The Olympics
have always been a great opportunity for a country to show off all of their new
technology, new abilities and just themselves as a nation. This is still the
case to this day and age with this year’s
2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Athletes and viewers alike will be suiting
up differently this time around.
VR
Athletes can now train with the aid
of Virtual Reality technology. When it comes to ski and snowboard athletes knowing
the course is key to being able to perform at the level they’d aim for. The company
STRIVR (training and immersive learning using virtual reality) worked with the U.S. ski and snowboard teams for the past two years giving
the chance to the athletes to train virtually and create mental markers that
they can reference to when competing. STRIVR attached a six-camera video
capture rig to a skier to build a 4K, 60 frames per second virtual model for
athletes. Even allowing them to change the conditions, by adding fog, snow or
rain. It is also possible for viewers at home to watch certain events with the
help of Virtual Reality goggles via certain applications and providers.
Suits and Equipment
We’ve all heard of heated jackets,
but the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams get the chance to use top notch ones
during the opening ceremonies. The jackets have a heating system that is made of flexible
and stretchable conductive links, made in the shape of an American flag in
carbon and silver ink on the inside of the jackets. They offer up to 11 hours
of heating. While on the other side of things, two Dutch short track speed
skaters are going to be wearing Samsung SmartSuit during their competition. These
suits record data via five sensors that measure body posture and calculate the
way their body moves to then be able to see how they can increase their speeds
after the race.
Security
This year PyeongChang is using
something slightly different than what other Olympics. They are able to
use drones to inspect activity on the ground and use thermal imagining cameras
to see what is going on in locations that have been deemed most likely to be
targeted. All the areas near Olympic venues have been deemed no-fly zones; that
way if an unauthorized drone enters the area, the interceptor drones get deployed
and capture the rogue drone with nets.
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Sourced from:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/sports/a16760764/2018-pyeongchang-winter-olympics-technology-vr/