The Queen’s Baton for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is a delicate mix of aesthetics and technology with an in-built location tracking system and a camera capable of sending images to the Games website.
Built with aluminium and gold, this piece of art has Queen Elizabeth’s message engraved on a miniature 18-carat gold leaf that is symbolic of the ancient Indian palm leaf patras using laser technology.
Designed by Michael Foley of Foley design along with Titan Industries and Bharat Electronics, it will have an embedded system to receive SMSes sent by enthusiasts from across the world.
These SMSes can be viewed when baton is docked on its special stands or on the website of the Commonwealth Games.
“A team of highly skilled people from our factory have worked relentlessly for over two weeks to craft this masterpiece. Getting the casing of the baton perfect to house all the embedded technology was one of the biggest challenges.
The success of this creation lies in the integration between design, manufacturing and technology,” Revathi Kant, head of design at Titan said.
The torch, which will cover about two lakh kilometres across the world in its 340-day journey through air, sea and land, will remain connected with the headquarters through a GPRS system.
The visuals around the runner will be captured using a miniature camera, which will keep updating on the Games website on a real-time basis.
The starting ceremony of the Queen’s Baton Relay will take place on Thursday where Queen Elizabeth will hand it to President Pratibha Patil. The Baton Relay will be led by Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra.
After travelling to different member countries of the Commonwealth, the baton will enter India through Wagah Border along Pakistan, 100 days before the start of the Games.
It will then be taken to all State capitals of the country before reaching the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi for the opening ceremony of the Games on October 3, 2010.
Soil from different nation countries is set in channels on the surface of baton. “The soil has been coated to achieve a smooth lustre surface,” Kant said.
The baton, which is made from environment-friendly lead free material, has been made sturdy enough to bear rough weather.
