The opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games showcased an impressive array of cutting-edge technologies. From digital torchbearers to zero-carbon methanol fuel, and from digital fireworks to massive display screens, these hi-tech applications have made the Games a futuristic vision.

　　Here are some of the high-tech factors behind this event.

　　First digital ignition ceremony

　　At the opening ceremony, millions of digital torchbearers coalesced into a single one, creating the first digital flame ignition ceremony in the history of the Asian Games.

　　To ensure as many people as possible could participate in the online torch relay, a large-scale computer lab was established to test hundreds of smartphones in different models and from different generations.

　　Galacean, China-developed 3D interactive engine for the web and mobile devices, was used to ensure that the platform for digital torchbearers could accommodate a billion users and support 97 percent of smartphone devices.

　　In addition, AI technology was used to capture thousands of movements and made hundreds of thousands of design drawings, resulting in the creation of more than two trillion different images for digital torchbearers. This facilitated global participants who wanted to customize their digital torchbearers.

　　At the opening ceremony, the final digital torchbearer and the flesh-and-blood torchbearer lit the flame together, achieving resonance between the digital and the real world.

　　Green fuel for the real torch

　　The use of methanol fuel, which has zero carbon emission, to light up the torch emphasized China's commitment to a green Asian Games.

　　Though methanol has a history of more than a century as a clean renewable energy source, it had never been used as the main fuel for a large event before.

　　In the past, the main fuel for such events was mostly natural gas or hydrogen. While natural gas produces some emissions and requires pipelines logistics for transportation, hydrogen, though with zero emission, is risky to store and transportation.

　　The zero-carbon methanol is synthesized using hydrogen from coke oven gas and carbon dioxide captured from industrial exhaust. To produce one ton of this fuel, about 1.37 tons of carbon dioxide is used up, leading to an atmospheric clean-up.

　　Methanol also has zero emission combustion and is safe to store and transport, making it ideal as a torch fuel, especially due to the bright and stable flame it produces.

　　Digital fireworks mean no pollution

　　The opening ceremony used digital fireworks instead of real ones, conveying the concept of environmental protection to the world.

　　Computer graphics technology was used to create 3D models of fireworks, which included not only their shape and color but also their texture and explosion effect.

　　To make the digital fireworks more realistic visually, real-time technology was used during the production progress, such as Unity and Unreal Engine.

　　In addition, digital fireworks used augmented reality technology to synthesize with live video images so that they looked more realistic.

　　Unlike actual fireworks, the digital ones do not cause any damage to the environment, and are low cost, diverse in forms, as well as far safer.

　　Screens for advanced performance

　　The opening ceremony created a digitally advanced performance with two key hardware devices: a mesh screen and a ground screen.

　　The mesh screen, a massive screen 185-m long and 20-m high hanging in the air, was the equivalent of nine IMAX screens. While playing videos, it provided 3D presentations with the huge ground screen, improving the visual effect.

　　Nearly 24,000 screens constituted the 6,000 square-m ground screen, which was the world's most advanced 3-mm pixel ground screen. The spectacles produced by the two screens together included the scenery of the Qiantang river that passes through Hangzhou.

　　PHOTO ①②④: ZHOU Weihai/S&T Daily;

　　PHOTO ③: VCG