Intel last night in Las Vegas unveiled a partnership with Alibaba in which the two IOC TOP sponsors will collaborate on 3D athlete tracking technology slated to debut at the ’20 Tokyo Games. The partnership will combine Alibaba cloud computing with Intel hardware and AI, creating a video-based system to analyze athletes’ real-time biomechanics. The video system, intended to be less intrusive than wearable technologies, will be primarily aimed for media use by Olympic broadcasters, though it also will have coaching and training applications. The new alignment builds upon prior collaborations Intel and Alibaba had during the '18 Pyeongchang Games. The two companies also worked together on the 11.11 Alibaba Global Shopping Festival. “There are a lot of natural synergies between us,” said Alibaba Cloud Head of Global Initiatives and GM/Sports Business Unit Joey Tan. “After we began working together in Korea, it became clear there was a lot we could do together.” Like other Intel efforts such as its True View panoramic video, the new initiative with Alibaba is designed primarily to be a storytelling tool to aid viewers. It is not certain if the technology will be deployed to other properties or events beyond the Olympics. “The goal certainly is to bring it elsewhere. But we are at the starting gate with this. It’s very greenfield where this could go,” said Naveen Rao, VP & GM of Intel's AI Products Group. “The Olympics help serve as a forcing factor to help bring this to market, and we’re excited where it can go from there.”
