Innofidei

When the world of science fiction meets the world of sports, it seems, anything is possible.

The Olympics has long been a test bed for new technological innovations. With security a higher priority in the post-September 11 world, one of the showcase gadgets that may be introduced to Beijing's Olympic Village this year enables apartment doors to recognize their guests using codes that are almost impossible to crack.

"Once you get to the door, a linked-up camera captures the features of your face, including your bone structure," said Chinese inventor Ma Xin. "These features are then translated into codes, which are forwarded to a computer and crosschecked with a database. As long as your codes do not correspond to any 'bad codes,' that is, those belonging to people on our blacklist, the door will open."

Ma was explaining the functions of the device to an audience at last month's Olympic technology exhibition, part of Beijing Science and Technology Week.

"The camera can pick a (potential terrorist) out of a large crowd," he said, "The whole process takes about 1/100 of a second."

Ma said that even wigs, sunglasses and make-up would not be able to fool the computer by masking the person's identity.

"Even if the suspect changes his hairstyle or gains a lot of weight, the door can still recognize him," he said. Ma has a PhD from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is a member of the Security Advisory Committee for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The door, which is expected to be installed at Olympic venues and the Olympic Village, could also be used in regular households across China.

This could signal the end of house keys, meaning one less headache for the forgetful and one major obstacle for pickpockets and burglars.

Of course, security is only one aspect of the Games, and something that most people would prefer not to concern themselves with as they sit back and enjoy watching sporting history in the making.

With another innovation in the offing, viewers will be able to take in the action while walking to the office, taking a bus or simply waiting in line for lunch.

Beijing-based Innofidei Inc claims to have developed the first mobile TV chip for the domestic market, potentially transforming hundreds of thousands of mobile handsets into micro-TVs.

The technology is based on a domestic specification called China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (CMMB), which was approved by the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) last September.

With this chip, people can receive TV signals on their phones and watch programs without any temporal or space-based restrictions.

"As long as the handset terminal has a colored screen and a battery, our chip can turn it into a mobile TV," said Meng Fei, director of Innofidei's business development department. "The chip can be plugged into a cell phone, a PDA, an MP4, a digital camera or even a laptop.

He said that this, together with plans by China's state broadcaster, would ensure the 2008 Games livies up to its billing as a "People's Olympics."

"CCTV will offer some free channels during the Games, so people can basically enjoy the Olympics for free.

"Our chips are cheap and cell phones that are enabled to use them will not be much different in price to regular phones," Meng said.

SARFT is planning to build a regional test network in Beijing this month and hopes to start trials by the end of the year. The goal is to deploy CMMB on a national level by the first half of 2008.

Innofidei is now busy selling their chips to cell phone makers so that the new generation of phones reaches the market by Christmas.

"Our innovation successfully integrated the merits of the two best-selling consumer products in history - TV sets and cell phones," said Meng.

"In the near future, soccer fans won't be tearing their hair out because they are stuck in traffic and missing the chance to see their favorite teams play."

Local baseball fans, meanwhile, will be able to draw comfort from the knowledge that - both at the Olympics and afterwards - their teams will be playing on a field designed to help recycle water.

Given Beijing's arid climate, water-saving technology could not come a moment too soon.

Rainwater will be instantly absorbed and purified by floor tiles that have been installed in the field. The run-off will then be collected in subterranean pipes and used to help with irrigation, landscaping and even toilet flushing.

To further promote Beijing's plan to host a "Green Olympics," even the tiles are made of desert sand.

The company hopes to spread this kind of thinking to other cities in southern China that suffer from heavy precipitation.

They also hope to use some of this Olympic technology to help build a more diverse and healthy diet.

Initially this will serve the visitors to the Games, but later it will be made fully available to the Chinese people.

Beijing's food scientists have already "tamed" almost 100 types of vegetable that are not native to China. With these new scientific innovations, the vegetables can now survive and grow in Beijing's neighboring cities in Hebei Province

"The Beijing Games should not just provide foreign visitors and athletes with Chinese food," said Zhou Lijun, vice-chairman of the Beijing Association of Science and Technology. "We should also be able to offer a highly international Olympic menu.

"Some of these so-called 'alien' fruits and vegetables have already been successfully grown in Beijing for the Games. Later on they will become a part of our daily diet."

The Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, which is carrying out the work, has successfully developed over 300 kinds of Olympic vegetables for the Games, they said.