Text | Light Cone Intelligence, author | Liu Yuqi, editor | Wenbin
The Winter Olympic schedule is not yet halfway through, and the hot search list has begun to stage one amazing reversal after another.
In the final of the short track speed skating 1000 meters on February 7, due to the repeated collisions and accidents of the participants, Ren Ziwei's gold medal road can be described as "life hanging on the line".
But then with the announcement of a 4K HD video shot by a "cheetah high-speed camera", the "mystery" of the final seconds of the game was solved. Many netizens are even more surprised to find that the little cheetah is not only fast and flexible, but more importantly, it can store the data captured at high speed in the cloud for the referee to call at any time and intelligent analysis.
Also experiencing a big rotation in public opinion is Gu Ailing, who won the championship later.
In the freestyle ski competition, although Gu Ailing won the championship after desperately increasing the difficulty of aerial reversal in the final round, because the freestyle skiing speed was too fast, most of the audience was confused.
And to unveil this mystery, or CCTV in the "Mystery Of Infinity" program, using "3D + AI" technology to turn Gu Ailing in the air four and a half times every action is frame by frame slow, for "time freeze-frame", most of the audience is confused.
Of course, whether it is the "Cheetah High-speed Recording" or the "3D + AI" path restoration technology of the main station, it is because of the application of cloud storage technology in the Winter Olympics that these can be realized. For example, AI requires big data annotation and network model training, including cloud storage and computing resources; while 3D requires cloud resources in all aspects of data acquisition, processing, modeling, and rendering.
In fact, in addition to Ren Ziwei and Gu Ailing's two small tests, the Winter Olympics from the athletes' food, clothing, housing, to venue management, and then to the broadcast of the event, digital applications in all aspects abound. The Winter Olympics is a veritable "digital Olympics".
Watching the game on the cloud, laymen can also see the "doorway"
Since the first live satellite broadcast of the Olympic Games in 1964, technological advances have allowed hundreds of millions of people around the world to connect with the Olympic Games step by step, especially the Digital Olympic Games. When the Centennial Olympics began its digital transformation, cloud broadcasting brought a new viewing experience to sports fans around the world.
In the past, each Olympic Games required the construction of traditional IT machine rooms repeatedly, with long preparation time and high procurement costs, which would be demolished after a short period of use in the event. First, it consumes manpower, material resources and time, and second, it causes waste of resources by demolishing the computer room, and the cloud broadcasting has greatly reduced the cost of IT infrastructure and shortened the application development and deployment process.
This has seen significant results in the partial cloud of the Tokyo Olympic Games, with a 25% reduction in the area of the live broadcast center and a 27% reduction in staff, which increased content output by 30% compared to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and produced more than 9,500 hours of broadcast content for sports events.
When the Beijing Winter Olympics are 30 days away from the opening, Yu Hong, director of the Technical Department of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, said that the core information system of the Beijing Winter Olympics has achieved 100% cloud operation, and the core olympic results, event broadcasting, information release, athlete arrival and departure, medical treatment, accommodation, transportation and other information are migrated to Alibaba Cloud by the system.
First of all, in terms of the most intuitive broadcast of the event for the audience, for the first time, the TV signal was transmitted through the "cloud". The traditional broadcast mode requires TV stations to transport satellite broadcast trucks in advance and build network lines on the spot. Cloud broadcasting allows global TELEVISION stations to receive live broadcast signals in the cloud, and provides functions such as players and short video processing platforms, which are convenient for media to carry out remote live broadcasting, wonderful playback, and production of special effects videos and content highlights.
5G+4K/8K ultra-high definition cloud broadcast equipment
This has brought about two obvious changes: the first is the increase in playback speed, real-time broadcasting from the exclusive "Ao run broadcast cloud" to the world, can achieve more than 6,000 hours of almost 0 delay, 0 Caton broadcast content around the world and on various network platforms. The second is the picture quality, the cloud broadcast breaks through the traditional 2K picture quality, the whole process is broadcast in 4K ultra-high-definition format, and some important events will also be broadcast in 8k format, so that the audience can "immerse themselves".
In addition to high definition, improving the user viewing experience is also an important part. The broadcast of this year's Winter Olympic Games has realized the real-time transmission of dozens of high-definition pictures, and then the millisecond-level synthesis and modeling by intelligent algorithms, bringing the ultra-slow motion, panoramic viewing of the movie special effects screen into the broadcast of the Winter Olympics. It is reported that the Winter Olympics Genting Ski Resort slope obstacle skills, curling and other projects will appear for the first time in the "Bullet Time" special effects technology in "The Matrix".
The Winter Olympics will also provide free-choice slow-motion replays, without the need for a cheetah, and at home you can also study the finals in slow motion. Imagine lying on a warm bed at home and watching the final of short track speed skating, you can observe Wu Dajing and Ren Ziwei's sliding actions from any angle and 360 degree rotation, including their costumes, helmets, and even zoom up to the screen to see Ren Ziwei's excited expression when he won the championship.
In addition to the cooler viewing effect, cloud broadcasting also brings more practicality to users.
As introduced above, through the "3D + AI" technology, it is not only possible to disassemble the instantaneous actions of athletes for time and space freeze-motion, but also to create a "same field competition" system, turning the single-player competition project into a "multi-person competition", realizing the three-dimensional recovery and virtual superposition of the champion and runner-up competition screens, which is convenient for the audience to see the real-time actions of different players through a track.
In this regard, the light cone intelligence learned from Baidu that the realization of the technology is to use the live video in the broadcast as the source content, divided into three modules: the first is to restore the 3D space through multiple viewing angles 360 degrees, build a 3D-2D mapping point pair according to the standard size model of the big jump platform, and solve the spatial posture and orientation of the camera; the second uses a deep learning model to restore the athlete's three-dimensional human posture from the video; and finally solves the overall posture of each local posture in three-dimensional space.
The technology isn't just about serving viewers. It is understood that the technology has been gradually practiced in various fields such as construction machinery, robots, competitive sports, and television movies. Taking competitive sports as an example, as early as the Winter Olympics, this technology has been applied to the training of the Chinese Diving Dream Team.
The training process is like this: first of all, in the athlete's high-speed movement state of less than 2 seconds, through the three-dimensional reconstruction technology of the human body, the whole process of diving can be reproduced in three dimensions, and the accurate quantitative evaluation of diving action can be realized. For example, the starting height, water entry angle, rotation speed, etc.; then, using the deep learning function of the system, the improvement and detail optimization suggestions for these data are given, and the human coach is combined to help the dream team win gold.
However, Baidu also admits that there are still many difficulties and challenges in this technology: "Baidu's '3D + AI' technology is not a flat building, but 'holding a hammer to find nails', and the key difficulty is to do a good job of combining 'technology' and 'industry'." Because not understanding the 'real needs' of the industry has gone through many detours. For example, in the training of diving athletes, athletes cannot wear sensing devices because they are uncomfortable and affect muscle memory, which brings great challenges to the team. In the end, we decided to adopt a non-contact 3D vision solution to do technical research while ensuring the training of athletes, which is a combination of technology and industry. The relevant person in charge of Baidu said.
At present, "3D + AI" technology is a pair of "perfect partners", AI understanding and analysis ability is strong, can help people liberate from complicated work, 3D helps people break through the limitations of time and space, and recreate nature.
Digital management, the three core systems synchronously to the cloud
Compared with what the audience can see, many people may be more curious about what digitalization is like in the Olympic Village.
"Pure green electric buses, robots in the Winter Olympic Village, smart restaurants serving dishes from the sky, digital movies in the village, and digital management of food, clothing, shelter and transportation in the village." On the social platform, a Volunteer of the Winter Olympic Village shared it.
How to digitize? The first step is to move the core management system all to the cloud.
A large-scale international sporting event like the Olympic Games is a complex and massive project, which is managed and operated by the Olympic Organizing Committee through three core systems. Including the Olympic information management and distribution system (OMS/ODS), providing event schedules, athlete registration, registration, Olympic information release, etc.; the Games Management System (GMS), providing services for athletes' transportation, accommodation, arrival and departure, medical and health services; and other digital platforms such as event organization and collaborative office.
At the same time, more than 30 large-scale information management systems have been formed under these three core systems. In the past, information systems varied and the management of them was intricate, and a volunteer might have to register several systems at the same time to work in different areas. After going to the cloud, you can integrate resources more efficiently, support the operation of events, ensure automatic interaction between systems on the cloud platform, and form a scientific cross-cloud management strategy through deep learning.
Taking the Games management system (GMS) as an example, the closed-loop management after the establishment of the Winter Olympics village, through cloud computing + machine learning technology, scientific route planning and design for the special driving vehicles for the Winter Olympics, while avoiding crossover with social vehicles, optimizing traffic planning and time to the greatest extent, and ensuring the safe arrival and departure of athletes from the venue.
In addition to the traffic management of going out, it is also easy to "get lost" in the Zhangjiakou Olympic Village, which occupies 21,700 square meters and is built in a complex way. Therefore, in the Olympic Village, there is a very comprehensive AR panoramic map, which guides the people in the village through "cloud computing + AR technology".
Based on the app, athletes can lock their position by identifying the surrounding reality through their mobile phones, enter the destination, and follow the AR virtual arrow on the ground to arrive.
Centimeter-level high-precision three-dimensional map of Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Village
Of course, GMS is more than just about the management of traffic tracks. A volunteer in Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Village mentioned his personal experience in "digital management" in his communication with Guangcai Intelligence.
"Each of our volunteers has an exclusive barcode on the listing, and all the relevant information will be stored in the barcode, such as some volunteers' permissions are ALL, some permissions are only partial, and when eating, according to the rotation of the day, the canteen scans the code to eat at the specified time." The communication of basic information, documents and instructions is done through DingTalk, but the large-scale voice conference of hundreds of people at night will be completed through Tencent meetings, and occasionally the 'Eye App' will be used to hold video conferences. ”
In addition to the core system to the cloud, there are some interesting digital applications and micro-innovations on the periphery.
For example, in this year's IP top ice pier, in each game, it appeared in the form of a puppet to guide the audience and create a joyful atmosphere. In addition to its cuteness and playfulness and "a mound is hard to find", its body is also full of black technology.
For example, the "foam gloves" of the ice piers. It is not only an ornament, but also a mobile smart tool. With the help of puppet volunteers, it can contact the background, which is convenient for positioning and commanding. This pair of "foam gloves" specially developed for the Olympic Games may become a new technology product, which can be used in amusement parks, large shopping malls and other scenarios in the future.
At the same time, in order to further ensure data security and smooth operation, technicians used digital twin technology to redevelop all sports venues. Digital twins are simply about reshaping the real working state of the physical world in the virtual digital space of computers.
National Speed Skating Hall Digital Twin Operating System
This allows not only to keep the data of this Winter Olympics in the cloud, but also to provide experience for the next Olympic Games. Moreover, after the Olympic Games, when the venue is used for concerts and art exhibitions, the 3D modeling and data systems that have been completed can also be retrieved and reused.
In general, whether it is intelligent traffic management, intelligent personnel management or the new visual experience and "3D +AI" system brought by live broadcasting on the cloud, from the inside to the outside of the arena, from the core system to the cloud to the peripheral digital application, the concept of the digital Olympic Games has always been implemented.
epilogue
The comprehensive digitization after the cloud runs through from internal management to external viewing, making the field and outside have a new sense of body and experience, which may be a new starting point for the Olympic Games.
IOC President Thomas Bach said in a media interview that the Beijing Winter Olympics is the first "Olympic Games on the Clouds" in the history of the Olympic Games, and has written a new history with science and technology. He also praised "the amazing potential of technology, and for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, we have truly tapped into this potential".
The Winter Olympics is also a centralized test for cloud computing.
For the current cloud computing, it has been able to undertake huge sports events, but in the context of the rapid development of 5G technology, Internet of Things and other technologies, the growth rate of global data volume is much higher than the increase in computing power, which also requires enterprises to expand the scale and infrastructure investment at a faster rate than "development" to deal with the surge in data.
According to the "China Cloud Computing Industry Research Report" released by Jiazi Lightyear, the underlying technology has become mature, and more attention is paid to the close integration of the underlying technology and the industry. For example, the combination of edge computing and industrial IoT devices can form a smart supply chain, which can obtain insights more quickly from connected devices and systems because it processes data in real time at the edge, helping organizations to effectively improve operational responsiveness, reduce operating costs, and help solve the problems caused by today's growing data volumes.
When the degree of digitalization of each industry tends to mature, the prototype of smart cities has begun to emerge. The Winter Olympics are like a miniature version of digital city integration, and challenges in various industries and fields are also discovering the possibilities of cloud computing as the next step.
From a certain point of view, today we are not only watching the Winter Olympics, but also through the digital Winter Olympics, discovering the reflection of future life.