"Han Jianchou" Flying Cat, Gu Ailing's AI "Clone", bullet time? Demystifying the "black technology" at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

In the past few days, I believe that everyone's circle of friends has been swiped by the hotly held 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. As the main feature of this Winter Olympics, the almost ubiquitous digital technology under the theme of "Technology Winter Olympics" has become a hot topic among netizens.

From the shocking scenes such as "The Water of the Yellow River Comes from the Sky", the big "snowflake" lights and the "slightly fire" torch at the opening ceremony, to the admirable robots and AI digital human weather anchors in the smart restaurant of the Winter Olympic Village, from Gu Ailing's black The technological "helmet" to the 4K/8K VR high-speed camera "Han Jianchou" flying cat and 5G and other event broadcasting technologies in the event venues, to the infrastructure technical support of the entire Winter Olympic venues, etc., full of technological elements not only It perfectly reflects the wisdom and romance of the Chinese people, and every detail is amazing.

Blowing the "Assembly Number" of the Robot: Powerful Interpretation of "Sci-Fi Blockbuster"

Before the Winter Olympics began, the majority of netizens were already convinced by the "charm" of the Winter Olympic Village robots. Whether it is the epidemic prevention robots that can be seen everywhere in the Vlogs of foreign athletes, or the catering robots in the smart restaurant of the main media center of the Winter Olympics, it looks like they are in a "science fiction movie".

As early as January 22, a foreign media released a video about a robot in the Winter Olympic Village, which caused heated discussions: a foreign athlete passed an epidemic prevention robot and greeted TA cordially and friendly, and the robot immediately stopped "footsteps" Remind the athlete to "please wear a medical mask" and then leave. On February 3, another Vlog shot by Russian figure skating champion Yagudin was circulated on the Internet: In the video, a disinfection robot was spraying disinfection spray at work. The Olympic champion was curious and even chased after him to observe it. Netizens outside the video were envious.

The most impressive is the catering robot in the smart restaurant of the main media center of the Winter Olympics. Among them, the food delivery robot can intelligently identify the user's location, optimize the route to arrive in the shortest time, and deliver the food through the conveyor belt above the guests' heads; the cooking robot and the intelligent claypot robot have the skills of cooking masters in my country. In addition, there are also equipment including hamburger robots, coffee robots, bartender robots, etc. These robots' "skilled" skills and high-quality service also won praise from the media present.

In addition to the above, there are also "underwater docking" robots for underwater torch relay, six-legged ski robots for skiing with you on ski tracks, temperature measuring robots for epidemic prevention and air release, and materials Intelligent logistics robots that reduce human contact in the delivery process, etc. These robots have jointly formed the "service force" of this event, not only a good demonstration of domestic robot technology, but also 100% "contactless" for the safe holding of the event, which is praised.

AI digital human: Gu Ailing "twin sisters" VS weather anchor "Feng Xiaoshu"

In addition to robots, AI digital human technology also made a surprise appearance at this Winter Olympics. In this Winter Olympics studio, a "twin sister" of Gu Ailing, Meet GU, a hyper-realistic math expert, appeared in the studio, and the interaction with the host attracted the attention of netizens. The news that Gu Ailing won the gold medal in the women's freestyle ski jumping at the Winter Olympics earlier is very exciting. The appearance of Meet GU in the live broadcast room also brought surprises to many viewers.

It is reported that Meet GU is one of the live broadcast platforms of this Winter Olympics. China Mobile Migu created a digital intelligence clone for Gu Ailing through self-developed technology. The voice is in sync with the real "God".

In addition to Meet GU, on the "Winter Olympics Public Viewing Weather Index", there is also an AI digital human based on the XiaoIce framework digital twin virtual human technology - the weather anchor "Feng Xiaoshu", which also successfully attracted the attention of netizens .

This AI digital human "Feng Xiaoshu" is equipped with Xiaoice Neural Rendering (XNR) and small sample learning technology, especially through the expert model of speech, mouth shape and face rendering expert model. The training allows you to learn more "Feng Xiaoshu" accurately the synergistic relationship between Feng Shu's own mouth movements, eyes and facial muscles, and also allows him to be natural in face, expression, body movements and other aspects. The degree and the real Feng Shu mix the fake with the real.

8K LED display + AIoT: black technology creates visual shock

At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the visual shock brought by the LED "Ice Waterfall" screen of "Water from the Yellow River" and the nearly 15,000-square-meter 8K ultra-high-definition ground screen instantly ignited the enthusiasm of all the audience on the spot and off the screen.

Behind this, it is inseparable from the joint support of top technology providers in related fields in China, such as Aerospace Avenue, BOE, Leyard, Unilumin Technology, Nova Nebula, etc.

For example, BOE built the world's largest LED floor screen with a total area of 10,552 square meters (more than 42,000 LED modules) for this event. Its 8K+ resolution picture fusion technology brings 100,000:1 ultra-high contrast to the screen, 3840Hz refresh rate and 29900x15096 super high resolution.

Behind the more than 550,000 lamp beads of the "big snowflake" that ignited the torch, there is also the support of the AIoT technology from BOE and the self-developed signaling system, which can ensure that the screen can achieve millisecond-level response. The introduction of LoRa (long-distance radio) technology further ensures the perfect coordination of real-time video images in this link.

AI+VR interaction creates visual effects of "flowers grow every step of the way"

I believe that until now, there are still people who are curious about how the snowflakes "opened" under the feet of the actors at the opening ceremony? Which company is this from?

In fact, the black technology behind this is the first from the Beijing Film Academy. That's right! The real-time interactive video special effects team jointly built by teachers and students of Beiying and Sound College and Intel, based on AI technology image recognition tracking and real-time rendering rendering of interactive engine technology.

Based on real-time capture technology and an artificial intelligence system, the location and shape of the actors are captured, and then the information is transmitted to the system in charge of the teachers and students of the Beijing Film Academy. The Beiying teachers and students team used the real-time interaction engine to obtain the actor information and generate the required effects, and finally presented the effect of "following on the move" under the actors' feet without delay.

And the visual effects capture system can track nearly 700 actors in real time on more than 10,000 square meters of LEDs at the opening ceremony, so we can see the "blooming" snowflakes "in full bloom" under the feet of the little actors. Can not be less" tender picture.

5G +4K +VR: Building a solid technical foundation for smart Winter Olympics video broadcast

At the current Beijing Winter Olympics, the video broadcasting technology also impressed the world. As the first Winter Olympics with full coverage of 5G venues, new technologies such as AI, VR, 5G, 4K/8K, and cloud services have been applied in the implementation of video broadcasts for almost all projects in this Winter Olympics. The technology value is full.

This Winter Olympics provides full 4K+HDR ultra-high-definition live broadcast services, and AI+VR broadcast technology is used in signal production technology. Among them, AI technology can automatically identify athletes and automate processing (field recording, cataloging, archiving, video slicing, etc.), while VR broadcast + panoramic shooting and 100 million-pixel panoramic shooting can help event broadcasts to provide multi-channel urban landscape camera video Signal.

5G wireless transmission can be described as a highlight of this Winter Olympics in the application of transmission technology. As the main broadcaster of the Beijing Winter Olympics, OBS, together with China Unicom and Intel, applied the advanced configuration of 5G network (such as slicing, NPN and other technologies) to the video broadcast of this event, providing a solid foundation for this Smart Winter Olympics. technical base.

4K Ultra HD + 8K VR Lens: Turn "Flying Cat" into "Han Jianchou"

In the men's 1000m short track speed skating final on February 7, the news that Chinese players Ren Ziwei and Li Wenlong won the gold and silver medals ignited the enthusiasm of netizens for this event again. It is worth noting that the South Korean and Hungarian players were successively caught fouling by the cameras on the field, and were eventually sentenced to penalties. And these cameras "FLy Cat" on the field were ridiculed by netizens as "Han Jianchou" for a while.

After the game, the whole network was very grateful to the high-speed cameras "Flying Cat" and "Cheetah", thanking these two devices for recording all the details of the game without dead ends, and maintaining the fairness of the game.

It is reported that there are 10 sets of "bullet time" playback systems in this short track speed skating event, and many AI visual technologies are hidden in them. Among them, the "Han Jianchou" and "Flying Cat" systems consist of a total of 40 4K ultra-high-definition camera arrays plus three 8K VR cameras. , Ultra-high-definition camera array, can achieve full coverage of the viewing angle, can effectively avoid blind spots.

360-degree ring shooting technology: "bullet time" makes the wonderful freeze

On February 7, Chinese teenager Su Yiming won the silver medal in the snowboard slope obstacle skill competition. Afterwards, an online hot search term #how to treat Su Yiming's match referee made a wrong score# made headlines on social media.

It turned out that the referees later watched the replay and found out that the Canadian player made a mistake in grabbing the board. When they realized the mistake, the score had already been submitted. Therefore, everyone began to be curious about the playback technology behind this event.

It is reported that the 360-degree circle shooting technology is used in this game, which can display the super cool "bullet time" special effects (Bullet time is a kind of photography technology used in movies, TV commercials or computer games to simulate variable speed special effects) , so that Su Yiming's 1620 movements can be played slowly in 360 degrees, and this moment is frozen.

Using 360-degree ring shooting technology, it can realize content analysis, character recognition and tracking, 3-dimensional digital reconstruction, editing, synthesis and rendering and other "intelligent" technologies, so that the wonderful freeze frame and the competition are more fair. In the short track speed skating event mentioned above, there are 10 sets of "bullet time" playback systems.

AR Studio: Wang Meng/Huang Jianxiang's "Cross Talk Commentary" swipes the screen

On the evening of February 5, the Chinese short track speed skating mixed relay team won the first gold medal of the Chinese delegation in this Winter Olympics, which almost made the whole network boil. Winter Olympic champion Wang Meng's partner Huang Jianxiang's "comic talk commentary" and "refueling with table-clapping" were frequently searched. The studio where the two were explaining was also found by netizens to be full of technology.

It turns out that the studio is blessed with AR virtual technology, which can change the scene at any time according to the content of the live broadcast, giving people an immersive feeling; and the virtual VIZRT technology added to the tactical analysis system can enrich the dimension and depth of the commentary of the event and increase the quality of the live broadcast. Visibility and professionalism.

Fulfilling the "Double Carbon" Commitment: New Energy Technology Helps "Green Winter Olympics"

In this Winter Olympics, in addition to the dazzling digital technology, we can also feel the country's practice of the green and low-carbon concept everywhere. From venue construction, event operation to link setting and logistics support, the low-carbon theme is almost everywhere.

The "Glimmer Torch" at the opening ceremony left a deep impression on people, especially against the backdrop of the "Lichun" bright fireworks. Compared with the previous "fancy" torch lighting ceremonies, this Winter Olympics chose to place the last torch directly in the middle of the "big snowflakes" that gather the names of the world's countries, and the torch is powered by hydrogen fuel, although the small fire is small, But it brought warmth and hope.

In addition, all venues of the Beijing Winter Olympics will use 100% green electricity based on "hydrogen" energy. As a secondary energy, hydrogen energy has the advantages of being clean, efficient, safe and sustainable. The application of equipment such as hydrogen fuel vehicles in venues not only provides a demonstration platform for the implementation of hydrogen energy technology, but also shows the world that China " "Green Winter Olympics" fulfills the promise of "double carbon".

As one of the three concepts of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, "sustainable development" is also reflected throughout the entire event. The first Winter Olympics speed skating venue built on the world's super large ice surface using carbon dioxide transcritical direct cooling to make ice, the National Speed Skating Stadium, whose carbon emissions are close to zero.

At present, the time for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is almost halfway through, and the excitement will continue in the next few days, and we will continue to pay attention to more exciting technologies. If you are interested in the technological elements of this event, you are also welcome to leave a message and interact in the comment area.