Hi-tech Adds Glamour to World Expo

Cement, telephones, camera film, steam engines, and electric motors. A slew of innovative new inventions have been displayed at World Expos since the fair’s inception in 1851. It has always been a showcase for the envelope-pushers in science and technology. This year’s Shanghai World Expo, which opens on May 1, 2010, will have plenty of the next generation of gadgets to impress and amaze.

Security in the Chips

Technology is a major part of the Expo even down to its hi-tech entry tickets, which are each embedded with a tiny RFID chip. This adds a certain security factor for the bearer, as these domestically developed Radio Frequency Identification chips can be tracked. Visitors to the Expo will have their passes read by receivers from a range of 10 cm, sanctioning immediate entry. Unlike a simple bar code, an RFID chip can store a file of information and employ sophisticated advanced encryption algorithms to thwart counterfeiters or any attempts to intercept chip information in transmission. Through sensors installed across the World Expo Park, the ticket provides its holder access to a variety of services, like a tour guide right in your cell phone. Another benefit to the chips is that they enable organizers to monitor the flow of visitors and locate any one of them when necessary.

All vehicles and their drivers in the World Expo Park will be required to carry these RFID, which can be read from as far away as 25 meters and at speeds of up to 180 km per hour. Any breach of traffic regulations on the premises can be caught and recorded digitally. Errant drivers will be automatically blacklisted, and barred from entering the park again.

Security for any event is a primary concern, but at an event like this it becomes part of the show. Chinese engineers havecreated a device to monitor the safety of the park’s drinking water supply. It works by analyzing the intensity of light emitted by luminescent bacteria in a water sample. The method is more cost effective and efficient than conventional laboratory testing. The reagent (Vibrio qinghaiensis), a luminescent bacterium found in the Qinghai Lake, is the only non-poisonous variant among the 18 shimmering bacteria species found in the freshwater so far. It is dried and frozen at temperatures below -10℃ for storage, and is ready for use in testing after being soaked for a few minutes in a specially prepared solution.

Low-carbon Buildings

One of the major themes running through the Shanghai World Expo is environmentalism. The event has proven to be a prime venue to demonstrate mankind’s resolve to minimize our carbon footprint. Many of the national pavilions in the park offer inspiring examples of how to achieve a fine balance between environment friendliness and artistic merit. The Spanish Pavilion, for instance, is a steel structure wrapped in wicker mats of varied hues and patterns. The Swiss Pavilion features an exterior curtain made of soybean fibers and dye-sensitized solar cells that can generate electricity by gleaning energy around it from renewable sources, such as sunlight or wind. Its soybean fiber skin will decompose naturally and safelyjust two weeks after being buried.

The majestic Expo Axis is the largest single construction in the park, and serves as its central walkway. It symbolizes a harmonious bridge between nature, mankind and technology. The six Sun Valleys that line the way take the form of canopies resembling the shelters that the early human beings constructed after moving out from the caves. The giant cable-membrane structures imposed extreme technical challenges to their builders: with more than 50,000 poles intersecting each other at over 10,000 points, any misconnections even as minor as 0.03 mm would lead to complete failure. After mulling over 20,000-plus blueprints and plowing through repeated defeats over six months, the Chinese engineers and workers eventually erected the six tents the way they were designed to stand. Seen from above, the six translucent white swaths of fabric with tilted tips spread out in a line under the blue sky, resembling waves in an ocean. A permanent construction in the park, the Axis will later be transformed into a transportation depot and commercial district after the World Expo.

The Axis is the only super-large structure in the world to use both ground source heat pumps (GSHP) and river-water sources to control the area’s temperature. Water from the nearby river, whose temperature is lower than the earth’s surface in summer, is piped into the Axis area to cool it down, and then flumed back to the river. The ground source heat pump stores heat in summer and releases heat in winter. The two systems will provide heating and cooling for the region in a system that is 100 percent emission-free.

A Virtual Visit

During the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan a member of the press posed the question to the Expo organizers of what one might do if they were unable to physically visit the world expo in person. The answer becomes simple now in Shanghai: “You will be able to attend the event via your mobile phone.”

Through a fun software application, people will be able to virtually tour around the World Expo almost in real time. This program will transmit photos of the activities and pavilions at the Expo to their handsets anytime they feel the need to check in. The World Expo Park will be shot from all angles, then stitched together seamlessly to create a sort of three-dimensional landscape, and sent smoothly via a TD (Temporal-difference) network. Visitors to the virtual space can wander through the park, look around and even encounter park staff along the way.

The entire park area, both indoors and out, as well as the adjacent Huangpu River are covered by the 3G network, and what’s more, the world’s first TD-LTE (Long Term Evolution) network. In October 2009 China’s homegrown TD-LTE-advanced technology was listed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a candidate for the global standard for 4G wireless communications.

The TD-LTE network will offer free WIFI coverage to the World Expo attendees. Its high velocity and stability allows users to browse high-definition images on-line anywhere they roam. Its transmission speeds can reach up to 100 Mbps for downloads and 50 Mbps for uploads, roughly 30 times that of the current 3G networks in use like CDMA-2000, WCDMA and TD-SCDMA.

Amazing Firsts

Also to be unveiled at the World Expo is the world’s first laser-based portable projector the Laseno SMP, developed by a Shanghai-based company. The size of a mobile phone and weighing merely 160 grams with ample onboard memory, it is compatible with an array of input-devices including mobile phones, Ipods, mp4s, PDAs (personal digital assistant), laptops, PSPs (play station portable) or a standard flash drive. The gadget supports almost all formats, including Office documents, PDFs, photos and videos. It is focus-free, and can project on surfaces of materials as varied as the walls of an elevator, the back of an auto chair, a dining table or a white shirt, and in projections ranging from 15 to 100 inches. The Laseno SMP is anticipated to herald an era of personal portable projectors.

These intriguing gizmos, among many others to be released during the Shanghai World Expo, are celebrations of mankind’s ability and creativity. Science and technology have always been the driving force behind the advances in human civilization, and when used wisely, hold the key to our goal of building better cities, better lives, and eventually a better world for us all.