While past Olympic Games have left graveyards of unused stadiums in their wake, Brazil hopes its facilities will live on even after the athletes have left the building. Though some aspect of the Rio 2016 Olympics may not be living up to expectations, Rio mayor Eduardo Paes expects many of the locations specifically constructed for the games will outshine past Olympic venues, especially when it comes to longevity. From handball courts to stadiums, the city’s entire Olympic infrastructure exists in flux – designed to transition from its primary function to something entirely new once the games are over. With a heavy emphasis on “nomadic architecture,” several of the Rio’s Olympic settings will be repurposed after they’ve serviced their primary function. The pools, arenas and fields will eventually become schools, parks, community swimming pools and much more. No More White Elephants One of the curses of hosting the Olympics is leftover infrastructure. Few cities are capable of supplying sites for every event, and so pools appear out of empty fields and stadiums rise up along the skyline. Beijing’s Bird’s Nest lives on as a tourist attraction – and occasional soccer spot – but its glory days will never be revisited. In Athens, the Olympic Park lies abandoned, covered in rust and slowing fading in a cloud of neglect. Meanwhile, Sochi’s once bustling Olympic Village now lies empty, inhabited only by stray dogs and unfinished construction. In acknowledgement of the burden placed on host cities to supply appropriate sporting arenas, the International Olympic began to encourage bidders to spend some time planning for life after the games. London, one of the first examples of this legacy mode philosophy, took the suggestion to heart by including several structures that were easily dismantled and repurposed. Many other cities,...
Sci Fi Olympics
Tokyo Plans for 2020
All eyes may be on Rio this summer, but the buzz has already shifted to Tokyo in 2020, in part because the city is promising to present “the Olympics of the Future.” This summer, the world will tune in to South America’s first Olympics, and expectations are low. Tales of insufficient preparation paired with images of pollution and fears regarding the ongoing Zika outbreak have cast a pall over the event. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, Tokyo plans to wow the globe in just four-year’s time with its future-focused games. A Next-Gen Personal Assistant Any avid fan of science fiction, or casual watcher of the Jetsons, knows the future will include robots and advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI). In Tokyo, Olympic visitors will get a firsthand look at the latest in robotics technology when they wander into the Odaiba neighborhood. Right next door to the Olympic Village, Odaiba’s streets will abound with specially programmed robots deployed to help international visitors with any number of tasks, from translation to directions and more. For foreign spectators who find themselves “robot-less,” all is not lost! Communicating with locals will be a breeze, thanks to real-time language conversion apps like VoiceTra. VoiceTra can interpret up to 27 languages and provide text conversions. For less tech-savvy travelers, Panasonic plans to debut a wearable device that can instantly translate Japanese into ten other languages. All those smart devices will need a hearty network, and Japan has that covered as well. An estimated half a million visitors are expected in Tokyo for the games, and the cell towers will surely be working overtime. In anticipation of the deluge, Japan’s largest cell phone company, DoCoMo is working with Nokia to deploy 5G wireless networks able to run on high frequencies. Current 5G demos have hit the 2 gigabit per second speed mark, more than enough to handle all those texts, selfies and status updates. Traveling in (Modern) Style For Japan, the Olympics also present the opportunity to build on past accomplishments. When Tokyo hosted the 1964 games, the country debuted its shinkansen bullet trains. Fifty or so years later, the country is putting locomotives back in the spotlight with its own maglev train, which could end up being the fastest on the planet at 374 mph. And then there are the self-driving taxis! In Tokyo, robot-taxi tests are already underway. As part of a collaborative effort between Japanese software maker DeNA and robotics firm ZSMP, a small fleet of retrofitted minivans stands ready to be hailed via smartphone. By the time the games arrive, these autonomous taxis will speedily transport athletes and spectators to and from events. Not only will the taxis be driverless in Tokyo by 2020, they may be gas-less as well. The government plans to add 6000 fuel cell cars by 2020 (with an ultimate goal of 100,000 by 2025), with $385 million set aside to subsidize purchases of Toyota’s fuel-cell car, the Mirai. In addition, another 100 fuel-cell powered buses will join to the city’s fleet. Energy Alternatives In addition to highlighting new technologies, the Japanese government is taking advantage of the games to debut new power sources, including algae-based fuel and large-scale hydrogen power. As part of an effort to introduce the use of algae-based fuel for airplanes and buses, the government has teamed with over 40 organizations, including Boeing, Japan Airlines and Nippon airlines. Algae-based fuel cuts CO2 emissions by 70%, and there’s even some indication that Boeing may use the project as a jumping off point for widespread use down the line. Anyone headed to the Olympic Village will surely travel over a large underground pipeline funneling hydrogen power directly to the village itself. In fact, Japan has earmarked $330 to promote hydrogen energy use in the next four years. The country hopes to power the entire Olympic Village with hydrogen fuel. Special Effects Not all of Tokyo’s tech advancements are altruistic....
