Noah Lyles won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics when he was determined to beat Kishane Thompson by 5/1,000 of a second through Omega technology.
In the final of the men's 100m race on the evening of August 4, Lyles leaned over to the finish line with a time of 9.784 seconds, slightly better than Thompson (9.789 seconds). Lyles also thought he had lost and went to congratulate his opponent. However, the result later surprised many people, when the difference between the two athletes was 0.005 seconds. For comparison, an average human blink takes 0.1 seconds, which means the above time is 20 times faster than blinking.
The millisecond-accuracy is thanks to Omega technology - the company that is currently acting as the "Timekeeper" for the Olympics. Among the more than 350 tons of modern equipment that the company brought to the 2024 Paris Olympics, in addition to the Quantum Timer quantum timing system with an accuracy of 1/1,000,000, there is also a camera that appears for the first time at an Olympic Games: Scan'O'Vision Ultimate.
Scan'O'Vision Ultimate is Omega's latest finishing line camera system with the ability to capture 40,000 digital images per second, then send them to the computer to the experts in the Computer Vision room. Here, AI will classify and accurately determine the winner, with an error of only milliseconds. In other words, this method is almost error-free in determining the winner of the race.
Omega first introduced the Scan'O'Vision finish-line camera technology in 1992 and has since improved its image quality and processing speed. In the 2010s, the company introduced the Scan'O'Vision Myria system, which can capture 10,000 digital images per second, as well as increased frame rates and resolution. This year, the Ultimate replaced the Myria.
In terms of operating principle, Scan'O'Vision works by taking a series of continuous narrow vertical image slices at the finish line, instead of taking pictures in the conventional way. This specialized camera is positioned precisely at the finish line and records thousands of images per second as the athletes cross.
The Scan'O'Vision structure is also different from a normal camera, as the sensor consists of only a single pixel column, continuously scanning the finish line, creating a composite image over time. This technique allows for extremely precise timing, as each slice represents a specific moment. The resulting image continuously focuses on the finishing athletes, scanned based on the speed at which they crossed the finish line.
The system also integrates a highly accurate time measurement function, often accurate to ±0.1 parts per million, and each image slice is precisely time-stamped. The combination of high-speed photography and precise timing allows the operator in the computer room to determine the finishing order of each athlete with exceptional accuracy, often to 1/1,000 of a second or even better.
In addition to athletics, Scan'O'Vision is also applied to other sports such as horse racing, cycling, and speed skating. Not only can the system capture image in well-lit places, but it also provides high-precision images at night or in low-light places.
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