The Beijing Olympics were held amid anti-COVID measures. The athletes of the Japanese Olympic team who attended the Games also had no choice but to isolate themselves and face a lonely competition. The Japanese team were leaving for Beijing, unable to enjoy any face-to-face encouragement or support. The JOC(Japanese Olympic Committee) tried to give them strength by borrowing the power of technology to support them.

The Beijing Olympics were held amid anti-COVID measures. The athletes of the Japanese Olympic team who attended the Games also had no choice but to isolate themselves and face a lonely competition. The Japanese team were leaving for Beijing, unable to enjoy any face-to-face encouragement or support. So The JOC(Japanese Olympic Committee) held "TEAM JAPAN AR Cheering Performance". They organized a varied cheering performance using lighting and AR at the hotel where the team were staying before leaving Japan. It was livestreamed to the athletes and the nation at the same time. The theme was “TAKE OFF.” The performance was designed and filled with the feeling evoked by the phrase “itterasshai,” meaning “have a safe trip!”, to give the athletes flying to Beijing a supportive push. Motifs inspired by airplanes and airfields, associated with “TAKE OFF,” also ran throughout the performance.

First, the athletes were greeted by the Light&AR Cheering Runway.

This space was inspired by an airport runway, and here, together with an LED light production, messages of support from the people of Japan were displayed with AR. We created a system that allowed both the people at the venue and the streaming viewers to enjoy the same free viewpoint AR experience through their devices and the streamed video. We used Antilatency as the tracking system, which identifies spatial positioning via mats with markers and sensors attached to the side of device. It was designed so that the AR objects are always visible in the same specified position in the space, regardless of the device or viewpoint.

Next, for the “AR Cheering Music Live,”

there was a live performance by popular artists, who made a surprise appearance.

This made full use of AR technology, sending words of support from the people of Japan to the athletes together with the songs.

We used a LIDAR SCANNER to take a 3D scan of the venue space, and created an advanced AR production linked to objects in the space. This made it possible to realize a dynamic AR production that controlled lots of objects, including the many paper airplanes that served as the event’s key icons and the messages of support, and moved around in real-time.

In addition to this, we developed a special WebAR for “AR Cheering Mobile,” and presented it to the athletes. The athletes could receive the many messages of support from the Japanese people at any time to give them a boost. The supportive comments were updated daily, so people could keep sending encouragement to the athletes in Beijing, beyond Japan’s borders, throughout the Games.

Sending support through AR was not used only for the live performance. The athletes could have received those messages anytime, anywhere on their smartphones. The messages of the support from the people of Japan were kept updating during the Beijing Olympics. The AR airplane succeeded in delivering the messages to the athletes at the game field or living space in Beijing.

The livestreaming event was watched by most of the Japanese team, and 200,000 of their supporters from around Japan. They shared the same experience and sent lots of comments cheering for the athletes. Many media sources covered the event, including major TV programs, and it attracted a lot of attention. The biggest result was the many happy and grateful comments sent by the athletes in response to the cheering performance. And, it supported their performances in the Winter Olympics, in which Japan won a record high number of medals.