With the huge number of #SochiProblems that kicked off the 2014 Winter Olympics, “technologically innovative” is probably not the first way people would describe the Olympic Games in Russia. However, a lot of advanced technology is being used to power network architecture, security and athlete tracking – beyond the Canadian beer machine, sleek performance suits and carbon-fiber bobsleds.
Machine to machine (M2M) technology is behind a lot of the applications and solutions used in modern environments; connected cars, smart homes, wearable technology, supply chain improvements and sophisticated security systems are all possible because of M2M.
There are many technology partners involved in the Olympics to make the Games in Sochi a success, including Avaya, GE, Samsung and Panasonic, to provide healthcare systems for athletes, snowmakers for events, technology-enabled suits for performance, network management and infrastructure to handle traffic and more. A lot goes into making these events happen and more advanced every year, not just for athletes but for spectators at the event and from all over the world – the technology used to track the events and athletes can make people on their couch across the world feel like they are right in Sochi witnessing the action.
Security is of the utmost importance at the Olympic Games. It draws in millions of people from all over the world and can be viewed as a high-target area for acts of terrorism. To face security threats, the Olympics turn to M2M technology to ensure protection against countries, athletes, spectators and venues.
- Drones: The Russia Interior Ministry uses Zala 421 drones for surveillance at the Games, and the FSB security force uses Gorizont Air S-100 drones.
- Facial Recognition: When discussing M2M technology to power facial recognition applications, most of the conversations are based on big data and collecting customer data, such as in retail or advertising a la Minority Report. At the Olympics, Artec ID’s Broadway 3D Face Recognition System is used at the Sochi airport and can identify a person on the walk, in hats or sunglasses, and can also tell apart identical twins.
- Communication Interception: A system called SORM is being used for intercepting communications. Vitok-IP is one piece of the puzzle. The system is made up of different components by different companies – M2M can help make sure those different devices and systems are communicating seamlessly with each other.
The heart of the Olympics is the top athletes from all over the world competing for medals. These athletes train years, if not all their lives, for a few minutes or seconds of performance, and winners will walk away with results just shy of a thousandth of a second from their competition.
- Timekeeping: Omega measures more than 650,000 times, distances and scores, using 230 tonnes of timekeeping, scoring and data-handling equipment. In Sochi, Omega is introducing brand-new timekeeping technology for bobsleigh competitions with the Omega Measurement Unit, which is mounted on each bob and consists of a speed sensor, a 3D acceleration sensor and a 3D gyro-sensor, all of which acquire data in real-time. For speed skating events, which rely on the nearest thousandth of a second for results, the Omega Scan’O’Vision photofinish camera records the action at the finish line at 2,000 frames per second. The Omega Universal Tracking System is used in cross-country skiing, which is based on GPS to track athlete locations throughout the race.
- Data and Displays for NBC: Information and Display Systems (IDS), a division of SMT, will provide results and timing interfaces to NBC Olympics. The company has been working with them for 14 years, and provides real-time data and graphic interfaces to help commentators analyze action. The IDS support team will be responsible for delivering TV graphics interfaces for NBC Olympics’ Mosaic systems in its coverage of alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, figure skating, short track speed skating, speed skating, bobsled, luge, skeleton, ski jumping and the ski jumping portion of Nordic combined.
- Olympics App: myInfo+ is an Internet application that enables accredited media, sports officials and athletes to access information such as schedules, transport news and sports records. Atos arranges a group of information diffusion systems that deliver real-time results to the application (as well as the Atos Commentator Information System) – M2M communication enables that real-time delivery from Omega’s results system, and Atos’ applications are receiving the data and putting it into context.
As we mentioned before, technology is making it possible to watch the Olympics from across the world but feel like you are right in the core of the action. Thanks to the growth of laptops, mobile devices and Internet-connected devices, the data from the Games is more accessible than ever, but it needs to be able to function properly for the millions of users tuning in.
- The Olympics Website: SOASTA is the official Web and mobile testing partner for the Sochi Winter Olympics. It prepared the mobile app and website for Lonon 2012, and will continue to power Olympics for the next 10 years. SOASTA’s platform includes mPulse monitoring, which analyzes in real-time the experience of every Web and mobile user of the Olympic sites. Using real user monitoring, the solution captures and aggregates the performance and engagement metrics in real-time.
The development and sophistication in technology has led to a question many have pondered for years: “Where do you draw the line?” The term “technological doping” refers to using technology to gain a superhuman advantage. When Google Glass was first introduced, one of the immediate use cases discussed was in sports – what if a batter in baseball could use a Google Glass-type of device to know exactly how fast, what direction and what type the pitch was? This topic is likely one that will be continued to be debated for years, but in the meantime, there are plenty of options for using technology along with the Games that don’t impact athlete performance – just how we track it.
TMC is keeping up with the Olympics – check out the latest technology innovations, partners and solutions implemented in Sochi 2014.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
