The "science and technology" background of the Beijing Winter Olympics

Author | Ann Yee

Edit | yu fast

On February 4, the fourth day of the Chinese New Year, coinciding with lichun, the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics entered the final countdown.

On July 31, 2015, IOC President Mr. Bach announced to the world that China has been granted the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

As with the successful bid for the 2008 Beijing Olympics many years ago, the whole of China is boiling again.

As of October 2021, the number of residents in the country who have participated in ice and snow sports is 346 million, and the participation rate of ice and snow sports is 24.56%, which has achieved the goal of driving 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports, and greatly accelerated the progress of the ice and snow industry.

Under the heat of ice and snow sports, in the joy of the New Year, the Beijing Winter Olympics, which attracted global attention, arrived as scheduled.

From bidding to preparation, "science and technology" has become a major background for the Beijing Winter Olympics, which makes the expectations of the Beijing Winter Olympics not only the game itself, but also the support of the scientific and technological forces behind the competition.

1. Smart venue, super brain

The Only Newly Built Ice Sports Competition Venue for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the National Speed Skating Hall (also known as "Ice Ribbon"), is a green, environmentally friendly, energy-saving, low-carbon and sustainable complex. Here, it will witness the birth of 14 gold medals.

It has the world's largest span of orthogonal two-way saddle-shaped cable mesh roof, 3360 curved glass units to create a high-tech curved curtain wall system (the origin of the name "ice ribbon"), or a "green" ice sports venue that can directly evaporate and cool.

It's also a smart venue with a super brain. It has access to 36 systems and nearly 100,000 points of real-time data, and integrated the visual system, auditory system, olfactory system, respiratory system, circulatory system, power system and movement system of the speed skating hall.

How does this digital pedestal make the venue feel, breathe, remember, and think?

All kinds of sensors throughout the venue capture indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, air quality, illuminance and other venue operation data in real time.

According to the meteorological parameters, air quality control and light control are carried out, and the operating parameters of the venue are given through data mining and analysis.

According to different competition scenarios and needs, automatic control of seat air supply system, ice temperature, venue dehumidification system, roof power window system, epidemic prevention and killing system and so on.

It is reported that this "super brain" can also achieve millisecond-level control, and the query time of 50,000 points of data is 0.82 seconds.

Based on the "super brain", the venue visual operation and maintenance system and the global digital twin system make the public security, equipment monitoring, energy optimization, and healthy environment operation of the venue intuitively visible. The information of surrounding cities is also integrated and displayed on the large screen to help determine the operation of the city level such as the traffic situation outside the venue.

2. "Curling motion trajectory capture" technology

Curling is known as "chess on ice".

The sport, which originated in Scotland in the 16th century, became an official Winter Olympic sport at the 18th Winter Olympics in 1998.

As a "strategy game", although there is no fierce physical confrontation, it is also a double contest of intelligence and physical strength, with both skill and strategy.

Curling trajectory is crucial for athletes. They should always pay attention to the position and speed of curling, and adjust their strategies accordingly.

In order to realize the digital presentation of the real scene of the competition venue, the Winter Olympics adopted the "curling movement trajectory capture" technology.

Based on the deployment of multiple high-definition cameras in the Ice Cube arena, combined with visual AI perception, deep learning, 3D modeling and spatial positioning technologies, based on more than 3500 AI models, this technology can detect tracking and trajectory capture for curling with an initial velocity of about 6m/s in a large space of 1000 square meters.

The Ice Cube arena has a large screen with a length of 24 meters, a width of 7 meters and an area of 170 square meters. Curling trajectory, through real-time rendering, virtual and real synchronization technology is accurately restored, projected onto the large screen, such as athletes throwing curling at the same time, the large screen will draw a curve in real time.

This smart screen, which is equal in width to the entire ice rink, can display the real-time picture of the 4 base camps at the same time, and can also restore the athletes to capture the winning moment.

Participating teams can judge the distribution of curling in the base camp, understand the situation of the game, and help coaches and athletes study tactics and guide training. The audience can use this to understand the laws and essence of curling, pay attention to the strategies and tactics of both sides of the competition, and get more participation.

3. Intelligent tracking shooting system to catch up with runners with a speed of 170 kilometers per hour

The high-speed motion target tracking shooting system is another hard technology for landing in the Winter Olympic Games.

Alpine skiing is known for its excitement and challenge, with fast speeds and many swings.

During skiing, alpine downhill skaters can skate at speeds of 110 km to 130 km/h, and can even reach speeds of 170 km/h.

In addition, the terrain of the sports venue is complex, the weather environment is changeable, the ambient temperature usually reaches minus 20 degrees, the shooting environment is harsh, and the requirements for manual operation technology are quite high.

Traditional manual operation not only requires dozens of professional photography platforms on steep slopes, but also requires manual shooting and stationing of ski tracks.

In terms of front-end acquisition, the Winter Olympics adopted the "high-speed motion target tracking shooting system", the camera through the intelligent control of the middle platform, automatic focus, quickly lock high-speed motion targets, automatic real-time tracking shooting, can be at a distance of 500 meters, the speed of 170 km per hour motion target tracking shooting.

Developed by Beijing Institute of Technology, this technology is the first unmanned global search, automatic capture and intelligent tracking shooting to achieve high-speed sports goals in the Winter Olympics scene.

4. "100 meters level, minute level" Winter Olympic meteorological prediction system

Different from the Summer Olympic Games, the Winter Olympics will rely more on meteorology, the field environment is more complex, the requirements for fineness are higher, and the forecasting of climatic elements is more difficult.

There are many influencing factors. For example, in snow projects, ten minutes more sunlight and a cloud will make the wind change.

There are many exceptions. Different competition events have different meteorological conditions for elements such as wind, temperature, visibility, rain and snow phase.

Complex weather conditions such as high winds, low temperatures, low visibility, and snowfall may affect the schedule, competition results and even the safety of the competition.

For example, the mountainous terrain of the competition is complex and the environment changes greatly. Not only "a day becomes four seasons", "ten miles of different days", the same time and space of different locations of the climate is also different, alpine skiing, vertical drop of about 900 meters, slope length of about 3000 meters of the track, altitude difference every 100 meters, the meteorological environment is very different.

Adequate meteorological forecasting services are essential, but looking at the meteorological service guarantee of previous Winter Olympic Games, there is no mature plan in the world that is fully applicable to the Beijing Winter Olympics.

China's high-precision weather forecasting "Ruitu" model system (RMAPS) has developed 100-meter forecasting technologies such as "Ruitu-Ruitu" and "Ruitu-Da vortex" for the Winter Olympics.

Different projects and venues pay attention to different meteorological conditions, and the meteorological team of the Winter Olympics is refined to "one policy at a time" or even "one policy at a time".

During the previous Winter Olympic Games, the objective weather forecast was basically based on the kilometer grid, and the time update frequency was half an hour to 1 hour. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, the spatial grid resolution can reach up to 67 meters, and the time update frequency can reach up to 10 minutes.

Spatially, there is a forecast data every 100 meters or even shorter; in time, a set of forecasts can be updated every 10 minutes.

"100 meters and minutes" is a meteorological service goal that has never been achieved in previous Winter Olympics.

Artificial intelligence forecasting technology has also been applied to the meteorological service of the Winter Olympics for the first time in the world.

Based on the 0-10-day Winter Olympics key point 'timing fixed-point quantitative' forecast based on artificial intelligence deep processing technology, through the "reinterpretation" of massive numerical weather prediction model forecast data and a large number of meteorological observation data, the objective meteorological forecast can be "re-revised" and the accuracy of the winter Olympic meteorological forecast can be improved.

5. All kinds of intelligent robots are on the battlefield

Various robots such as epidemic prevention robots, guidance robots, delivery robots, logistics robots, cooking robots, and food delivery robots appeared in the venue one by one.

The intelligent robot of epidemic prevention supervision has multiple functions, such as measuring body temperature, face recognition, recognizing green code, welcome reception, explanation and introduction, and item delivery. They also have automatic charging and maintenance, automatic obstacle avoidance function, can adapt to large traffic crowds, adapt to long-term continuous work.

5G food delivery robot and logistics robot, using 5G indoor multi-functional cloud technology, integrated 3D semantic map, combined with lidar, ultrasound, camera, infrared sensor and other multi-modal autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance intelligent walking capabilities, can carry out intelligent food delivery services that independently plan paths and avoid obstacles.

The translation robot not only translates the Chinese, but also translates sign language and speech, providing convenience for the hearing impaired to communicate with the outside world.

Disinfection robot, through the four-way sprinkler overhead to spray the liquefied aerosol into the air, one minute disinfection area of up to 36 square meters, a single robot disinfection area can cover up to 1000 square meters, the endurance time of 4-5 hours.

Power patrol robot dogs, as well as "not afraid to hit the wall" of the UAV, to ensure the power guarantee during the race, to achieve power patrol unmanned.

6. Super scene: 3D simulation, VR, free viewing angle

In addition to the full coverage of 5G signals and the real-time transmission of 8K competition screens, the Winter Olympic venues also realize end-to-end real-time processing from on-site array acquisition, cloud three-dimensional reconstruction, encoding transmission to terminal decoding and rendering.

For example, the competition venue, set up a camera array composed of dozens of cameras, which can be multi-faceted shooting, and then reproduce the space through VR technology, so that the off-site audience can watch the game at home.

In terms of terminal presentation, the Winter Olympic venues are equipped with a "super live" mobile application service for mobile terminal users, providing an immersive viewing experience by embedding technologies such as multi-view, three-dimensional sound, and VR.

In order to better present the ice and snow events, the 360-degree camera worn by the athletes is filmed on the high-speed sliding sled, and the captured picture is saved, and the audience can experience the high speed, excitement and immersion on the sled from the first perspective.

The audience at the scene can use the "AI+AR" intelligent indoor positioning navigation system to provide three-dimensional real-life navigation, locate to the destination at the fastest speed, and the VR virtual tour system can also allow the audience to freely watch the game without dead angles.

The Winter Olympic venues also applied the virtual venue simulation system (VSS), through the visualization of the "digital twin" model, the event venues were restored 1:1 to achieve three-dimensional scene simulation, and the staff could carry out business field streaming and regional planning and design online, and the simulation deployment of media camera bits.

It is reported that this is the first time in the history of the Olympic Games to use virtual venue simulation methods for operation design and broadcast planning system platform.

7. Visual simulation system

The virtual venue simulation system is actually based on the 8-minute visual simulation system in Beijing.

In front of the world, presenting China's colorful culture in the form of science and technology, the 8 minutes of Beijing that amazed the world, could not be separated from the support of the technical team.

The robot hidden under one side of the "ice screen" not only needs the movement rotation of the ice screen, but also needs to perform with the actors and the ground projection, and needs an accurate robot navigation system to understand the complex movements.

There are many participating elements, the creative process is complex, the rehearsal correlation is highly complex, and there are many on-site lighting interferences.

The team used laser navigation plus inertial navigation combination technology for precise positioning, while using independent radio technology to match accuracy and accuracy.

Two visual systems are used: "OpenGL Performance Assisted Training System" and "Beijing 8-minute Cultural Performance Rehearsal System", which act as "eyes" and "batons" respectively.

The former uses film and television virtual and digital performance and simulation technology, and the latter is a square performance rehearsal system and training rehearsal and digital verification system specially developed by the team.

The two systems can simulate all the theatrical performance processes according to the director's creative plan, and display the actors' movement trajectory, position information, formation changes, movement speed, etc. in various forms such as visual interfaces and drawings and videos, to help the director control, make decisions and improve the performance plan.

The literary and artistic performance rehearsal system uses the positioning system, adds the real rehearsal data of the actors, and integrates the lighting, music, props, videos, scenes, etc., to model the whole elements of the performance in the same proportion, so as to use the visual interface to carry out realistic online "rehearsal" of the real effects of various programs, helping the director to control, make decisions and improve the performance plan. Leifeng networkLeifeng networkLeifeng network