September 10, 21:15IOL

VAR Technology is Being Introduced into Athletics to Change the Format of Finish Races

The traditional method of recording finishes in athletics, based on images captured by slit scanners, may soon become obsolete due to the introduction of VAR-like technologies being tested at the Ultimate World Athletics Championships.

For football fans, the VAR system, including semi-automatic offside graphics, is a hallmark of modern broadcasts, representing a complex three-dimensional computer model that highlights the knee or toe of an attacker who is millimeters ahead of a defender.

Now, running disciplines are beginning to use a similar visual language to transform how a global audience perceives finish moments. Before the first Ultimate World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Sony and World Athletics presented a broadcasting concept designed to turn decisions made in fractions of a second into exciting television content.

Instead of relying solely on traditional side photographs taken by a slit scanner, Sony uses optical tracking technology developed in collaboration with the Hawk-Eye division. This technology allows for the collection of real-time athlete movement data.

Sony serves as the official global partner of the Ultimate World Athletics Championships, providing its patented optical tracking technology to create new content. This data is instantly converted into 3D computer graphics (3DCG) for the international broadcast channel, giving rights holders access to virtual replays from multiple angles, mimicking the visualization accuracy seen in elite European football.

The visual similarity between the systems is striking. Just as VAR lines help clarify crowded penalty areas, these three-dimensional renders eliminate ambiguity in tense moments at the finish line. Instead of viewers having to decipher a static two-dimensional photograph to determine whose torso crossed the plane first, the broadcast can smoothly move around the virtual runners to emphasize the exact point of contact with the finish line.

Although results in running events are often determined by thousandths of a second, traditional finish visualization often seems too dry and detached for a home audience. By capturing the spatial mechanics of the entire body and displaying it in real time, World Athletics not only helps judges make fairer decisions but also transforms minimal advantages in world sprinting into spectacular prime-time content.

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www.aajtak.inSeptember 10, 09:36

Popularity of 80s-style AI photos increases server load and resource consumption

Currently, there is a rapid increase in the popularity of images created with artificial intelligence (AI) in the style of the 1980s on Instagram. Users upload their regular photos into AI tools to give them a look characteristic of the 80s decade, including clothing, hairstyles, background, and imitation of old cameras. A new image variant is generated in mere moments.

Although this process takes only a few seconds for users, the AI system performs significant computational work. When a large number of people simultaneously request the creation of such images, the AI experiences increased load. This requires intensive work from graphics processing units (GPUs) and servers located in data centers, leading to an increase in electricity consumption and server heating.

Creating photos using AI is not just applying a filter to an existing picture. The AI analyzes the uploaded photo and the given text prompt to form a completely new image. This process involves numerous complex calculations on AI servers. According to one study, generating one AI image requires an average of about 2.9 Wh of electricity, although the demand varies depending on the specific AI model.

If a person stopped after creating one photo, the energy consumption would be lower. However, within trends, people often generate many pictures: they may not like the first version, so they continue generating, change prompts, or try other styles, forcing the AI to create new images repeatedly.

The GPUs and other computer chips used to create AI photos operate continuously, releasing heat. Therefore, it is critically important to keep the servers in data centers in a cooled state, for which various cooling systems are used. The choice of a specific system depends on the location and the technology of the data center itself.

According to the International Energy Agency, global data centers consumed about 460 TWh of electricity in 2024. It is projected that this figure could reach 945 TWh by 2030. The growing use of AI is one of the main reasons for this increase. It is important to understand that this statistic covers all types of operations in data centers worldwide, not just AI photos, but it demonstrates the general trend of increasing demand for computing power and energy with the rise of AI usage.

In some data centers, water is used to reduce the heat emitted by servers. In such systems, water helps dissipate heat outside. In some cases, some water evaporates. Nevertheless, the use of water is not uniform across all data centers and can vary depending on the region, climate, and the cooling system employed.

According to a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report for 2024, the average water consumption in American data centers in 2023 was approximately 0.36 liters of water per kWh of IT energy. This figure represents an average for the entire data center industry.

The more people create images using AI, the more requests the AI receives. A higher number of requests means more intensive server operation. Increased computing power requires more electricity, which leads to higher server temperatures and, consequently, the need for enhanced cooling. In data centers that use water cooling, this can lead to an increase in water consumption. Thus, behind one 80s-style AI photo lies a complex system involving servers, electricity, and cooling systems. Although the exact amount of water used because of this single trend is not yet known, the growth in the number of AI images inevitably leads to an increase in computational and cooling load on data centers.