▲ PyeonChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games

2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics has begun. There are so many things to see and enjoy. Every country wants to show their best skills. As you can see, this Olympics is not only a world-class sports match but also a window of opportunity for technology. In 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan showed colored television and generalized it. In 2006 Beijing Summer Olympics, the first RFID tickets and face recognition technology was used. The Korean government invested the budget of 12 trillion and 8 billion won for the ICT technology, and now it is time to show the Korean leading ICT technology to the world.

The first one is 5G technology. Now, we use 4G wireless communication, but in this Olympic games, we can see 5G wireless communication. 4G is 400Mbps or megabit per second, but 5G is 20Gbps or Gigabit per second. So, we can see more vividly and realistically. If you saw the opening ceremony, you might feel the 5G technology. The drone performance was based on 5G. It is Intel's drone, and it was recorded on Guinness with 500 drones. Nevertheless, in this Olympic Games, 1218 drones were flown in the sky. And with 5G, we could see Olympic games with interactive time slide technology and with the sync view, we could see the view of the players with high definition.

▲ 5G network

The second one is UHD or Ultra High Definition. Korean government-run broadcasting station, KBS, transmits broadcast with UHD source. UHD is four times vivid than HD. There are many UHD televisions now, but there is no UHD broadcasting station now. So, it can be very significant for the future broadcasting.

▲ Ultra High Definiton UHD

The third one is IoT or Internet of Things. There are many products with IoT. Now, most used IoT is AI speaker in home and link with many appliances. Nonetheless, now in Pyeongchang, we can see more IoT. We can experience all kinds of IoT there and also, there is One Pass Band, which is a band that can purchase with just a touch.

The next one is VR. We cannot see real things if we do not go and see, and we cannot feel the realistic sports if we do not play those sports. However, with VR, we can feel it. Bobsleigh, for example, we can experience it with VR and motioning bobsleigh. Actually, Korean luge team uses it to practice in summer. It is true that we cannot experience bobsleigh because it is hard and too expensive to ride. We can experience various sports by VR in VR Experience Center near the Olympic stadium, so we can take a ride to experience it.

▲ Korean luge team practice with VR

The last technology is AI. There are many AI nowadays as you can recognize but now is different. With Korean 5G and IoT technology, AI is strengthened. We can ride autonomous navigation bus to go to the stadium, and with an application, AI suggests various food and activities for users. Also, we can see other technologies such as Hydrogen fueled bus and panoramic view broadcasting.

As 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics is the world-class event, we can see various things in Pyeongchang. This ICT technology is not only for the entertainment but also for the safety and prevention of accidents. I hope the Olympic games will end with great joy and safety with the ICT technology.