reviews, comparisons, troubleshooting guides, listicles, and tips & tricks related to Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS, follow us on Google News, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.