Olympic is arguably the biggest event in the world. No other event in the world is as vast and participatory like the Olympics. It takes years to plan an Olympic event and it is also the best place to invent and try new technologies.
Here is the list of new technologies that are being used for Rio Olympics 2016:
- NFC Payments – Visa and Brazilian bank Bradesco are trying new wearable techs including a bracelet equipped with Near Field Communications (NFC) technology for making payments at Olympic events. Almost 3000 people at the Olympics including journalists, officials, and athletes will try out these rubber water proof bracelets.
- Virtual Reality (VR) – Olympic Broadcasting Services, the International Olympic Committee is tasked with the responsibility of coordinating TV coverage of the games, will be filming virtual-reality footage from different venues every day in Rio.
This includes volleyball events as well as opening and closing ceremonies. NBC and BBC will show various shows with VR capabilities as well. NBC is filming 100 hours of VR footage for its viewers.
- Security Balloons – Four balloons with HI-RES cameras will monitor the security of the events. Developed by Brazilian manufacturer Altave, the devices will send images produced by the 13 cameras installed internally in real time. Tokyo and Qatar have also shown interest for this at their Olympic events.
- Super High Resolution – Super High-Vision or 8K has 16 times as many pixels as regular HD, and some see it as the future of television.
Tokyo NHK will be recording events at 8K and will display them at their broadcasting centers around Tokyo because consumer TV is not ready for 8K.
- Drone Cameras – Drone technology has advanced vastly in the last 5 years. Broadcasters are also experimenting with them in Rio Olympics as well. These drone cameras can give amazing views and action shots of the events. People see these hovering cameras as the future camera tech.
With all these technologies it’s sure to be a great spectacle.
