China Shows off Olympic Tech...sort of

An exhibition of technology being used in the Beijing Olympics opened here Wednesday, with mixed results in demonstrating one of the Games' themes of "Hi-tech Olympics."

Although presented in English as "Hi-tech Olympics" (the Games' other two themes are "Green Olympics" and "People's Olympics"), in Chinese it appears literally as "Technology Olympics." As such, its translation may be raising expectations for the use of IT at the Beijing Games, even though few if any new technologies or innovations will be implemented.

"Green Olympics" has come to the forefront among the three themes, and even the technology being used seems to be aimed at addressing environmental concerns such as "zero emissions in the immediate Olympic Park area" and holding a "basically carbon-neutral Olympic Games," as stated by Science and Technology Minister Wan Gang at a news conference two weeks ago.

The Science and Technology Olympics Exhibition is as much a propaganda exercise as it is vendor showcase. Some vendors -- all of whom are official Olympic sponsors -- had representatives on hand to answer questions about their products, but branding was downplayed.

On display were Samsung TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) mobile phones, making use of China's limited, domestic 3G (third generation telephony) service that will be available to 15,000 users during the Olympics. In three tries, the handset failed to connect with China Mobile's mINFO2008 3G content system. "Well, it's a little slow," said the booth representative. When asked if 3G wasn't supposed to be faster than GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), which is widely available in China, she said, "yes." "Where's the Samsung guy?" she asked her two colleagues. However, the handset maker's representative was not located.

One service not previously mentioned in relation to the Olympics is PTT (Push-To-Talk), which allows mobile handsets to function like walkie-talkies. A China Mobile representative said that PTT-enabled handsets would be available in China shortly. He declined to identify brands that would be available, although he said that as an official Olympic sponsor, Samsung handsets would likely be used during the Games. He also said the service could be available in China later this year, but that it would be aimed at groups such as conference organizers. "There's no need for the service on a person-to-person basis," he said, despite significant uptake of the service for just that purpose in the U.S. and other markets.

Also on display were traffic control systems, including a taxi tracking system to provide real-time road conditions to monitors. Although it did not confirm earlier figures of 15,000 vehicles, a chart showed that a taxi's tracker will use GPS to send the car's location and speed to a central traffic control room. Other systems can then be used to try to improve flow, such as automatically switching or holding traffic lights.

The exhibition runs through May 25 at the Beijing International Exhibition Center.