Keep Your Virtual Eyes on Tokyo and VR

As the world is enthralled with all the facts, fiction, and hype of augmented and virtual reality, we should pay close attention and set our virtual eyes on Tokyo, Japan – the host city to the 2021 Olympics.

As we reflect back on the major impact that the Olympics have had on former host cities, rest assured it will have an impact on Tokyo, Japan in 2021. Just imagine the growth and economic impact that the Olympics have had on cities like Atlanta, who was a host city in 1996. Atlanta grew from a 3.5 million populace metro-city to a 5.7 million metro-city as they invested $1B in infrastructure in the mid-90s. Japan is already planning on spending $18B to make it the most high-tech futuristic Olympic experience in the history of the Olympic Games.

Japan has already jumped out with bold proclamations and investments in technology that will set the stage to once again lead in both quality and transformation management; but in the area of hi-tech. While everyone has their virtual eyes on the Silicon Valley, France, Turkey, Israel, and India — Japan will leverage the 2021 Olympic moment and have a Dave Wottle style come from behind economic victory. They will create the perfect triangulation of technology, sport, and digital transformation to market their new found value in the world’s digital economy.

What will make the 2021 Olympics special, yet uniquely different, is that we live in a completely new global and digital world with the Internet-of-Things, Over-The-Top content, Bitcoin, Blockchain, artificial intelligence, and real-life encounters that leverage augmented and virtual reality. Rest assured that Japan is positioned to have one of the greatest come-from-behind economic victories in the past 40-years, as they invest heavily in augmented in virtual reality for viewing by the world population. In fact, the opening of the 2021 Olympics will feature a (real) flying car and a (mixed-reality) sky-lit meteor shower.

The impact of this futuristic Olympics will be felt for years to come, as eight major high-tech innovations will be released during the Olympics. These eight tech-related showcases are shown in this Futuristic 2021 Olympic infographic.

Japan is planning to install the 5G networks that are 15-times faster than 4G networks to ensure the Olympics are fully streamed in virtual reality from the field of completion to the smartphone. Intel™ has stepped in the action in a serious way and will sponsor the Olympics and personally supply the events with 5G networks, augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and drones. As you keep your virtual eye on Tokyo, keep in mind that the Tokyo metro-area has 37.5 million citizens, and hosts the second greatest number of fortune 500 companies in the world.

What makes me excited about the attention on Japan, is their long standing innovation in the area of virtual reality that has gone unnoticed. Japan was already leveraging virtual reality to help handicap children learn how to play the piano with their eyes, as they could not use their hand. This one video motivated me to see the humanitarian value of virtual reality for the betterment of society.