The Center for Measurement Standards under government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is developing a solution integrating images taken by drones for detecting hot spots on PV modules of power stations for maintenance purposes.A PV module is made of either 60 or 72 crystalline silicon solar cells. Hot spots occur when too much current and voltage are accumulated on one or more solar cells of a PV module. Consequently the cells' temperatures are too high and overall power generation decreases, the center explained.The higher the temperature, the shorter wavelength the infrared light emitted. Drones can be used to inspect a large number of PV modules by capturing infrared images for computerized analysis to locate hot spots for repair, the center indicated.Drones cannot fly too high, for infrared images taken may contain unclear or inaccurate informaiton. Therefore, drones should fly low enough to capture many infrared images. The key problem in developing the drone-based solution is how to locate hot spots from many infrared images, the center noted.An ITRI-developed drone for inspecting PV modulesPhoto: Li Yihan, Digitimes, October 2018

The development of IoT technologies and applications has yet to mature, providing better opportunities for startups than large-size enterprises, according to JR Cho, founder of PTCom Technology, a Taiwan-based IoT solutions provider.Cho said that IoT markets are fragmented as there have been no market leaders emerging and no application standards made available. He added that most leading enterprises have been reluctant to invest in a new sector that cannot warrant mass production, which, however, provides a good investment outlet for startups.Cho disclosed that his company once managed to win an order from a Japan customer for upgrading functions of 5,000 pieces of its original devices, as a certain big Taiwan enterprise had declined the client's order because the volume was too small to support volume production.IoT applications are a new sector that will take a long while to ferment. Unlike smartphones or PC products suitable for volume production, IoT devices are not standardized products that can promise proper investment gains, yet more suitable for flexible investment by startups, according to Cho.Cho commented that large enterprises and startups can team up to develop IoT markets, with the latter taking the lead to develop innovative products before the products can be up for volume production by the latter. He also noted that big enterprises can also move to directly establish IoT ecosystems. In fact, Cho indicated, more and more big enterprises are actively exploring their own new innovation momentum. Google and Microsoft, for instance, have set up many research laboratories, and many others are moving to build accelerators or incubators on their own.PTCom Technology founder JR Cho (right)Photo: Chloe Liao, Digitimes, October 2018

Taiwan startup NextDrive has recently announced the latest application of its cube devices, a smart IoT gateway, to remote-control smart locking system developed in cooperation with Rohm Semiconductor and OHGA SmartThings, which is expected to generate new business opportunities in Taiwan's smart home market, according to industry sources.NextDrive introduced its cube devices to the Japan market in September 2017, and has since won orders from many Japan power companies, as the devices can support Wi-SUN (wireless smart utility network) technology developed by Rohm Semiconductor as part of the home energy management system and go with smart electricity meters widely adopted in the country, the sources said.NextDrive's cube devices have many other applications than home energy management. The latest one is use in smart locks developed by Taiwan-based OGHA SmartThings, which can be controlled by smartphones, Bluetooth and Wi-SUN technologies.NextDrive chief technology officer William Liang said that the cube-based smart lock is the first lock available in the market with the Wi-SUN technology. Compared with Wi-Fi, Wi-Sun boasts lower power consumption, longer communication range, and much better penetration power, well suitable for home wireless transmission.Liang said that home-use IoT gateway is basically an edge device like a microcomputer that can serve as a smart home hub. He continued that smart IoT gateways can be combined with web cameras, smart locks and dynamic sensors to build a simple home anti-theft system.

Taiwan-based wireless charging solution provider InforCharge has expanded its business reach to the multimedia advertisement area and has adopted artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition technology to maximize the benefits of advertisements.InforCharge's wireless charging station can be installed in places including restaurants and cafes, and users are able to activate the station's wireless charging functionality through conducting a promotion activity for the places on social media sites.While charging the user's device, the station will use its facial recognition technology to identify the user's age and gender, and then display advertisements that may interest the user.So far, the company has installed around 400-500 units of the wireless charging station throughout Taipei and is looking to form partnerships with more stores, such as cafe chains.InforCharge wireless charging stationPhoto: Company

Taipei's Education Department has adopted a cloud computing-based smart platform to manage power use at 299 city-run schools.The platform is supplied by smart factory solution developer InSynerger Technology, with Far EasTone Telecommunications responsible for data communication.The platform monitors and analyzes power use at each school to find room for saving energy and hiking efficiency.Each school's power cost is based on a contract that stipulates higher prices for use exceeding the limits specified in the contract. The management platform monitors the power use and will send warning if th evolume comes close to the limits.The platform also detects PM2.5 density in the air and indoor density of carbon dioxide.So far 50 of the schools have been covered by the platform, and the rest will be so by year-end 2020, the department said.

Armenia, with 96% of its terrirtory covered by mountains, has a population of some three million, but the Armenian diaspora amounts to about 10 million people who have had to leave the mountainous homeland to seek opportunities abroad.Many do find opportunities at home. A Ucom manager who obtained her master's degree in Greece, chose to return home. She told us how she had to travel six hours for a trip back to her hometow, which is some 50 kilometers away from the capital city of Yerevan, while studying in college.The emergence of digital economy has given her the opportunity to work at the present firm. But she said that many Armenians studying and working abroad usually have to split their incomes into three parts: their own tuition fees, living expenses, and sums sent back to their families in Armenia.Armenia and Taiwan seem similar in some ways. Both countries have powerful neighbors: Armenia and Turkey are separated by Mt Ararat, while Taiwan's major rival China lies across the strait.Armenia may be lacking the kind of tech development experience that Taiwan is proud of, but the island nation in East Asia seems to be gradually losing the kind of ambition and vibrancy that the landlocked South Caucasus country is showing in the face of challenges.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of stories about the IT industry development in Armenia.)

Having developed a solid presence in Armenia, US-based electronic design automation (EDA) solutions provider Synopsys has spared no efforts fostering young Armenia IT talent through a dedicated unit dubbed Synopsys Armenia Educational Department (SAED).Since its inception in 2001, SAED has helped educate 64 holders of doctoral degrees, 904 master's degrees and over 1,000 bachelor's degrees, with around half of the graduates employed by Synopsys Armenia and the rest by other IT firms in Armenia and the region, according to the company.Under the umbrella of the Synopsys University Program, SAED has developed competitive curricula based on a proven model of cooperation between the industry and academia, helping universities overcome common challenges in microelectronics education.SAED has been engaged in many successful cooperation programs with major universities in Armenia and the region, including National Polytechnic University of Armenia (NPUA), Yerevan State University (YSU), Russian-Armenian University (RAU), National Research University of Electronic Technology (MIET), and European Regional Academy (ERA).Synopsys has also cooperated with around 1,000 universities around the world including those in Russia and India's Mumbai and Hyderabad, in exchanging teaching resources, materials, students and other personnel. A student exchange plan between Armenia and Taiwan has been put into practice in 2018, with one selected Armenia doctoral student to study at a Taiwan university for three semesters, marking the first cooperation plan between both countries.Crucial Armenia talent outletHovik Musayelane, director of Synopsys Armenia, said that more and more high-tech firms no longer just rely on traditional education system for talent supply. He said that Synopsys Armenia has maintained highly close connections with international enterprises, providing a crucial outlet for Armenia talent, the country's important assets.Musayelane indicated that Synopsys Armenia has a total of over 800 employees, making it the largest tech firm in the country and the largest operating base of Synopsys outside Silicon Valley. Accordingly, he stressed, Synopsys has developed a strong corporate social responsibility for Armenia.While extending strong support for the 2019 World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) to be held October 6-9 in Yerevan, Armenia, Musayelane said he strongly hopes for more concrete cooperation with Taiwan's semiconductor sector. He said if Taiwan can cooperate with SAED, Taiwan can introduce more quality engineers from Armenia and attract more tech talent from East Europe and Central Asia to join the global semiconductor cooperation systems.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of reports about Armenia's IT industry development.)Synopsys Armenia director Hovik MusayelanePhoto: Digitimes staff, October 2018

Establishment of virtual factories - an integrated digital modeling of whole factories, production lines or single machines - will significantly benefit manufacturing by optimizing equipment utilization, shortening time taken to ready production lines, and removing bottlenecks, according to Davis Si, industry sales director for Industrial Equipment under France-based Dassault Systemes Greater China.The integrated digital modeling can be of three levels: modeling of a whole factory including management of conveying materials, components and products on the first level; a specific production line, that is, the corresponding manufacturing process such as stamping, welding, paint spraying or assembly at a car factory, on the second level; and single equipment items used to manufacture a specific product, such as machines or robots, on the third level, Si said.A complete virtual factory consisting of all three levels can help manufacturers develop purpose-specific solutions, such as improving product quality, production efficiency, and equipment utilization.As customized production is in increasing demand, mixed use of same production lines to make different products is the most feasible approach in terms of return on investment in installing production lines. However, such mixed use involves complicated problems in maintaining production capacity at certain levels, scheduling production, allocating workers and managing feeding and cutting of materials. Establishment of virtual production lines can help solve these problems, Si said.For highly automated factories equipped with a large number of robots, integrated digital modeling of operation of individual robots or robotic arms as well as collaboration between robots and workers, robots and machines and robots and automated supporting equipment is particularly important. This is because such operation and collaboration are so complicated that adjustment of robots to readiness on the spot is not feasible in time and cost, he said.

Global enterprises are advised to use real-time monitoring, data collection, combined with back-end analysis applications in order to access early alerts, notifications and any updates to avoid unexpected equipment anomaly or breakdown, according to Bruce Lu, senior consultant, Greater China Pre-sales Support Department, SAS Institute Taiwan.The use of numerical data - such as temperature, pressure, flow, voltage and electric current incurred during the production process - as the basis for maintenance as well as prevention of sudden malfunction of costly equipment is not enough to help enterprises reduce the risk of having unexpected failure of their equipment, Lu said.Enterprises must return to the fundamentals to pragmatically look at the data generated by related equipment, to see what data has been ignored previously and how to use the date to prevent in advance their machines from malfunctioning, Lu said.It is not difficult to find out that in addition to the numerical data, the machines will also generate log files based on words and numbers, and that these log files have not been used appropriately on the application of fault detection classification (FDC) systems, which uses mainly numerical data, Lu indicated.Log files are a type of text data which contain some subtle signs that have not been detected before, Lu stated.An enterprise normally uses server products, including AP servers, database servers, and front-end integrated servers plus third-party watchdog apps to collect data and conduct real-time monitoring during production process, and therefore a sudden accident from this link will interrupt the monitoring process on hundreds of its production machines, which could then to lead to suspension of all the operations of a factory.But through the examination of log files, it usually can show traits of minor signs such as abnormal connection between AP servers and database servers, which eventually lead to the malfunction of production equipment.Using SAS's stream analysis technology, which combines the use of natural language processing, to conduct continuous real-time, low-latency analysis on log files, allows an enterprise to stay aware in advance for days or hours before a possible major malfunction, Lu said.SAS' event stream processing platform supports multiple algorithms and machine learning technologies, utilizing AI edge computing to complete its stream analysis, which not only assists the manufacturing industry for equipment failure warning, but can also be used for defective classification and product quality monitoring and analysis, Lu said.Bruce Lu, senior consultant, Greater China Pre-sales Support Department, SAS Institute TaiwanPhoto: Elisha Hung, Digitimes, October 2018

In Armenia, Aleksandr Yesayan, co-founder and business development director of telecom operator Ucom, is an iconic entrepreneur, as he founded the company in 1998 at the age of only 16. The company is now a business with 1,800 employees and annual revenues of US$80 million, and Yesayan is a role model for young Armenians establishing startups.Yesayan told Digitimes in a recent interview that more than 10 million Armenians live abroad, and they need to be in touch with their families in the country. But back in 1998, he added, it was a heavy financial burden for low-income Armenians to place a phone call to the US at a rate of US$3 per minute.After reaching the US in 1998, he and his elder brother Hayk learned that the telecommunication cost could be sharply reduced through Internet calls. This inspired them to offer Internet call services at fixed places in Armenia, allowing people with memberships to make overseas calls at US$1 per minute. Then, Yesayan set up many Internet cafes to allow more people to enjoy low-cost Internet call services.Soon after Armenia liberalized its telecom market in 2006, Ucom acquired the debt-ridden Orange Armenia, transforming its traditional analog wired telecom service firm into a digital one. Now, Ucom has become Armenia's No.1 fixed-network and No.2 mobile communication services provider.Armenia's smartphone market scale is estimated at 400,000 units per year, with Samsung commanding a share of up to 45% despite strong competition from China's vendors, such as Huawei. The domestic smartphone market in Armenia alone can hardly be enough incentives for investors to set up smartphone production lines there, but Armenia is a crucial gateway to the East Europe and Middle East markets, particularly Iran, which is touted by Yesayan as an "untouched market." Armenia has recently signed a free trade agreement with Iran, and over 40% of Iran's external web traffic volumes are contributed by Ucom.Education counts mostYesayan believes that future opportunities for people living in landlocked Armenia, which is 96% covered by mountains, will surely hinge on education and that only through education can quality Armenia engineers be employed worldwide. In fulfilling its corporate social responsibility, Ucom has set up digital learning centers in remote rural areas, offering basic courses on 3D design and robotics for children when aged 10, and the company is expected to establish over 600 digital education footholds in Armenia by 2019.Having visited Taiwan for many times, Yesayan expressed the hope that his company can have more opportunities for cooperating with Taiwan businesses in 3D design and telecom services.He said Ucom has established a complete Internet protocol television (IPTV) service system exclusively for the millions of Armenia around the world. He also stressed that now 40% of VMware's R&D engineers come from Armenia, Synopsys has over 800 Armenian engineers, and Mentor Graphic also has a major R&D base in the country.Hosting 2019 WCIT ArmeniaIn his capacity as one of the directors of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITAS), Yesayan will represent Armenia to host the 2019 World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) on October 6-9 in the Armenia capital city Yerevan.Yesayan disclosed that the 2019 WCIT Armenia will bear the theme of "Other Nature, Other People, Other Time" to convey his country's hope of playing a distinct role in the global science and tech service field, and the event will highlight Armenia's prowess in the fields of decentralization, 3D printing, smart architecture, and IC design.Apart from WITSA member states, Armenia will also invite countries maintaining close ties with Armenia, including Russia and Israel, to participate in the the event. Former US president Barack Obama and global business leaders including Dell founder Michael Dell and Siemens' president will also be among VIPs at the 2019 WCIT Armenia, Yesayan disclosed.He stressed that Armenia is a small country with a global vision and is eager to learn from Taiwan's tech industry experiences while also seeking to enhance mutual cooperation.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of reports about Armenia's IT industry development.)Ucom co-founder Aleksandr YesayanPhoto: Digitimes staff, October 2018