CANBERRA, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Cycling fans will from this year be able to track their favorite Tour de France riders, after Australian scientists developed a revolutionary 3D interactive map of the grueling event's course.
Fans will be able to interact with the Doarama maps, developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), and experience every hill climb and sprint, while "virtually" taking in the surrounding landscapes that spread across France.
The CSIRO's Data61 Software Engineer and head of Doarama, Pete Field said the revolutionary 3D maps were changing how the average fan experiences endurance events, which are traditionally restricted in the amount of TV coverage they receive.
"Until now we've 'made do' with a 2D overhead map and a separate terrain profile," Field said in a statement released on Thursday.
"3D fly-through maps were only available to large media broadcasters, and even then, these maps were limited to a single point-of-view, and only made available for the largest races."
"With Doarama, sport routes can be made available online, and it is completely interactive."
Field said fans could change the perspective of the maps, while they could also skip ahead of the pack to preview the terrain up ahead.
"The viewer can move around inside the 3D world while the route is laid out before them," he said.
Field said the maps would one day be used in a variety of different sports, with an expectation the Doarama maps would be used at the upcoming Rio Olympics.
"We're expanding into more sports including base-jumping competitions and we're excited to see the new ways people use Doarama," he said.
Doarama can be accessed by mobile devices as well as on desktop computers, and gives sport enthusiasts "the opportunity to experience the walk, run, hike, cycle or ski route, using its GPS route visualizations".
SOCHI Nike Air Max 97 Ultra '17 UK , Russia, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday called the ongoing 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing "unprecedentedly open" and said Russia has "great cooperation plans" with China.
"We are very closely following the CPC congress, which is unprecedentedly open. We see difficulties as well as possibilities," he said at a meeting of the Russian think tank Valdai Discussion Club here.
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Junker made the remarks to Members of the European Parliament gathered here for their first plenary session after the summer break.
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Laying out the details of a so-called "Scenario #6," or a European Commission White Paper published in March 2016 which outlined five possible scenarios for the future of the European Union, Juncker turned down what has been called a "multi-speed Europe." He argued for greater integration in nearly all areas of European functioning.
Juncker refused calls, popularized by French President Emmanuel Macron when he was campaigning in 2016, to set up a separate parliament for countries using the common currency. "There is only one parliament for the Euro area: this one," he told the MEPs.
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