The Tour de France is one of the most prestigious cycling races in the world, attracting millions of viewers each year. This year, the viewing experience gets a massive upgrade by taking advantage of the latest technologies, including IoT, advanced computingAnd Generative AI.
NTT, an IT and services company, has been a partner of the Tour de France for nine years. This year, it is raising the bar by creating “the largest connected stadium in the world” and integrating ChatGPT.
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The “connected stadium” sets up a digital twin of the race which will use real-time data to digitally reproduce all aspects of the race, allowing the Tour de France to be a fully digitized event.
The digital twin will allow the organizer of the event, the Amaury Sports Organisation, to better understand what is happening at the event and to ensure its smooth running.
NTT will collect data from the bikes using geolocation and tiny sensors mounted under each bike’s saddle.
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Using this technology, the NTT will receive a constant stream of latitude, longitude, speed and other data from these sensors. This data will be transmitted over radio networks to the race vehicles before a microwave signal carries it to the end of the race. There, a cutting-edge computing device will run a “containerized version” of a real-time analytics platform, according to the release.
Additionally, ChatGPT will be integrated with NTT’s AI-based Digital Human solution to provide detailed and relevant race information to fans.
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The integration, called Marianne, will use “machine learning, speech recognition, natural language processing and conversational AI” to provide fans with comprehensive race information, according to the release.
All these advances will also be applied to the Women’s Tour de France with Zwift, the women’s counterpart race inaugurated last year.
