Japanese athletes to wear new fabric uniforms for 2024 Paris Olympics
TapTechNews June 27th news, according to the French newspaper Le Monde, at the upcoming 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, athletes from Japan's volleyball, track and field teams will be wearing a competition uniform made of a new type of fabric which has better ability to absorb infrared rays, the principle is similar to that of a stealth plane that avoids being detected by deflecting radar signals.
TapTechNews has noticed that in recent years, some devices have inadvertently exposed the application of infrared sensing technology. For example, certain night vision devices and thermal imagers can see through clothing, and the Photochrom filter of the OnePlus 8Pro phone can also penetrate the casing of the Apple TV like an X-ray. When used on the human body, infrared photography can reveal the body contours of athletes or the underwear they are wearing when dressed in thin clothing.
According to the Japan Times, as early as 2020, after some Japanese athletes found on social media that the photos taken by infrared cameras of them were accompanied by sexually suggestive text descriptions, they complained to the Japanese Olympic Committee. Since then, Mizuno, Sumitomo Metal Mining and Kyodo Printing Co., Ltd. have jointly developed a new type of fabric, which not only has sufficient ductility to be used for sportswear but also protects the privacy of athletes.
Mizuno's shared experiment shows that when a competition uniform fabric with the black letter C printed on it is covered with a layer of new infrared absorption fabric and photographed with an infrared camera, the letter is almost completely invisible. Although multiple layers of this new light-absorbing fabric will bring better protection, considering the possible extremely hot weather in the upcoming Paris Olympics, athletes have also expressed concerns about wearing the sweltering uniform, so the competition uniform needs to strike a balance between anti-peeping function and keeping the contestants cool and comfortable.