It is not difficult to see from history that the World Olympic Games is a common platform for countries to display revolutionary new technologies. In 2020, when Japan becomes the host of the Olympic Games again, this sports event is undoubtedly full of expectations.
Tokyo is the most avant-garde city in the world and one of the cities with the most complicated human environment. It has the busiest railway station in the world? At Shinjuku Station, the daily passenger flow is about 3.64 million. The number of Fortune 500 enterprises it contains ranks second in the world and occupies a prominent position in the world economic system. It has the tallest tower in the world and the busiest urban transportation system in the world.
The emerging technology developed by Japan will update our traditional experience of the Olympic Games and may even change the world. Is it really that powerful? The following eight reasons will prove to you that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will be the most? Future sense? Olympic events.
Tokyo, an international metropolis Image source: Wiki Public
Reason 1: Robot Village Japan is one of the countries with the highest degree of robot automation on earth. Japanese robot manufacturers will cooperate while competing with the robot industry in the United States, China, South Korea, Germany and other countries. Therefore, Japan has naturally become the organizer of related activities. At this time, robots from all over the world will flock to Japan with enough momentum to form a small village.
According to a recent report in Asahi Shimbun, a government committee in Tokyo is launching a project? Install robots for the whole city? Large projects. Are you online? Towards the future society? It is mentioned in the initiative that robots and information technology can help people of all ages and different countries (including the disabled).
? Robot village? It is located near the Tokyo Gymnasium and will also become the Olympic Village for athletes. A 60-foot-tall giant gundam statue is already famous. By 2020, there will be more robots serving human beings here. Japan predicts that about 920,000 foreigners will flood into Tokyo every day during the Olympic Games. Robots can help them with language translation, navigation or calling a car. Of course, as soon as self-driving cars appear, the transport carrier itself may also be a robot. Imagine, whether you are going out from the hotel to buy things or going to Tokyo Haneda International Airport by plane, there are intimate and polite private robots to help you with your luggage, guide you to check in, and drive you to Tokyo Sky Tower for sightseeing. What a beautiful and novel sight!
The 60-foot-high Gundam statue in Otai, Tokyo Image source: Associated Press
Reason 2: Compared with other developed countries, the overall English level of Japanese people is low. Although the number of foreigners learning Japanese has increased dramatically in the past decade, there are still great language and cultural barriers for tourists. This is why Japan is so eager to introduce cutting-edge instant translation technology before 2020.
VoiceTra, funded by the Japanese government, is an application that can realize real-time translation in 27 languages, including Urdu and Bhutanese, which are relatively uncommon. Voice translation is more difficult, but developers claim that applications can understand 90% of voice information; At present, it only covers four languages: English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese, and it is expected to exceed 10 by 2020. The software will be used on computers and mobile phones in tourist-intensive scenic spots such as landmark buildings, shopping malls and hospitals.
At the same time, enterprises are not far behind. Panasonic is stepping up the research and development of lightweight translation assistants that can be hung around the neck, and the translation language can reach 10, so as to better serve many tourists. The electronics giant also plans to provide tourists with a smartphone application that can be translated instantly by scanning Japanese signs. This application is applicable to all countries in the world.
Reason 3: Has the Japanese game giant DeNA ever launched a driverless automatic taxi? Robot taxi plan? . It's amazing to think about it. By 2020, driverless taxis will run on the streets of Tokyo. Whether it is Google, Apple, Uber and other technology giants, or BMW, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and other car manufacturers, they are scrambling to become the first people to eat crabs, hoping to find a place in the history of fully automatic cars.
Tokyo is one of the largest cities in the world (654.38+300,000 people) and the most densely populated city (4,600 people per square mile). In addition, it is estimated that 920,000 foreigners will flood into Tokyo every day during the Olympic Games. If Japan wants to try out driverless taxis before the Olympic Games, this is undoubtedly a historic move.
In August this year, DeNA and ZMP in Japan launched the first robot self-driving taxi, which is expected to provide services during the Olympic Games. Image source: robot taxi
Reason 4: The 8K glory of live TV broadcast In the color TV craze in the 1960s, Japanese companies were at the forefront of the world's home appliance technology, benefiting Japanese and global audiences with a new generation of ultra-realistic image quality. This time, NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster, is not to be outdone, and plans to broadcast the 2020 Olympic Games with 8K ultra-high definition resolution.
"Japan Times" reported that as early as 1995, Japanese manufacturers had begun to develop 8K HD technology. If anyone can lead the world into a new era of high definition, Japan is undoubtedly the only standard answer. In 2020, it will appear in the Tokyo Olympic Games with a high-spirited attitude.
On June 5438+ 10, Sharp, Japan will start selling 8K TVs at a price as high as125,000 US dollars (about 800,000 yuan). Obviously, these 85-inch 8K TVs are not affordable for ordinary families. By 2020, viewers will see their favorite sports on ultra-high-definition TV and enjoy a better visual experience. By then, the demand for 8k TVs may rise. Japan's NHK also hopes that such TV will enter the homes of ordinary people by then.
Reason 5: It is a very attractive proposition to use seaweed as a fuel source to fuel airplanes and buses. Japan is a veritable small resource country, and the problem of nuclear fuel leakage in Fukushima area is even worse, so Japan is eager to practice fuel substitution. With the strong support of world-renowned enterprises such as Boeing, seaweed as an alternative energy source may be commercialized on a global scale.
Algae as an alternative energy source is not nonsense. It converts carbon dioxide into energy by absorbing it. Algae growing in the sea will not occupy space like other green energy sources such as corn; And is relatively easy to grow; The yield is still quite abundant, and algae can produce 60 times more oil per acre than corn. More importantly, it is natural and environmentally friendly. If you plant algae near a coal-fired power plant with high carbon emissions, it can absorb carbon emissions and generate usable electricity. But the biggest problem is the extremely expensive production cost of algae. The labor cost of getting a liter of finished product is $2.50, and the resource cost is nearly 80 cents.
However, Boeing hopes to help transport tourists during the 2020 Olympic Games by cooperating with Japan and using algae as aircraft fuel. This project has the alliance cooperation of more than 40 organizations, including the University of Tokyo, the Japanese government, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, and Boeing is one of them. This is a very good idea because algae can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 70% compared with petroleum fuels.
If Boeing and other companies can prove that algae energy has the practicability of low cost, high efficiency and large-scale use, then this kind of energy may be used in the Olympic Games, and we will definitely see more in the future? Green? International airlines.
JAL is cooperating with Boeing, Tokyo University and other organizations to actively develop algae as an implementation plan for aircraft fuel.
Image source: Shutterstock
Reason 6: Hydrogen-powered buses and buildings When it comes to electricity, Japan has introduced another alternative energy source, which comes from the most abundant element in the universe: hydrogen. This may be a pioneering work to change the rules of the global game.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Tokyo government plans to spend 40 billion yen (about 265,438+billion yuan) in the next five years to improve the utilization rate of hydrogen as energy and apply it to the Olympic Games, so that Japan will enter a new type? Hydrogen society? . When hydrogen and oxygen are in contact with each other in a fuel cell, it can generate environmental protection energy like water.
Tokyo plans to equip the Olympic Village with at least 65,438+000 buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells, and the news lounge and athletes' dormitories all use hydrogen fuel. According to Autoblog, the government also hopes to put 6,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles into use, and by 2025, this number may reach 65,438+10,000. In addition, the construction of a giant underground pipeline to directly import hydrogen into the Olympic Village is an important part of Japan's plan to promote non-nuclear energy sources after the Fukushima disaster.
Fuel cells are becoming more and more popular, and the frequent use of hydrogen fuel in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games is bound to enhance its promotion effect. Not only that, the Tokyo municipal government will spend $3.85 million to buy a new fuel cell car produced by Toyota. We can find that there is still a lot of room for development in the utilization of new energy as long as the government makes efforts to promote it. Everyone wants better blue sky, white clouds and air quality, right?
Toyota is the largest automobile manufacturer in the world. Last year, its hydrogen-powered fuel cell car was named Mirai (meaning? Future? )。 The Japanese government hopes to build fuel cell stations all over the country. Image source: Associated Press
Reason 7: Meteor shower A newly established Japanese company, ALE (Artificial Meteor Light Show), plans to have a meteor across the sky at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games, making it the coolest opening ceremony in history.
ALE was initiated by Lena Okajima, a doctor of astronomy. The company is cooperating with Japanese university to design and launch a cubic microsatellite. They are mini in shape, only one inch in diameter and made of secret materials, which is an epoch-making stroke in the history of astronomy. It runs at a speed of five miles per second, and the friction with the air makes it glow. According to Space.com, it is a bit unnecessary to worry about space junk, because it will return to Earth like a real space shell after burning.
Okashima said that due to the protection of chemical composition, these artificial meteors can be as bright as third-class stars, even in the smoky and light-polluted city center. They hope to simulate a meteor shower that is rare in nature.
Okashima said that she will continue to cooperate with scientists and engineers from top universities in Japan to put this utopian dream about the sky into practice. Artificial meteor passing by makeup? It can emit different colors, and the cost of this performance is as high as $4 million. But this is a very valuable learning opportunity: because the real meteor shower is unpredictable and uncontrollable, the performance allows scientists to deeply study the trajectory and temperature of celestial bodies passing through the earth's atmosphere.
Reason 8: More Maglev Trains 50 years ago, Shinkansen bullet trains appeared, and Japan led the world into a new era of high-speed railway operation. Now, it has turned its attention to the next generation of railway overlord: maglev train. Although some countries are more advanced in this respect? For example, the maglev trains in China and Shanghai have been running for 1 1 year? Japan hopes to achieve this goal by 2020. JR central railway company is responsible for the construction of maglev trains in Japan. They hope that the maglev train can enter the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020 and then enter Osaka in 2045.
At the beginning of 20 15, the Japanese maglev train broke the world historical record at a speed of 374 miles per hour. The country hopes to further develop its magnetic levitation system (trains are not yet open to passengers) and expand its influence to countries such as the United States. The Japanese government offered to provide half of the financial support for the construction of the maglev train between Boston and Washington.
The speed of Japanese maglev trains has reached a record high, approaching 400 miles per hour. Image source: Getty emerging technologies will always experience some challenges when they are put into market use. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, there are still many variables about where these technological innovations will go. I believe you still remember two major embarrassments you experienced at the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer: the stadium built at a high price was not worthy of the name; The plagiarism of the Olympic emblem has also refreshed the audience's worldview. Yamato people have always advocated perfectionism and paid special attention to details. These two international low-level mistakes have to make us wonder whether Japan's ambitious plan for 2020 is in danger of being shelved.
It is not uncommon for the host country to introduce technology that can change the world at the Olympic Games. 19 12 At the Stockholm Olympic Games, electronic clocks were used on a large scale for the first time. Due to the large number of participants, it also promoted the development of the world's first public broadcasting system. In Berlin 1936 Summer Olympic Games, the latest camera and TV technology made it possible to broadcast sports events on TV. At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, an IBM supercomputer helped predict the weather and pollution. Just last month, IBM announced that it would continue to use Watson-level artificial intelligence maps to test the pollution index over Beijing.
Considering Tokyo's status as a global high-tech center, we are ready to embrace the most advanced technology. What if robots can provide high-quality services during the Tokyo Olympic Games? You know, this is a small feast filled with millions of people? Then their popularity in other places is just around the corner.
Translation: Han Xiao