LuggAgent International is aggressively creating a standardized international luggage delivery and tracking platform by widely applying the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for luggage tracking in cooperation with logistics service providers in different countries, according to CY Lin, co-founder of the Hong Kong-based startup.Lin said since its inception in 2016, LuggAgent has been devoted to building a RFID-assisted luggage delivery and tracking platform to provide travellers a hassle free experience. He said that International Air Transportation Association (IATA) has urged full application of RFID luggage tracking technology at all international airports.Lin continued that with extensive application of RFID tracking technology at airports, each piece of luggage is virtually given an ID card that can get updates from luggage collection at home, customs entry, landing, customs clearance and delivery to hotel.Lin said LuggAgent will continue to develop partnerships with more parties including airlines, airports, banks and OTA (over-the-air) service providers to better serve travellers.The Baggage Report released by the SITA shows that only 5.57 out of every 1,000 air passengers lost luggage in 2017, sharply down 70.5% from 2007 as a result of airport management improvement and application of RFID and other techs.
While tech innovations have kept driving medical innovations, Taiwan can move to build smart medicine ecosystems by applying 5G and AI technologies to promote new-generation telecare and man-machine collaborative diagnosis services, develop precision medicine and new pharmaceuticals, and provide new-generation medical service systems and smart hospital facilities.This is the focus of discussions at the 2018 Smart Medicine Forum recently held in Taipei - the 9th edition of forum jointly organized by Digitimes and National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH). The event attracted more than 600 attendees.A research report released by MarketsandMarkets indicates that business opportunities arising from AI applications to medical services will expand at a CAGR of over 52% in the coming five years to reach US$8 billion.At the forum, Digitimes president Colley Hwang cited statistics as saying that Taiwan now has 490 hospitals, 34,000 sick beds, 22,000 clinic houses, 8,000 pharmacies and 35,000 pharmacists. To build smart medicine ecosystems, Hwang continued, Taiwan can leverage the cloud-based core health insurance databank to connect professional social networks, dedicated databases, local-type data centers, maker bases, hospitals and international medical institutions, so as to create cross-industry AI-based medicine ecosystems integrating personal data, 5G+video, startup alliances, as well as industry and academic sectors.Fast integration of AI, medicineCJ Yu, vice superintendent of NTUH, noted that medicine and AI are actually undergoing fast integration in three specific aspects. First is preventive medicine, utilizing mass human behaviors and data to work out more effective advices on health management. Second is digital medicine, mainly adopting AI to judge image information when applied to improve healthcare procedures. Third is precision medicine, referring to personalized medical services. Yu said that Taiwan's medical industry will see close integration of software and hardware to achieve smart medical services.Quanta Computer chairman Barry Lam also opined that the ultimate goal of AI+ medicine will be to let everybody get high-quality medical care. In recent two years, many countries have been actively proceeding with AI strategic deployments, with Japan, for instance, planning to set up 10 AI-based hospitals by 2022.Lam said that Taiwan's medicine industry has its own advantages, and can build smart hospital architectures based on IoT big data. He disclosed Quanta is cooperating with the National Cheng Kung University Hospital in southern Taiwan to develop a hospital dedicated to serving elderly patients, by providing relevant IoT solutions.At the forum, many Taiwan tech firms have presented diverse AI application solutions for medical services. Advantech, for instance, offers a new software-hardware integrated solution aimed at helping hospitals create a smart patients management platform; Macronix International presents plans to explore business opportunities for memory application to smart medical devices; and WiAdvance Technology focuses on utilizing AI to automate service flows at hospitals.2018 Smart Medicine ForumPhoto: Digitimes, September 2018
What counts most for innovation startups lies not in business models but in how to serve customers, and therefore startups must work hard to find ways to solve problems for customers and build their product and service differentiations, according to Dan Neary, vice president of Asia Pacific at Facebook.Neary made the remarks when speaking at the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) Plus Taipei, running September 26-29 with the theme of "Enabling Social Impact with AI + IoT." This is the first time for GEC to be held in Taiwan.Neary said that in the past, automakers saw main competition pressure coming from other peers, but now Apple and Google have become competitors for GM and Ford, totally beyond the imagination of the auto industry. He added that even the on-demand car services offered by Uber and Lyft are posing a great threat to automakers as many people will no longer buy cars.Based on his observation, Neary noted, there are many companies with low capital expenses, as they do not know how to spend money and make investments. Therefore, he stressed, there is no need for startups to worry about the the sources of funding, and instead they must endeavor to develop solutions to problems, build learning-based organizations, and always know what they themselves and others are doing, if they want to succeed.Silicon Valley hard to be duplicatedAlso speaking at the conference, Jonathan Ortmans, president of Global Entrepreneurship Network, which is helping to run the event, said other countries in the world can hardly succeed in duplicating Silicon Valley, and instead they have to find their own characteristics and positions.Ortmans continued that there exist many uncertainties in the process of establishing startups, and the most crucial factor for their success is not money but supportive networks. He added that startups must keep thinking about what they can do for customers and how to utilize resources in right places.Taiwan's economics minister Shen Jong-chin said that under concerted efforts by the government and private sectors, many global tech giants including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM and Cisco have moved to invest and expand their operations in Taiwan.He disclosed that the government will offer tax incentives and subsidies to encourage more quality international accelerators and startups to station in the planned international startup park in Linkuo, northern Taiwan to further spur the development of cross-domain tech innovations in the country.Dan Neary, vice president of Asia Pacific at FacebookPhoto: Bryan Chuang, Digitimes, September 2018
Following Sesto Robotics' debut at Semicon Taiwan in 2016 and return to the show in 2017, the Singapore-based automated guided vehicle (AGV) and intelligent mobile robot (IMR) developer was again at the premier event of Taiwan's semiconductor and microelectronics manufacturing industries in 2018, showcasing its new S200 with 7-axis Robot Arm IMR that is equipped with the company's newly developed features and innovations.Sesto CEO Michael Leong noted that in addition to the developments of technologies and robot systems, Sesto has also been devoted lots of efforts to the market's operation over the past 12 months. Sesto has been working closely with its clients to implement its IMR solutions into the clients' factories and during the process the company was able to receive many feedbacks from them, helping Sesto to further refine its products.Sesto's S200 with 7-axis Robot Arm IMR is designed for the transportation of semiconductor products especially silicon wafers and compared to the company's IMR showcased at Semicon Taiwan 2017, it features a much smaller size, but more carriage volumes for better efficiency.As for the machine's robotic arm, since Sesto's expertise mainly lies in its automated guiding vehicle controlling (AGVC) system, the company is mainly cooperating with outside partners for the related developments and is spending most of its effort and resources in the development and improvement of the IMR's guiding system and technologies.Sesto has already formed collaborations with several Japan- and Europe-based major robotic arm developers to make the S200 base compatible with their arms. However, Leong said that the default equipment of the S200 with 7-axis Robot Arm is by far the best setup that Sesto has come up with for the semiconductor industry after numerous testing. This is because the robotic arm from the default equipment has a loading capacity that is most suitable for semiconductor manufacturers.Compared to competitors in the robot industry, Leong said that Sesto's advantage is its ability to provide full solutions to customers. For an automation equipment provider, only having the ability to design and craft machines is not sufficient to cope with the industry's fierce competition. The ability to provide a complete set of robotic automation solution is the key to maintain competitiveness and Sesto is not only able to do that with flexibility, the solutions that the company offers also meet demand of Industry 4.0.To make automation equipment that can be easily integrated, chaining up different platform's hardware and software and connecting them up to coordinate with each other is essential and it is an area where Sesto has its niche.The concept of Industry 4.0 is mainly about system of system, meaning that a company needs to have its products link with those from others to form an even bigger system chain. This is a large advancement from the concept of the Industry 3.0 era, when most of the systems are designed to be operated independently.As for Sesto's upcoming plans or new products, Leong said that the company has been making new improvements to its products based on clients' feedbacks and will gradually release new IMRs featuring smarter guiding technologies and capability of handling more tasks.In addition to the semiconductor, Sesto will also begin tapping into new industries in 2019 as the company has already built up many case studies and prepared various of solutions to offer to customers, said Leong, adding that he believes the experience Sesto has learned from the semiconductor industry can also be applied to other manufacturing applications.Commenting on the robot market's status in 2018, Leong said the market is still on the rise and demand for robot products is increasing every year. This trend has to do with increasing demand from consumers worldwide for replacing their IT devices such as smartphones and wearables every year and it has already grown to a scale that requires a large manufacturing workforce to satisfy.With younger-generation workers showing less interest to work in the traditional manual labor production line, upgrading facilities to utilize robots for production has become an alternative way for IT product manufactures to maintain their output.As a result, the robot industry has seen rising demand for robotic devices from the manufacturing industries every year and because the trend is likely to continue, demand for robot products will only grow stronger, providing large business opportunities to players of the industry.As for Sesto's business goal for 2018, expanding the promotions of its IMRs is one of the key directions. For the long-term, Sesto is looking to transform its IMRs to perform more intelligent tasks such as becoming busboys of a restaurant to assist human workers to carry around meals or dirty plates, and help people in daily life.Currently, Sesto's main markets are China and Taiwan, but over the past 12 months, the company has received many inquiries from companies in Europe, Leong noted. However, Sesto will continue placing its attention on serving its clients in China and Taiwan given that a major portion of its products' demand is mainly coming from these markets.Sesto CEO Michael Leong and S200 with 7-axis Robot Arm IMRPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, September 2018
Taiwan Edison Creative Technology has unveiled an LED street lamp independently powered by a PV module, a 1,150W mini wind turbine in combination with a 1,200W energy storage battery.The PV- and wind-powered LED street lamps are designed specifcially for use in remote areas where it is costly and difficult to lay power supply lines along roads.PV modules generate electricity during daytime while mini wind turbines can do so all day. At a power consumption rate of 50W/hour, such a street lamp consumes power of 600W for lighting for 12 hours a day and the energy storage battery, under normal conditions, has enough capacity to supply needed power.There are two choices of controlling lighting time, one is to set fixed length of lighting time, 12 hours for example, and the other is to use photo-sensitive resistors to sense ambient light to switch the light on and off. The former is suitable for populated areas while the latter is normally used in areas with fluctuating sunlight and weather conditions.Such LED street lamps are not connected for automatic monitoring of operating conditions for teh time being and therefore regular maintenence is necessary.Taiwan Edison PV- and wind-power LED street lampPhoto: Company
Switzerland startup WayRay has newly developed the world's first holographic AR (augmented reality) navigation system for cars, allowing drivers to focus on the road and make driving safer while also able to access navigation information.The firm's holographic AR technology utilizes windshield as a projection display to show navigation information just above the dashboard, and drivers can easily get the information without using any special eyewear or headgear. The technology has prompted automakers including Porsche and Hyundai to invest in the company.WayRay just completed its round C US$80 million fundraising program, with investors including Alibaba, China Merchants Capital, JVC Kenwood, and Consortium of Sovereign Wealth Funds, in addition to Porsche and Hyundai.The company intends to use the funds to establish an affiliate with a pilot production line in Germany, diversify its portfolio of applications in different sectors - from AR in transportation to AR smart glass in the smart home business and construction industry - and to expand its R&D team.WayRay plans to make its holographic AR solutions for cars available on the market within three years.
Through attending various commercial activities hosted by the World Information Technology and Services Alliances (WITSA), Taiwan information software and hardware firms can more easily tap global business opportunities, according to Yvonne Chiu, chairperson of both WITSA and the Information Service Industry Association of the ROC (CISA).In an interview conducted in Hanoi, Vietnam by Digitimes, Chiu said WITSA is an organization with global visions, and has a total of 83 member states, with all its activities highly supported by host countries.Chiu called for Taiwan makers of information hardware products, particularly industrial PCs, to join her association first and then actively attend commercial activities organized by WITSA in various countries to directly explore business opportunities though cooperation with integrators of software and hardware systems. At the ASOCIO Smart City Forum 2018 recently held in Hanoi, Chiu had the opportunity to discuss various smart city business opportunities with over 600 representatives from 10 member states, highlighting Taiwan's various smart city application solutions, especially those associated with mass rapid transit systems (MRT).Chiu said that Taiwan's MRT systems, long renowned for their clean in-train space and punctual services, managed to provide 4K live TV broadcast of the 2017 Summer Universiade held in August in Taipei. This can serve as a good reference for various countries in hosting large-size sports events. In addition, the electronic payment and fund transfer systems via MRT EasyCard now under promotion by Taipei City Government, as well as how to address related regulatory and financial issues can also serve as paragon models for other countries.Interest in working with Taiwan in ICT developmentChiu managed to arrange Colley Hwang, president of Digitimes, to give a talk at Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), and had dialogues with MIC's deputy minister and other officials.The Vietnamese officials expressed strong interest in creating opportunities for cooperation with Taiwan in ICT development. Possible cooperation projects include organizing municipal-level smart city forums, cultivation of IC design talent, information exchanges between Taiwan and Vietnam, and inviting Taiwan experts to serve as advisors in the government sector.Chiu also revealed that CISA will organize a delegation to attend a WITSA-hosted global directors meeting to be held in early October in Armenia, adding that she will recommend Taiwan experts to speak at the meeting and discuss business cooperation opportunities.At the moment, the world's leading EDA (electronic design automation) specialist Synopsys has a workforce of some 1,000 engineers in Armenia. Chiu said that if Taiwan can introduce ICT engineers from Armenia, its shortage of ICT talent can be significantly eased.As Synopsys has reportedly sent some talented Armenia engineers to Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University for advanced studies through an industry-academia cooperation mechanism, Chiu urged the government in Taiwan to use the channel to carry out smart city cooperation projects and tech talent exchanges.
Vietnam has a population of near 100 million and there are over 70 million handset and Internet users, providing a good foundation for stable development of the country's information and communications technology (ICT) industry, according to Phan Tam, deputy minister of Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).He was making the remarks during a meeting with Digitimes president Colley Hwang.MIC statistics show that Vietnam's aggregate ICT industry production value amounted to US$91.59 billion in 2017, shooting up 35.3% from US$67.69 billion in 2016, with the growth numbers indicating a booming development of the country's electronics industry. Samsung Electronics' handset production base in Vietnam has been the major source of Vietnam's ICT exports, but the company has just unveiled its plant in India and is also likely to face growing competition. This has prompted Vietnam to show much interest in diversifying industrial production and cultivating tech startups.Vietnam customs statistics also indicate that the country's exports of diverse electronics hardware devices including handsets came to US$81.60 billion in 2017, representing a sharp annual increase of 38%, much higher than the corresponding growth of 11% registered in 2016. Of the total exports, handsets commanded US$45.27 billion, up 13.2% on year; and exports of computers and peripherals soared 36.8% on year to US$26 billion. These electronics products alone had contributed trade surplus of over US$20 billion in 2017.More investments in IC design, 5GPhan Tam is well aware that Vietnam can hardly develop a solid footing in the market should its technologies fail to catch up with international standards. At the moment, Vietnam's electronics industry highly relies on export trade and on contribution by Samsung. And therefore the MIC hopes for more investments in the development of IC design and 5G technologies to enhance industry diversity, and also shows great concerns about whether smart city applications can bring more opportunities for local industries.On another front, MIC estimates total annual production value of Vietnam's software industry at US$3.8 billion for 2017, up 24% from 2016. In terms of ICT applications, 60% of elementary schools and 80% of middle schools have provided computer and online teaching programs; all commercial banks have offered electronic payment services, and 96% of financial transactions can be done online; and mobile banking penetration rate stands at 34.5% while up to 99% of enterprises can pay taxes via electronic channels.Vietnam's information service industry had managed to maintain a high annual export growth of 30-40% during 2013-2017 while also keen to provide business process outsourcing (BPO) services for software programs, with Japan being the largest export outlet and service recipient. Vietnam is now Japan's second largest supplier of information services and also a favorite partner for Japan enterprises. In recent years, Vietnam has been active in developing digital content and gaming industries, with the 2017 production value of the former rising 8% on year to US$800 million and the latter surging 27% to US$370 million.Talent groomingTalent is fundamental to ICT development. Vietnam now has a total of 250 universities and colleges, able to foster over 50,000 ICT personnel per year. The country's ICT sector now has around 900,000 employees, with the number increasing at an annual rate of 7-10%. Statistics show that the starting monthly pay for ICT employees in Vietnam now averages US$288, and their annual incomes average US$7,000.Now in Vietnam, young people command a high portion of its population, and more young people are moving to urban areas, providing a major advantage for ICT development in the country. Vietnam will not rule out ICT talent exchanges with foreign countries, so as to allow its new generation to experience the latest tech and industry developments.Phan Tam pointed out that along with stable economic development in Vietnam, many business sectors have produced many successful private enterprises. But this is not the case with the ICT sector, which has not seen many successful private firms, with the exception of FPT and telecom operators. Vietnam holds Taiwan's ICT industry in high regard, and is willing to learn from Taiwan about how to inspire the private sector to foray into the ICT industry.Phan Tam, Vietnam's deputy minister of information and communicationsPhoto: Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications
HP Enterprise (HPE) has recently been said to have recommended its partners adopt its server products using AMD's platforms to avoid the impact of Intel processor shortages. But Digitimes sources from the upstream supply chain have indicated that no other server players have seen issues with supply of Intel's server processors.HPE's reported message to its partners could be an indication of its strategy change.According to IDC's latest server shipment figures for the second quarter of 2018, Dell surpassed HP to become the largest server brand worldwide with a market share of 19.5% and an on-year shipment growth of 16.6%. Third-placed Lenovo also saw an impressive 53.9% on-year growth in its second-quarter shipments. However, among the major server players, HPE was the only one with an on-year shipment drop of 12.4%, with its market share slipping from over 20% previously to only 15.1% in the quarter.HPE had partnered with Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) to cross into the cloud computing datacenter server market, looking to offset the losses of orders from clients turning to use public cloud systems. But the two firms still parted ways after three years of cooperation without significant results. HPE has since been working alone in the cloud server market, but such a market is becoming competitive because of the arrival of many ODMs.HPE has changed its focus to supplying solutions and services to second-tier cloud computing service providers. But with growing competition from several Taiwan-based ODMs, HPE, which has never been good at pricing competition, is likely to experience pressure.But HPE has also been adjusting its server business direction: Instead of pushing shipment growths, the company is now more focused on creating added values to its server products to enhance its competitiveness. This partly explains why HPE's shipments dropped on year in second-quarter 2018.Intel is currently the largest server CPU suppliers with a 95% market share. With such dominance, the CPU giant may adjust its supply priority to its partners according to their sales volumes, rather than the added value of their products offer.It remains to be seen whether HPE's weakening performance has indeed resulted in the reported issues with supply of Intel CPUs.But there have been attempts by others to break Intel's dominance, such as Qualcomm, AMD and IBM. HPE has recently partnered with the US Department of Energy to develop a new super computer, the Astra using Arm-based processors. And HPE's recommendation of AMD-based servers could very well be in line with such attempts.
The ASEAN market sees fast growth in e-commerce, with total transaction value increasing by about 20% annually, according to ASOCIO (Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization) chairman David Wong Nan Fay.Wong, who is also founder and CEO of Malaysia-based logistics service provider SnT Global, was speaking to Digitimes on the sidelines of the ASOCIO Smart City Summit 2018 that took place in Hanoi, Vietnam, during September 18-19.The e-commerce transaction value in ASEAN takes up about 10% of its total retail and wholesale market currently, and the proportion will keep rising to 30% eventually, Wong said.Wong noted that chain convenience stores function as places for e-commerce customers to collect purchased items in Taiwan.He said this is a delivery model very suitable for densely populated cities in ASEAN, and SnT Global is setting up networks of delivery spots as part of its logistics services for e-commerce operators in the ASEAN market.In the Malaysia market, SnT Global has set up about 2,000 delivery spots and plans to expand the network to 10,000 in two years, Wong said, adding that the goal is to ship the goods within three hours of receiving orders.The Malaysia government in 2017 decided to develop a Digital Free Trade Zone in Kuala Lumpur through cooperation with China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, in a bid to help Malaysia-based small- to medium-size enterprises export products via e-commerce, Wong said.David Wong Nan Fay, ASOCIO chairman and CEO of SnT Global Photo: Digitimes staff
