Face Recognition System for the Olympics

It was announced that a face recognition system will be used at Tokyo 2020 Olympics. It is the first in the history of the Olympics.

The vendor which will provide the system is NEC, which is a Tokyo 2020 Gold Partner.

The system will be used for athletes, officials, staff, volunteers and media which are over 300,000 people, at over 40 venues.
It will not be used for spectators.

It connects an ID card with an IC chip and a face image taken and registered in advance.

(https://dentsu-ho.com)

It is said that people can enter 2.5 times faster, compared with visual confirmation by staff.
But, because it's the first attempt and used for over 300,000 people at over 40 venues at the same time, I anticipate that the system sometimes can't recognize properly, then some people can't enter a venue. Such a scene might be often found here and there.

I wonder if any measures which should be taken in case of a system error has been considered.

Olympic Competition Schedule

The TOCOG has announced the competition schedule.

I heard that sports in which Japan has possibility to get medals are spread evenly from start to finish, which means Japanese people can see Japanese athletes win medals almost everyday.

Here it's the schedule;
https://tokyo2020.org/en/games/sport/olympic-schedule

Directors for the ceremonies have decided.

It has been decided that Mansai Nomura will stage and oversee the entire opening and closing ceremonies of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, and the press conference was held yesterday.

His title is "the Chief Executive Creative Director." Too long.

Mansai Nomura is a major Kyogen actor. Kyogen is one of the Japanese old traditional theaters, like Kabuki.

I can say that most of Japanese people have never seen Kyogen, but Mansai Nomura is very famous because he has also appeared in popular movies and TV dramas.

He commented in the press conference that he wants to make the ceremonies be simple and full of Japanese spirit.

The theme is "Requiescat and Recovery."

According to Nomura, it refers not only the Aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami but the 2nd World War, because, in August when the Olympics Games will be held, there are the two atomic-bomb days (Hiroshima 6th, Nagasaki 9th) and the war-end anniversary (15th).

Left: Takashi Yamazaki, a movie director, responsible for the ceremonies of Olympics

Center: Mansai Nomura

Right: Hiroshi Sasaki, a Creative Director, responsible for the ceremonies of Paralympics

(frm: https://tokyo2020.org)

Somehow I have a pretty high expectation for the ceremonies!

And, I was relieved to know that Yasushi Akimoto won't be involved in the ceremonies.

My article about it; Terrible assignment - Yasushi Akimoto