In line with the advent of the era of going digital fully, "maker and innovation" will become a new driver for the next wave of industrial revolution after Industry 4.0, and 3D software designers can help makers realize innovations more systematically and efficiently via incorporation of new technologies and establishment of app marketplace.But further refinement of 3D printing technology and reduction of application cost are crucial for determining whether the "maker" era can really come.In addition, changes in spending behavior of young consumers and their consuming preferences have driven qualitative changes of the entire manufacturing system. As Dassault Systemes has indicated, young consumers now boast much deeper understanding of products they purchase amid the increasingly close integration of digitalization and reality, and are able to easily define new products and catch up with the latest development trends.For manufacturers, how to secure a balance between profitability and quality and how to reallocate resources for product design and development and smooth commercial production process, so as to shorten the time to market and offer better customization services, has become a crucial task for them to pursue digital transformation.3D Experience platformIn order to brace for the arrival of digital transformation and experience economy, software providers have developed multiple updates of their existing design software platforms. Dassault Systemes, for instance, has incorporated VR (virtual reality) applications into its 3D Experience platform, so that the platform can better integrate diverse design and product life cycle management platforms operated by the company. US-based software developer PTC has also incorporated AR (augmented reality) and industrial IoT (Internet of Things) technologies to provide users with more convenient and appropriate design and management platforms.Accordingly, 3D design software functions have expanded significantly along with continued optimization of the software and incorporation of simulation, data visualization, AR, VR, and IoT functions. This will further pave the way for "makers" to develop and design innovative products.To satisfy the needs in the design and production process at a faster pace, 3D design software providers have raced to set up marketplaces for apps under their own platforms, seeking to break through the last mile for developers and "makers" to achieve fast product design and production through the support of third-party partners.Expanded 3D printing applicationsUndeniably, thanks to upgrades in printing speed and precision, the availability of printing materials and the reduction of overall printing costs, the application of 3D printing can be expanded to volume production of specific parts and components such as those for automobile and aerospace industries. Breakthroughs seen in 3D color and metal printing technologies have also helped broaden the overall application range of 3D printing.Nevertheless, it will still take time for 3D printing to be incorporated for volume production, and those firms who can develop innovations in printing materials, technologies and printer performance are likely to become winners in the market.

Google has successfully utilized machine learning technology to create accurate personalized, situational app recommendation systems, having boosted the installation rate for apps at Google Play by 3.3%, according to Chi Huai-hsin, Google's chief AI researcher.Chi, a native Taiwan talent, made the remarks when sharing his research team's AI-based app recommendation systems at a recent AI innovation boot camp activity held in Taipei.At the moment, there are over one million apps available for users of two billion active Android-based devices, and they saw over 82 billion downloads in 2017. All these related numbers will certainly continue to expand in the future, and how to boost the app installation rate has become a very important task for Chi's research team.Chi said that in order to provide users with better recommendation quality, Google's recommendation systems have three major principles to follow. First, recommended app contents must boast multiplicity and meet personalized needs. Second, the interfaces for all the app products must be constantly optimized with the assistance of machine learning. Third, Google recommendation systems must be applicable to all the users instead of specific ones.In order to increase app downloads from Google Play, user preferences must be known first, and personalized recommendation systems must be established to cater to the needs of different identities and age groups, Chi said.Then situational elements must be added to such systems to more accurately recommend apps to users. For instance, users of tablets usually prefer entertainment video apps, and smartphone users like to download apps associated with their daily lives such as living tools, emails, calendars, and notebooks. In addition, news apps usually see more downloads at daytime, while gaming apps are more preferred at night, according to Chi.

Originally developed by and for the military, drones have grown far beyond the battlefield and are now used everywhere from oil fields to private farms. They are being used for delivering packages, surveying land and assisting in disaster relief. Their scope is becoming ever more varied and their parameters are broadening.Key to the growing range of applications for drones is the increasingly sophisticated electronics systems being incorporated. The miniaturised sensors used in today's drones allows them to be ever smaller, more lightweight and more affordable, while improved machine vision (enabled by a new generation of powerful onboard flight control systems) is providing them with better autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, and real-time analytics.Drone development has traditionally been difficult, expensive and time-consuming, but today, the availability of drone development platforms has changed all that. New platforms from Intel, Infineon and Parallax are making it easier than ever to hit the ground running when implementing drone applications.Military originsEver since humans first took to the air, the idea of an unmanned aerial vehicle has been extremely compelling. Aircraft let us travel quickly, get a birds-eye view of things and move freely unabated by ground-borne obstruction. However, one of the biggest obstacles that they face is us. When it comes to flight, lighter is better, but since they need to accommodate a human being comfortably, airplanes have to be built larger and heavier, than they would otherwise have to be. This means more complexity, higher cost and less range, as carrying more weight requires burning more fuel.Drones solve all these issues. Being unmanned these airborne vehicles can be made lighter, smaller and much cheaper, as life support systems are not needed. Instead, these vehicles are focused on being as light, manoeuvrable and long-range as possible. Without the risk of a human casualty, drones can also take on more dangerous tasks than manned vehicles. It's no wonder then that the development of drones has been deeply rooted in the military.Unmanned aerial vehicles initially appeared in the 1930s. Early drone developments included balloons designed to time-release bombs over enemy lines, and unpiloted planes with explosives on board, intended to crash after a certain number of engine revolutions. The advent of radio technology brought better navigation. One of the first radio-controlled (RC) drones was used during World War II to train anti-aircraft gunners how to shoot down realistically-moving aerial targets. From then on, the pace of drone progression quickened and they were used increasingly in actual combat scenarios. Drones have been used since the 1970s in major conflicts across the world.Micro revolutionWhile drones have been used in a military context for a considerable time, it is only in this decade that they have become affordable enough to enter the consumer market. Personal drones have been made possible by innovations in micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology, driven by the requirements of the smartphone market.Aerial navigation requires sophisticated sensors to monitor physical orientation, as well as acceleration along three different axes. In the past, this involved using relatively large and expensive inertial measurement units (IMUs) which consist of accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers. These macro-sized sensing units were large, heavy and extremely expensive, limiting them to professional aerospace, naval and defence applications.Using the same techniques that are applied to semiconductor manufacturing, MEMS technology shrunk accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers, allowing them to be much smaller, cheaper and even more reliable. Today a 9-axis sensor like the Bosch BNO055 that measures compass orientation, physical orientation and acceleration in three axes can be the size of a tiny chip, smaller than a finger nail. The tremendous size and weight reduction of MEMS-based IMUs has allowed them to drive today's drones, and their low price has meant that drones can be affordable to the average consumer or small business.With drones starting to get into the hands of everyday consumers and businesses, we have now come up with ever greater and more creative uses for them. Today, drones are used in everything from logistics to rescue operations.For the logistics industries, drones have been used for delivering packages quickly and efficiently. Their ability to fly lets them beat traffic and navigate over ground-based obstacles. Not only can drones do deliveries faster and more efficiently than humans, but they can also deliver to areas or locations that humans currently cannot. Do you live on the 15th floor of an apartment building? A drone can deliver a package directly to your balcony. If you decide to have an impromptu picnic at the park, a drone could deliver pizza directly to your smartphone's GPS location.The ability of drones to do quick and accurate 3D mapping of large areas has transformed surveying, and offers the potential to change other industries like tourism as well. A remotely controlled drone with high precision GPS can take detailed photos of large areas in hours or even minutes. These high resolution photographs can then be pieced together with photogrammetric software to build incredibly precise 3D maps of terrain. Areas which once took a team of ground-based surveyors weeks to survey can now be dealt with in days, thanks to drones.Drones are also transforming disaster recovery, and search and rescue operations. In the aftermath of a natural disaster, key infrastructure such as roads and electricity can be seriously damaged, making it difficult for ground-based relief to arrive quickly and work efficiently. In these situations, drones can perform aerial surveillance of an area to discover the location and status of disaster or search for injured people. Drones can even be used as first responders, to deliver critical items such as food or medicine to victims in remote areas.Drone technologyAs miniaturised, wirelessly controlled aerial vehicles, drones are a technological tour-de-force. They contain some of the latest navigational, computational and aeronautical technologies we have today. A drone consists of a chassis, rotors, motors, electronic speed controllers, a battery and a flight controller. While the mechanical aspects such as its rotors, chassis style, and motors determine its flight characteristics and carrying capacity, it is the constituent electronic systems that are on board which distinguish modern drones from yesterday's RC planes and helicopters.Each rotor and corresponding motor has an electronic speed controller (ESC) which controls the speed of the motor. The ESC is a mixed signal circuit which delivers high resolution 3 phase AC power to drive a brushless motor based on a control signal. Connected to a motor and the battery, ESCs are sized according to the amount of current they can drive.Besides the ESC, the flight controller is the other essential electronic system on board a drone. Whereas RC airplanes and helicopters give operators direct control over motor speed, modern drones have multiple rotors, and the complexity of rotor speed coordination means an automated system is required. The flight controller uses an array of sensors, such as GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer, compass and barometers, to stabilise and navigate the drone by adjusting the speed of the rotors.Modern flight controllers can range from providing simple stability control to full-on autonomous navigation with obstacle avoidance using machine vision - possible with advanced platforms like Intel's Aero compute board.Getting started with dronesWhile there is a certain joy in building your own drone from scratch, it takes a great deal of time, effort and perseverance. Thankfully, these days there are pre-built unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms available, which allow you to choose exactly how deep you want to dive in. Perhaps the most complete, yet flexible UAV platform so far is Intel's Aero series. This platform can come either as a flight controller compute board, or a ready-to-fly drone development platform.In the ready-to-fly option, Intel's Aero drone is a fully assembled quad-copter running Linux on a multi-core Atom SoC processor. It has flight controller software pre-installed - allowing users to fly the drone out of the box without any programming being needed. The ready-to-fly Aero platform allows users to focus on developing sophisticated drone applications immediately, rather than wasting time struggling with the mechanics of flight control.The Aero drone also has multiple cameras, including a front-facing Intel RealSense R200 camera. The R200 is a depth-sensing machine vision camera system including dual conventional cameras as well as an infrared camera and infrared laser projector. The stereo vision and infrared components allow for 3D imaging and depth sensing capabilities. These can be used for collision avoidance, surveying, 3D mapping, surveillance applications and more. Besides selling as a complete, ready-to-fly drone, the Aero platform is also available as a compute board with optional enclosure and RealSense Camera, allowing the compute and machine vision capabilities to be integrated onto other multi-copter drone chassis.Whereas they were once simply hobbyist's toys, drones today have penetrated numerous markets and are aiming for many more. At the same time, developing drone applications has never been easier. For those trying to go straight into advanced drone application development, Intel's Aero platform offers a ready-to-fly solution, and for those wanting to get down and dirty, integrated components from suppliers like Infineon and Cypress can significantly cut development time and cost.(Editor's note: Mark Patrick is technical marketing manager at Mouser Electronics)Photo: Mouser

While education authorities in Taiwan and many other countries are promoting unwalled campuses, campus security is emerging as a major concern, and smart video security systems offered by Taiwan's AI startup Umbo Computer Vision can help address the issue, according to Shawn Guan, CEO of the firm.Guan said that in the past, video security systems were programmed with predefined rules that rely heavily on geometrics to detect motions or changes, and therefore they may work in performing simple tasks in generic environments but fail everywhere else.Guan stressed that his firm's smart video security systems are available with AI-based recognition function that can tell what actions are going on by judging continuous motions of a person or object, and the systems will issue warning signals to the back-end control center, in case of any suspicious actions such as crossing the wall.Besides detecting abnormal intrusion into campus, the systems can also detect the behavior of children to see if they are skipping classes, undergoing physical altercations, falling off or getting injured, Guan continued.Founded in 2014, Umbo has tapped into security control space with its AI-based image recognition technology, but the technology focuses more on analyzing human behavior to ward off potential danger factors, instead of conducting simple facial recognition and identity check.Umbo's smart video security systems are well received in Taiwan and foreign markets. In Taiwan, the Agency of Corrections under the Ministry of Justice has adopted the systems to judge whether prison inmates show offensive behavior when getting together, and some elementary schools in northern Taiwan have also utilized the systems to boost campus security. In addition, many of the top 500 US enterprises are among the company's customers, according to Guan.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has kept enhancing its Greengrass software to extend its cloud capabilities to local devices, and the latest development is that the software can be incorporated into network attached storage (NAS) equipment, allowing NAS to conduct edge computing and AI analysis beyond its storage function to become the core of AI-based terminal devices.At the AWS Summit Taipei held in late June, the web service giant invited its Taiwan partner QNAP Systems, a NAS specialist, to demonstrate the performance of NAS fitted with Greengrass.Anderson Cheng, QNAP's IoT business development manager, said that as an indispensable data storage equipment for enterprises, NAS can also directly handle data computing and processing after incorporating the AWS Greengrass software.Citing an example to illustrate the point, Cheng said that after the FarmBoT - a device developed by Taiwan's FarmBoT Taiwan User Group (FBTUG) to perform automatic monitoring at farmlands - sends photo images to NAS, the fitted Greengrass software can exercise its image recognition function to locate and eradicate weeds while also monitoring the growth process of plants.Cheng disclosed that QNAP's cooperation with AWS initially focused on meeting network storage demand, and is now gradually expanded to cover IoT services and integration with public cloud platforms.Anderson Cheng, QNAP's IoT business development managerPhoto: AWS

Taiwan-based IPC and automation solutions specialist Advantech is taking a big stride forward in promoting the combination of IoT and smart healthcare in the form of SRP (solution-ready package) through cooperating with business partners.Advantech has set up a joint venture, i-Link IoMT, with i-Link and FYC Intelligent Engineering, seeking to complete system integration associated with smart healthcare solutions.Eric Huang, vice president of i-Link IoMT, said the joint venture will design smart healthcare products from the perspectives of users including patients, their family members, doctors and nurses, so as to effectively boost the usage convenience of the products and the satisfaction of patients and families.Huang continued that at smart nursing stations, for instance, nurses will be provided with electronic white boards, control devices, mobile medication carts, and mobile nursing devices, while smart wards will be fitted with patient infotainment terminals (PIT), digital bedside cards, and physiological measuring instruments that can instantly display patient information.As a realization of the firm's standard SRP solution, Huang stressed, all the patients can get whatever information they need, including surrounding environments of the hospital and instructions on in-hospital care services, so as to effectively ease patients' sense of insecurity.Advantech has also decided to build a complete set of IIoT (industrial IoT) supply chain in the next decade, according to company chairman KC Liu.Liu said that Taiwan industries are likely to play a crucial role in the IIoT supply chains that are set to develop rapidly in the coming 15 years, prompting Advantech to move to develop a preemptive presence in the sector.Eric Huang, vice president of i-Link IoMTPhoto: Vega Chiu, Digitimes, July 2018

Hsinchu Science Park Bureau (HSPB) is actively pushing forward the Taiwan government's New Southbound Policy, endeavoring to engage efforts across the industry, government, academics and research institutes as well as its sister industrial parks in India in an attempt to help HSP-based companies tap into the India market. As part of such efforts, HSPB recently conducted a panel discussion for a close examination and exchange of views on how Taiwan businesses can expand into India. Experts taking part in the event highlighted that the government should strengthen efforts toward promoting Taiwan's image to give Taiwan businesses a leg-up.The moderator, Wayne Wang, director general, HSPB, commented that among the New Southbound Policy's target countries, India is of strategic importance in terms of demographics and business opportunities. Amid ever-changing market dynamics, Taiwan has to re-think how to respond to evolving conditions. The government hopes the experts' opinions will help its New Southbound Policy generate more positive outcomes.Engaging Indian talent and strengthening connectionsMediaTek advisor Grant Kuo, in his opening speech, indicated that MediaTek made a long-term commitment to its operations in emerging markets when the company appointed him as the managing director of MediaTek India 12 years ago. India has a young population, 60% of which is under 25 years old. The country also holds high expectations toward collaborations with Taiwan. The India government has been working with MediaTek to train mobile phone design engineers in the country.Taiwan needs more high-tech talent and also Indians as long-term partners. Kuo suggests that the Taiwan government provide education opportunities to Indian engineers through National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) and National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) with strong HSP connections. They can offer scholarships to not only Indian graduate students but also college juniors and seniors. When companies hire these students, they can pay recruitment fees to the government, which can then be used to fund the scholarships. This way, government funding is utilized for maximum benefits.Furthermore, as Indian engineers have different levels of competence, Taiwan should aim to recruit graduates from tier-1 or tier-2 technological institutes in India. It may be difficult for Taiwan to attract first-rate college graduates from world-class enterprises such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon but at least the focus should be on engineers on the next level. If the Taiwan government can put in more efforts toward promoting national image, it will be much easier for Taiwan-based companies to recruit talent.In addition, the Indian mobile phone market may not be constantly evolving but has indeed shown significant changes in recent years. Taiwan businesses looking to stay on top of local market dynamics should try to gain insight firsthand. However, any Taiwan-based vendor making a visit to India alone will only scratch the surface. If HSP with international prestige can serve as a platform, Taiwan businesses making visits to India should be able to receive a warm welcome.India market is changing and China has successfully penetrated the marketDigitimes president Colley Hwang, having made more than a dozen trips to India since 1992, gave a suggestion as to the role HSP can play. Two years ago, the No. 1 mobile phone brand in the India market was Samsung, and Micromax was the leading local brand. Now China-based Xiaomi has overtaken Samsung as the market leader. According to IDC, Xiaomi holds the largest share, 30%, of the India smartphone market in terms of first-quarter 2018 sales, followed by Samsung's 25%. None of the top five smartphone vendors is a local Indian brand. Aside from Xiaomi, smartphones from China-based vendors including Vivo, Oppo and Huawei are everywhere in India, pushing local brands such as Micromax and Lava to the low-cost feature phone segment. Most of them are no longer able to compete with China-based phone makers with the exception of Reliance, barely keeping its place by bundling low-cost phones with telecom services.When Huang visited India two years ago, he met with RS Sharma and Ajai Kumar, two deputy secretaries of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and advised them if India did not establish a clear policy to lead the development of its local mobile phone industry, its hands would be tied when China-made phones flooded the India market. Unfortunately, Hwang was right. Now Taiwan-based mobile phone OEM and component makers are coming to India either at the request of Apple or largely for the purpose of working with China-based phone makers.According to Allied Association for Science Park Industries secretary general Zhi-Yuan Chang, Taiwan businesses should first set a clear strategy before expanding into India. They need to have a specific purpose - to tap into the India market, to make investments or to work with partners. As most Taiwan businesses operate at a limited scale, they prefer to expand overseas with multiple partners rather than do so independently. This is the reason that the association has established a cross-border investment committee in hopes to help its members with overseas endeavors.NCTU professor Ching-Yao Huang noted the Modi administration has proposed 100 smart city projects, but smart city plans entail a lot of local factors. The Indian students currently studying at NCTU and NTHU will greatly facilitate Taiwan businesses' India market expansion. Taiwan should try to provide them with ample industry information so that they can form a strong bond with the Taiwan industry.With the government leading the way, HSP creates a platform linking businesses to IndiaHuang added that government agencies should establish a common agenda exploring business opportunities in India. Due to its diverse cultures and federal system, it is not easy for Taiwan-based companies to have an in-depth understanding of the intricate situations of the India market. HSP should lead the way by serving as a marketing platform on which HSP-based vendors can sell their products and provide their services.The government's operation toward the India market should start with building up Taiwan's image. HSP can work on promoting the Taiwan high-tech industry as the best partner to India's supply chain. With a positive national image, all undertakings such as talent recruitment, component marketing and consulting services can be more efficient.Taiwan is undoubtedly India's best partner when it looks to build a handset-centered ecosystem. It is just that both Taiwan and India are taking a wait-and-see attitude. India thinks it is Taiwan's loss if it does not make efforts to tap into India's massive market and the efforts should not be on India's part. However, to Taiwan businesses operating on narrow profit margins, although they do not have to haggle over every penny, they certainly will not risk going into deals without seeing some profit potential. As such, the best way to approach the India market is for the Taiwan government to lead the way by, for example, sponsoring annual conferences of industry organizations such as India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), Indian Cellular Association (ICA) and Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA) or working with renowned local media to keep promoting the Taiwan electronics industry. Such efforts should be aimed to deepen Taiwan businesses' market penetration and attract Indian vendors to proactively seek partnerships. In sum, the steps to Taiwan's Indian operations should be in this order: marketing, selling and manufacturing. That is, before the manufacturing industry makes its move, marketing efforts toward promoting the country and the industry should go first.Both Huang and Kuo emphasized that as India is a large country, businesses should appoint competent and experienced leaders - not just any managers - to locally head their Indian operations. The Taiwan government, looking to reach deep into overseas markets within the scope of its New Southbound Policy, has to undertake long-term planning and foster independent leaders with regional market expertise. Alternatively, government agencies such as Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India can focus on building local connections and collaborate with specialists delegated by professional institutes in Taiwan for field visits to India to jointly work toward effective local market operations in the long run.To help Taiwan businesses with their Indian market operations, HSPB has joined forces with KPMG and Century Development Corporation (CDC) to push forward New Southbound Policy work. CDC has kicked off the construction of an industrial park project near Bengaluru Airport. KPMG, engaging in close collaborations with both Taiwan and India governments, is prepared to offer professional consultation on complex Indian laws, said Winston Yu, chairman of KPMG.Foraying into India: act now or later?Narendra Modi and his party BJP were able to win the first electoral majority for a single party in three decades partly because he promised to reach a challenging goal in the previous Indian national election. Four years later, BJP thinks it has delivered a generally satisfactory 7%-8% economic growth. During the four-year term, the Modi administration has undertaken banking and tax reforms as well as road and rail infrastructure constructions, which has contributed to India's steady economic growth. However, according to World Bank's latest Doing Business (DB) Report, India only ranks 100 among 190 countries assessed by the DB team based on the ease of doing business in the country. With less than 12 months to go until the next general election, the question is whether Modi is ready to take on the next challenge.Furthermore, India's GDP expanded at 7.7% in first-quarter 2018. Everyone realizes that foreign businesses and investments are instrumental to accelerating economic growth and thereby engaging the younger generation entering the workforce and expanding the middle class population. India received a fairly large sum of US$40 billion in foreign investments for the year 2017. Although its 7%-8% GDP growth is outstanding in comparison to many other countries, it is hardly satisfactory considering India's massive population and the pressure from China.Based on 2017 World Bank data, India's per capita income at US$1,709 is running far behind China's at US$8,123. Although people generally think movement of goods has become easier now, critics say that labor reforms by the Modi administration make it difficult for enterprises to lay off employees and the discontinuation of two rupee banknotes at year-end 2016 was a banking reform measure that did nothing more than harassing people and disrupting capital flow. In addition to the problem of widening current account deficit, there is also a plethora of things to tackle, which the India government will not be able to resolve in a short period of time. As such, Taiwan businesses making a foray into India will inevitably sustain loss and inefficiency in the beginning. Should they look at things in the long run and take early action or should they wait till everything is in place and make their move?An Indian delegation visiting HSP in 2016.Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad engaging in exchanges with HSP, Central Taiwan Science Park and National Yunlin University of Science and Technology. HSPB director general Wayne Wang is at the right.An HSP delegation attending Asian Science Park Association (ASPA) 2016 in Hyderabad.HSPB deputy director general Tseng-Ju Hsu (third from the right) visiting India in 2018 to share views with industry representatives.Photos: HSPB

Global shipments of CMOS as well as CCD image sensors will exceed US$15 billion in value in 2020, Digitimes Research estimates. The shipment value increased by over 15% on year to US$12.2 billion in 2017.Industry leader Sony will be aggressively expanding its presence in the automotive segment in 2018, while encountering a slowdown in demand for smartphones, Digitimes Research believes.Sony's CMOS image sensor (CIS) market share reached as high as 45% in both 2016 and 2017, thanks to its shipments to Apple. Nevertheless, Sony's share of the automotive CIS segment was only 9% in 2017.Sony with its automotive CIS has cut into the supply chain of Toyota, and will be expanding its client base in the field to include Bosch, Nissan and Hyundai this year.

Taiwan's national development and financial supervision authorities have announced policy support for turning the country into a global blockchain industry hub, and a separation principle will be adopted in supervising the blockchain and digital currency operations to effectively boost Taiwan's competitiveness in achieving the goal.At the 2018 Asia Blockchain Summit held in Taipei July 2, both National Development Council (NDC) minister Chen Mei-ling and Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) chairman Wellington Koo highlighted Taiwan's long-term support for the development of blockchain technologies and shared the view that blockchain as key digital transformation infrastructure will drive the fourth industrial revolution.Speaking at a gathering of over 2,500 blockchain technology specialists and investors from around the world, Chen said that blockchain applications have been expanded from cryptocurrencies to non-financial areas such as smart cities, industry supply chains, energy management, digital entertainment and public management, prompting governments of many countries to enforce strategies to better utilize digital bonus generated by blockchain technologies and to nip potential risks in the bud.Good infrastructure for blockchain developmentChen said that while pursuing digital economy and transformation, the government in Taiwan will encourage the development of the blockchain industry and help businesses incorporate blockchain technologies to accelerate industrial upgrades.She stressed that with sufficient ICT talent supply and comprehensive ICT supply chains, Taiwan boasts very good infrastructure for the development of blockchain technologies and applications, adding that Taiwan tech startups have launched a variety of innovative blockchain-based solutions, including those for agriculture produce traceability system, music copyrights management, hotel management system, and green power generation and storage.Besides using angel investment funds to support the development of optimized blockchain ecosystems and allowing expanded applications of open data and big data for industrial uses, Chen continued, the NDC will join forces with Asia Blockchain Alliance to develop new blockchain application fields, aiming to help private businesses roll out turnkey solutions for exports and realize the vision of Taiwan as a global blockchain development center.FinTech applicationsFor his part, Koo said that the FSC has been supporting the development of FinTech and will encourage Taiwan financial firms to incorporate blockchain technologies into financial services to create new service values and upgrade service efficiency.Koo stressed that as long as innovation risks can be well controlled and managed, the FSC will allow maximum space for FinTech applications, so as to facilitate the establishment of Taiwan as a solid base for innovations.He also disclosed that the FSC will move to relax related restrictions to create friendly environments for electronics payment operations, and will revise related rules and regulations to facilitate the establishment of two pure online banks.Meanwhile, lawmakers YJ Hsu and WJ Yu also revealed at the summit that they will jointly promote the establishment of a blockchain industry self-discipline alliance and push for currency/blockchain separation campaign to attract global blockchain investors to set up operations in Taiwan and create new economic growth momentum.2018 Asia Blockchain Summit in TaipeiPhoto: Michael Lee, Digitimes, July 2018

Shipments of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices totaled about 300,000 units in the Japan market in 2017, Digitimes Research has estimated.For the next five years from 2018-2022, Japan's VR/AR device market is expected to grow a CAGR of 33.5%, which will be lower than the growth paces in the US and Europe, Digitimes Research estimates.While related VR/AR applications have been seen in a number of sectors including traveling, retailing, manufacturing and medical treatments, user's acknowledgement and experience on VR/AR among the public in Japan still derive mainly from digital gaming.Although the standalone VR devices have been introduced into the Japan market since May 2018, it remains to be seen if related VR/AR vendors would be able to attract more patronage from the non-gaming sector.The adoption of VR/AR applications by enterprises in Japan remains low although vendors such as NEC and Fujitsu have released commercial VR/AR solutions with support of facilities, HMDs, computers and simulated content for applications including surveillance, firefighting, logistics and maintenance. Factors including pricing and comfortability will be crucial for Japan-based enterprises to decide whether to adopt AR/VR applications, Digitimes Research believes.