UnlimiterHear, a Taiwan-based hearing technology specialist, has teamed up with Airoha Technology to develop Bluetooth chips for hearing aids.Airhoa, a subsidiary of MediaTek and the largest supplier of solutions using True Wireless Stereo (TWS) technology, wanted to enter the Bluetooth hearing aid market more than three years ago, only to realize that it faced a high entry bar without the necessary expertise, according to company CEO and president David Chang.Airoha has now decided to form a partnership with UnlimiterHear to jointly develop the chips, he said. Many first-tier earphone brands are clients of Airoha.UnlimiterHear has been devoted to developing technologies for hearing protection and enhancement for over 10 years, and currently owns 171 audio-related technological patents.UnlimiterHear chairman Kuo Ping Yang pointed out that Apple and Samsung Electronics have also been developing technologies in the field, showing the potential of the hearing healthcare market amid.Figure from World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015 showed that the world had around 1.1 billion young people facing the risk of hearing impairment by unsafely using smartphones and earphones.Most of UnlimiterHear competitors' technologies only allow manual adjustments on the sound volume. In addition to protecting users' hearing, the companies are also keen to avoid any possible dispute arising from misuse.But UnlimiterHear's in-house developed smart algorithm features ability to comprehensively detect sound level and dynamically adjust the output volume for each piece of music to ensure users are listening to the music within a safe sound range.According to NIOSH's standard, users are able to enjoy up to eight hours of listening activities with a sound level of 85dB, but with a sound level of 103dB, the maximum usage time is cut sharply to only seven minutes and 30 seconds. Beyond the time limit users will start to suffer hearing impairment.The hearing safety level is determined by the sound strengthen (loudness), continuity (length of the sound) and frequency (occurred often or not). The three factors are related to each other, forming the level of the overall sound volume, according to UnlimiterHear.Yang, who also has an expertise in the acoustic technology, explained that the total sound volume that a person can accept safely is unchangeable. The energy generated from a long-term low-volume sound and the one from a short-term high-volume sound are the same.Yang noted that hearing impairment is irreversible and will eventually affect a person's understanding of speech and life quality.Yang revealed that UnlimiterHear's technology of dynamic hearing protection can be embedded into a smartphone or Bluetooth chip.The company has also signed agreements with Bluetooth chip and medical healthcare platform developers to integrate its 171 IPs, including Hearing Test, EarSafe, EarEQ, EarClarity and Ubiquitous Hearing, into their chips. Related products and services are expected to become available in the market shortly, it said.For hearing protection, limiting the sound volume at a fixed level, adopting noise reduction functionality and using sound volume warning are three types of solutions that earphone and smartphone brands usually adopt.However, none of these solutions are capable of providing dynamic management of overall sound energy and hearing volume levels that have critical impacts on hearing safety. UnlimiterHear's core technologies not only are able to create personalized and smart hearing protection, they can also be integrated with big data for further management, said Chang.During a recent Internet of Things (IoT) summit, a China-based medical healthcare platform demonstrated a smart Bluetooth earphone with hearing protection functionalities that use technologies from UnlimiterHear. An executive from the platform noted that the smart Bluetooth earphone is able to track usage time, signal energy and hearing volumes and can real-time respond with dynamic sound level adjustments and visual information to prompt users to change their listening behaviors in order to help them continue enjoying their music without noticing any dramatic volume reduction, while still under protection, according to UnlimiterHear.Airoha CEO David Chang (left) and UnlimiterHear chairman Kuo Ping Yang (right)Photo: Digitimes, December 2018

Taiwan government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute's (ITRI) Service Systems Technology Center (SSTC) has developed a cold chain logistics solution based on sharing of cold chain logistics resources.Supermarket operators face two major problems while establishing cold chain logistics systems: huge cost for freezing warehouses and low-temperature trucks; and maintainig quality of all fresh food because optimal temperatures vary from product to product, SSTC said.To solve the problems, SSTC has set up a service platform to integrate cold chain logistics resources for sharing through collecting information on available freezing warehousing units and low-temperature trucks. The platform then matches the supply with demand for cold chain logistics services to reach efficient sharing of cold chain logistics resources, SSTC indicated.Such a sharing-based solution is operated on a cooperative basis, with four local fresh food store chains and 14 operators of cold chain logistics services having participated in the program, SSTC said. The solution has resulted in 25% decrease in overall cost for cold chain logistics services, SSTC noted.

The government of Keelung has been keen on proceeding with smart city development in recent years, aiming to turn the harbor city in northern Taiwan into a people-serving city from the past cargo-serving one in the context of industrial upgrades and transformations, according to mayor Lin Yu-chang.In a recent interview conducted by Digitimes, Lin stressed that smart city development should not be restricted by administrative boundaries, and instead should cover the whole northern Taiwan with a population of 10 million including residents in four northern cities - Taipei, New Taipei, Keelung and Taoyuan.Northern Taiwan boasts an expansive tech industry corridor covering Hsinchu Science Park, Taoyuan Aerotropolis special area, as well as Taipei's Beitou-Shihlin Technology Park, Neihu Technology Park and Nangang Software Park, which can combine with Keelung River valley corridor to form a global smart innovation ecosphere, according to Lin.Lin pointed out that the community formed by the four northern cities has become Taiwan's cash flow, people flow and logistics centers, with Taoyuan as the western gateway and Keelung as the eastern one.Mega city with 10 million residentsThe belt-type tech industry corridor spanning the northern cities together are like a mega city with a population of 10 million. In this regard, all must seriously mull how to effectively integrate productivity in the mega city, Lin continued, indicating that the Keelung Harbor and industry-use land parcels along the Keelung river valley can combine to to attract innovation and high-value industries to station in the harbor, and the enclave of the harbor area can be utilized to create new economic momentum for northern Taiwan.Lin stressed that positioned as the gateway of northern Taiwan but with a population of only 370,000, Keelung cannot attract industries to station in without sound infrastructures. To enhance the attraction and competitiveness of Keelung, the city government will map out a comprehensive city and harbor renewal project based on the architecture of the whole northern Taiwan.With Keelung 93% covered by hills, the development of the Keelung harbor has been restrained by limited hinterland available. To maximize the economic benefits of the harbor city, the government will build a third cruise center and innovation industrial complex at the old sites of container yards and military harbor in the eastern coast after their relocation to the western coast, so as to attract high-end talent and enhance the competitiveness of the city through building sea-friendly environments.Lin emphasized that industrial upgrades driven by smart applications may bring a turnaround opportunity for Keelung, the development of which has stayed stagnant for a long time. He said that his government is seriously mulling what industries could be best developed in the planned industrial complex in the eastern coast.Smart applicationsIn terms of smart applications, the Keelung government has readied a pilot area for the development of a smart fishing port, Lin disclosed, adding that LED streetlamps installed in the area can serve as micro weather stations, conduct security control, and accurately detect the locations of returning and departing fishing vessels, while also saving power consumption by 65% compared to mercury lamps.In addition, the local government is also actively promoting smart bus stops to provide dynamic bus service information by utilizing LPWAN (low-power wide-area network) wireless communication system, with the power generated by hand dynamos. The smart bus stops will be first deployed at the Maling recreational farming area.Moreover, the city government is also planning a public transportation system dedicated to autonomous electric vehicles, Lin revealed, adding that the system, spanning 2.86 kilometers, will first connect the east and west coasts and may be extended, if needed, to connect all scenic spots and local districts of the city to help upgrade local commuting, tourist and commercial services.As to smart education, the city government has installed education-use computers and 55-inch projectors in all the classrooms at all the 56 elementary and junior high schools in the city, and one smart classroom will be set up at each school by the end of 2018, equipped with video conferencing equipment, 3D printers, touchscreen TVs, and Chromebooks. Keelung mayor Lin Yu-changPhoto: Michael Lee, Digitimes, November 2018

Taiwan startup iStaging, a developer of AR and VR technologies, is devoted to developing VR content generation software, utilizing AI to turn 2D patterns into 3D ones and upgrade image auto stitching process, so as to help lower the threshold for the user-generated VR content, according to the firm's chief operating officer YW Fang.Fang said that her company is promoting sales of the software to enterprise users, especially real estate brokerage houses, helping them break the barrier of communications with clients on space issues through VR technologies.Fang said that users can use smartphones, fisheye lenses and gyroscope to upload images to the cloud, and VR video content will be automatically generated in the cloud, significantly lowering the entry threshold for content generation and reducing related costs.Fang continued that the VR content generated with the assistance of AI-based software can reach a high accuracy rate of 98%, which can meet the requirement by most businesses excluding medical care application.Fang said her company chooses not to focus on content production but on developing software technologies for accelerating content generation, mainly to step up the application and popularity of VR technologies to industries.

IP surveillance solution provider PiXORD has used fish-eye network cameras in combination with correction ICs and AI-based image recognition technology to monitor traffic flows in Hsinchu City, northern Taiwan, according to the company.While vehicle detectors and CCTVs are unable to monitor and count vehicles turning at intersections of roads, fish-eye network cameras are capable of 360-degree monitoring of traffic, PiXORD said. Correction IC developed by affiliated Avision Technology decodes video recorded by fish-eye network cameras to reduce burden of computing on PCs, allowing a control center to simultaneously monitor video of traffic flows recorded by hundreds of fish-eye network cameras, PiXORD noted. Through AI-based image recognition, sizes, models, license plates, running directions of cars can be recognized, PiXORD indicated. PiXORD has installed fish-eye network cameras at about 400 road intersections in the city.Data collected by fish-eye cameras can be used to identify road intersections where traffic jams are easy to happen, analyze the causes, and then traffic lights are adjusted to reduce traffic congestion, PiXORD said.Such data can be combined with data collected from CCTVs, vehicle detectors and eTag as well as handset signaling to build traffic flow parameters, PiXORD noted. Then, intersections of roads are graded in terms of traffic importance based on these parameters and traffic lights are comprehensively regulated based on AI to reach the most smooth traffic flows and minimize traffic congestion, PiXORD indicated.In addition, PiXORD has cooperated with Leotek, a LED street lighting business group under EMS provider Lite-On Technology, to install fish-eye network cameras at street lamps in the city for security surveillance and monitoring of pedestrian and vehicular flows.360-degree monotoring of traffic flows by a fish-eye network camera at an intersection Photo: PiXORD

IoT startups must first manage to enter good ecosystems to find partners that can best help them with fast growth, no matter what directions they will follow in developing innovations, according to CY Huang, director of National Chiao Tung University (NCTU)'s Center of Industry Accelerator and Patent Strategy.Huang said that after finding good partners, IoT startups have to demonstrate their core competitiveness, which can be visible or invisible resources. They should then develop innovative products based on feasible business models, and identify potential customer groups that can support market expandability for their products. Finally, startup creators have to set up strong teams with visions and capabilities for international deployments.Huang cited a report from Harvard Business School as indicating that about 75% of venture-backed startups have failed in the US. But this is not a difficult issue to address, depending on whether startup developers can locate their weakness (for example, Taiwan teams usually are not good at boosting value chains) and do something to strengthen it, Huang continued.Statistics show that global venture capital investments amounted to a 10-year high of US$155 billion in 2017, but the investment funds were highly concentrated in the US and China.Apparently, Huang said, Taiwan is not among target investment destinations for global venture capitalists, but chances still exist for startups in the country to win investments from worldwide venture capital firms if they can utilize Taiwan's existing industry advantages and find niche points from the current market trends.Along with the emergence of edge computing and fog computing, global demand for information technology products has again returned to IT hardware, requiring the support of strong terminal production capability. With robust prowess in both wafer foundry and IC design services, Huang commented, Taiwan will have a chance of playing a crucial role in the new era.But he reminded startup teams to consider product designs from the market side instead of the technology side, or they will fail to build long-term competitiveness.CY Huang, director of NCTU's Center of Industry Accelerator and Patent StrategyPhoto: NCTU

IBM is ready for the advent of the Bank 4.0 era by providing banks with system integration and solutions to help them further accelerate banking automation to better offer mobile banking services, according to Hong Wu, associate partner of Global Business Services at IBM Taiwan.Brett King introduced the new banking idea in his book, "Bank 4.0: Banking Everywhere, Never at a Bank."In elaborating on banking evolutions, Wu said that the Internet helped Bank 1.0 advance to 2.0, which has progressed further to 3.0 through the popularity of smartphones, with people getting used to handling financial operations through handsets.Now Bank 3.0 is advancing to 4.0, not driven by the emergence of new inventions but by many mature and advanced new techs including VR (virtual reality), AI (artificial intelligence) and voice recognition that can be combined to create many embedded mobile banking service solutions, according to Wu.In the Bank 4.0 era, time is the key, Wu commented, adding that banks must change their past thinking modes and first focus more on "client experiences" by offering services from the perspectives of clients. Then, future banking values will be co-created by banks and clients, and finally banks have to cooperate with tech firms to bring new operating methods. Banks will be increasingly like tech firms and require the assistance of tech firms to accelerate their business transformation, Wu continued.Wu revealed that IBM has entered cooperation with banks to accelerate their business upgrades and transformation. DBS Bank, for instance, has integrated robotic processing automation (RPA) service and AI under the assistance of IBM, significantly reducing manual operations and accelerating service flow to satisfy client demand for instant services. In addition, IBM has also assisted the bank in fighting financial crimes with backend monitoring automation while also helping cut 25,000 hours of labor force at the bank per year.Moreover, IBM has also helped Westpac Banking in Australia carry out the "Journey to Cloud" program, relocating more than 100 application systems to the hybrid cloud platform and drastically boosting the bank's system development pace by 10-fold, according to Wu.

Qisda-BenQ Group has been actively developing medical care business in Taiwan and China and will extend its efforts to Southeast Asia, according to Harry Yang, vice president for Qisda's Medical Devices Products Group.Qisda was established in 1984 and spun off its brand BenQ into a subsidiary to become an ODM/OEM in 2007.The development of medical care business consists of four areas, Yang told Digitimes in a recent interview: Medical care services, medical cosmetic products, smart medical solutions, and medical equipment and materials.The group set up a hospital in Nanjing, China, in 2007 and another in Suzhou, also in China in 2013. It has also set a subsidiary engaged in marketing hearing aids.BenQ Materials, a polarizer subsidiary, produces Miacare contact lenses, DermaAngel skin care gel and AnsCare wound care and hemostatic products.BenQ has developed MiBot, a smart robot to convey medical devices and materials, and FitHRight, a monitoring system based on smart wearable devices and cloud computing management for use in group fitness activities.BenQ produces medical displays; BenQ Dialysis Technology has begun production of hemodialyzers; BenQ Medical Technology develops iQOR, a smart solution for use in operating rooms; AB DentCare (joint venture with Israel-based AB Dental Devices) produces dental implants; Lily Medical produces diagnostic ultrasound scanners.Qisda has set up a production line with annual capacity of 2.2 million hemodialyzers. Viewing that there are about 80,000 hemodialysis patients in Taiwan, the group acquired K2 International Medical in 2018 for marketing of hemodialyzers.In particular, iQOR integrates surgical tables, lamps and other surgical equipment and allows members of a surgical team to know real-time information on patients including images transferred via PACS (picture archiving and communication system). More than 100 sets of iQOR have been adopted by hospitals in China.The group aims at revenues of NT$30 billion (US$971 million) for medical care business in 2020, four times the level in 2018, through keeping acquiring startup businesses, Yang noted. In 2019, the group plans to acquire 3-5 startups, Yang said.Targets of acquisition are startups that have brought prototypes into volume production and such acquisitions will allow Qisda to quickly increase output. This is because certification for medical devices takes 2-3 years and the group prefers to invest more in start-up businesses with feasible products and business models rather than wait for obtaining certification, Yang explained. Start-up businesses, before certification process or volume production, had better have their products in trail use through cooperation with hospitals or makers to test market response, Yang indicated.Harry Yang, vice president for Qisda's Medical Devices Products GroupPhoto: Mark Tsai, Digitimes, November 2018

Da-Yeh University in central Taiwan has developed a smart control technology that can automatically adjust 3D printing parameters in accordance with temperature changes in external environment, and adjust printing speed.The technology is among 70 R&D achievements accomplished under an academia-industry collaboration project supported by Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology.YW Chen, dean of Da-Yeh's College of Engineering, said that as temperature and speed are the two crucial parameters affecting 3D printing quality, his R&D team has joined forces with the Plastics Industry Development Center (PIDC) to work out the smart control system to improve 3D printing performance.Chen said that sensors are utilized to detect temperature and humidity changes in external environments and then the detection results are incorporated into the printing command language to automatically adjust the speed ratio, enabling control of printing speed changes.

Asus Life, a subsidiary of Asustek Computer, willl cooperate with Taipei's city-run hospitals to offer a smart medical care solution to jointly take care of old people suffering dementia.The city government has designated seven of its hospitals as sites where enterprises or organizations can experiment their smart medical care solutions on a cooperative basis. Asus Life will work with one of the hospitals according to Jerry Hsu, general manager of the company's Medical IoT Product Business.Asus Life's smart medical care solution mainly consists of OmniCare, PhenoFinder, Zenbo and AiNurse, Hsu said.OmniCare is a medical IoT platform to collect biometric data from various instruments and smart wearable devices for shared use in remote medical or health care services, medical research projects or development of precision medicine.PhenoFinder is a platform to integrate patients' medical records at all hospitals for inquiry and big data analysis.Zenbo is a smart robot equipped with facial recognition function, and AiNurse is a virtual care-giving robot able to communicate with patients via voice or text.Asus Life has cooperated with Advantech, QNAP Systems, Galaxy Software Services and Full Enterprise to develop the smart medical care solution since June 2018.Jerry Hsu, general manager of Asus Life's Medical IoT Prodcut BusinessPhoto: Mark Tsai, Digitimes, November 2018