If applied to the healthcare industry, 5G technologies should start with outside-the-body applications rather than invasive ones, as accreditations for invasive medical applications are much harder to obtain and involve time-consuming procedures, according to Robert Topol, Intel's general manager of advanced 5G technologies.Topol said Intel is optimistic that 5G technologies will first usher in a new period of transformation in non-invasive medical treatments for patients, thus bringing substantial business opportunities.Such medical segments as telehealth, teleconsultation, telesurgery demonstration, and other non-invasion applications will be among the first application scenarios following the commercialization of 5G technologies, according to Topol.He stressed that the low-latency transmission and wide network coverage of 5G will help turn telemedicine into a reality, enable robots to do regular rounds, allow elderly patients to receive medical treatments without having to go outdoors, and upgrade the healthcare quality in remote areas.In addition, 5G will also drastically change the scenarios of many sectors including consumer practices, banking, retail, energy, transportation, industrial production, and government infrastructures, among others.Robot Topol, Intel's general manager of 5G advanced technologiesPhoto: Vega Chiu, Digitimes, June 2018

The 2018 Infinity Ventures Summit (IVS), hosted by Japan's Infinity Ventures (IVP) as an annual gathering for global tech startups, has recently wrapped up its three-day run in Taipei, with Taiwan-based startup team ReCactus winning the championship at the IVS LaunchPad contest.This is the first time that the IVS has been held in Taipei since its inception in 2007 in Japan, attracting the participation of some 1,000 experts, CEOs, angel investors and startup players from Taiwan, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, the USA and Europe, according to IVP.IVP said that this year, many experts were invited to deliver keynote speeches on latest developments in angel investment, cryptocurrencies, taxation challenges, startup development advantages in Taiwan, and the latest tech trends in Japan. Among the speakers were SEA chief strategy officer Alan Hellawell, iQIYI co-president Xu Weifeng, and Ctrip.com chief technology officer Eric Ye.Championship winner ReCactus is a reaction video social platform, allowing users to make, watch, connect and share reaction videos on YouTube, Facebook or Istagram. Since the app was launched in October 2017, it has become popular with users around the world while also having attracted investors from the US and Southeast Asia.This year, 14 out of a total of 150 startups registering their presence in the contest had the chance to pitch at the LaunchPad stage, but only five winners were selected. Besides ReCactus, three of the other top four winners are also based in Taiwan, namely TWO, Xpression and SkyRec, with the fifth place taken by ORII from Hong Kong.IVP said that IVS LaunchPad has been one of the most closely watched startup contest in Japan, as contestants can compete for the attention from media and angel investors by winning a slot to pitch at the activity. Over the past 10 years, around 300 startup teams have got on the IVS LaunchPad stage, having solicited combined investments of over US$600 million. In addition, 11 of them have launched IPO and another 16 startups have been acquired by large-size businesses.

At the recent 2018 SNEC International Photovoltaic Power Generation and Smart Energy Exhibition & Conference in Shanghai, Dr. Weiming Zhang, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Heraeus Photovoltaics, announced the company's new Hecaro - a revolutionary electrically conductive adhesive (ECA) that contains <50% silver but delivers performance equivalent to high silver ECAs.As a global leading provider of metallization pastes, Heraeus Photovoltaics endeavors to expand its presence across the photovoltaics (PV) value chain through technology innovations and strategic transformation.The launch of Hecaro not only is the result of Heraeus Photovoltaics' efforts to transform to a supplier of "Beyond Paste" solutions but also represents its commitment to strengthening R&D capabilities and enhancing product quality for the PV industry.During an interview, Dr. Zhang said in earnest only through continuing R&D efforts can Heraeus Photovoltaics keep pushing the efficiency of clean PV energy. Heraeus Photovoltaics will strive to make utmost contributions to sustainable developments of the industry and future generations until one day when photovoltaic panels become standard household systems and the clean energy ecosystem shows significant improvement. The following is a highlight of the interview.Q: Could you highlight the new Heraeus Photovoltaics products and services making a grand debut at SNEC 2018? Why is Heraeus Photovoltaics introducing these new offerings? What are their characteristics and main features?A: This year we are launching at full blast an advanced electrically conductive adhesive (ECA) named Hecaro with a less than 50% silver content, the lowest on the market. It delivers performance on par with high silver content ECA at a superior cost structure. Customer responses have been very positive. Solar shingle suppliers will enjoy cost savings and enhanced reliability.Aside from savings on total costs, Hecaro is designed with optimizations for screen-printing to offer fast curing and long-term reliability. We think screen-printing will become the mainstream technology for solar shingles, which will give rise to Hecaro's widespread adoption as the interconnection material for advanced solar cells [e.g. shingles, heterojunction technology (HJT) modules and interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar cells].To keep up with market trends, many vendors in the PV industry are seeking a partner that can provide them comprehensive products, solutions and technical support to help them simplify and streamline their process. In view of this, Heraeus Photovoltaics offers new Cell Optimization Service (COS) to further boost PV cell efficiency, analog property and manufacturing process optimizations by engaging in close collaborations with world-leading research institutions in Germany and Singapore to help customers break through technological bottlenecks through forecasts based on big data analytics on past success stories.Q: The launch of these new solutions indicates Heraeus Photovoltaics is undergoing a strategic transformation. In general, businesses under market pressure have difficulty making long-term strategies. What is Heraeus Photovoltaics' main idea in this respect?A: Having already established itself as a global leading provider of metallization pastes, Heraeus Photovoltaics will expand the range of applications for its innovations and thereby benefit the PV value chain by engaging in strategic transformation. I also recently spoke at the CTO forum that Heraeus Photovoltaics is keen to form strategic alliances with customers and work together in the long run to continuingly lower the total cost per-watt for the PV industry. To achieve this goal, Heraeus Photovoltaics devotes tremendous resources to research, expands its professional work force and tailors its services to suit customer needs.Heraeus Photovoltaics continues to help the PV industry set new world records of PERC cell efficiency with its technology innovations, which is a solid contribution to clean energy development and environmental protection, allowing the PV industry to maintain healthy and sustainable development and future generations to have a clean and safe environment.Q: According to IHS Markit, global solar photovoltaic demand is forecast to reach 108GW in 2018, propelled by strong demand in China. This marks a major milestone as China, the largest PV market in the world, is transitioning toward "smart manufacturing." What is Heraeus Photovoltaics' plan to boost its presence in China for the next three to five years? How much growth do you expect in your China business?A: Global PV installations totaled 100GW in 2017, among which 50GW was installed in China, surprisingly topping market expectations. The China market accounts for half of worldwide investments in energy storage technologies. Chinese battery makers produce a capacity three times the amount generated by the rest of the world. The country's investments are beginning to create results. The average price of a battery pack continues on a downward trend, decreasing to US$209/kWh in 2017, down 24%.Aside from China, Africa, the Middle East, South America and India are also exhibiting growth potential. It is forecast that 14 to 15 countries/regions will install more than 1GW. The industry is showing healthy growth.The China market enjoyed a whopping 230% increase in distributed PV grid-connected power generation just in the first quarter of this year. We expect this to drive future growth in China in the years to come. Operating in small areas, distributed PV power generation requires solar cells to have higher conversion efficiency, cost effectiveness and product reliability, particularly the polysilicon material. Vendors with the capability to guarantee premium quality will have competitive advantage. As local governments in China, especially the Jiangsu province and the Yangtze Delta region, actively enforce their solar energy policies, we think the domestic demand will grow even stronger when PV components become more cost-effective and affordable by 2020.Dr. Weiming Zhang, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Heraeus PhotovoltaicsPhoto: Digitimes, June 2018

Computex, which had been gradually losing its luster along with the rise of e-commerce and the slowdown of the PC industry in recent years, seems to start showing signs of revival during its 2018 edition, mainly driven by AI (artificial intelligence) and gaming applications, which stole the spotlights at the just-concluded event.Its predecessor Taipei Computer Show was inaugurated in 1981, and was was renamed Computex Taipei in 1984 based on the proposal by Stan Shih, founder of Acer Group and then chairman of Taipei Computer Association, to better publicize Taiwan's PC R&D and manufacturing prowess.But the rise of Internet and consequent popularity of e-commerce have undermined the importance of large-size physical electronics shows, with globally renowned CeBIT, CES and Computex all impacted. In recent years, thanks to the slowdown of PC devices and the rapid development of mobile devices, the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) has been emerging as the most shinning stage for consumer electronics, outshining the Computex B2B platform.But the ever-expanding gaming market scale and the rampant development of AI applications have injected fresh momentum into Computex as a crucial platform again for global buyers seeking to source a variety of gaming and AI application solutions from Taiwan makers and foreign exhibitors.2.3 billion gamers worldwideA study by Newzoo showed that there will be around 2.3 billion gamers worldwide in 2018, spending a whopping US$137.9 billion on games. Of the total, mobile games will account for 51% or US$70.3 billion, followed by 25% or US$34.6 billion for PC games and 24% or US$32.9 billion for games played on host computers.Newzoo also predicted the annual global game market revenues to grow to US$180.1 billion by 2021, with a CAGR of 10.3% for 2017-2021. And the gaming sector is experiencing a deeper and wider development, with e-sports to be incorporated as a demonstration event at the upcoming Asian Games 2018 in mid-August in Jakarta, Indonesia.The encouraging development has inspired the Taiwan IT industry to focus more on the development of diverse gaming solutions. This can be seen from a wide range of gaming exhibits at Computex 2018, ranging from gaming host computers and notebooks, game training software, and multiple parts and components such as chassis, power supplies, memory, display cards, SSD, screens, keyboards, mice, earphones and speakers, to gaming chairs and streaming equipment.AI was another focus of attention from visitors to Computex, with many exhibitors showcasing or launching a variety of processors, software, servers, and storage solutions involving AI technologies and applications. The upcoming 5G era is expected to trigger the proliferation of ever-more AI applications, all requiring the support of PC algorithms.All the gaming and AI-related devices, technologies and applications displayed at Computex are expected to keep fermenting in the markets to drive demand for PCs with high performance computing and storage capabilities, thus further injecting new momentum to Computex.

Google has been pushing sales of its Google Home devices to more markets and has also incorporated Google Assistant into the smart speaker as it is gearing up efforts to compete against Amazon in the smart home market, according to Digitimes Research.Google announced recently that it will make its Google Home smart speaker series available in seven more markets in 2018 compared to the availability of Amazon's lineup of Echo speakers in at least 36 countries. However, Google's plans to enable Google Assistant to support up to 30 languages, leveraging its deep research in multi-language and semantic, by year-end 2018, will make Google Home a strong contender to Echo, which supports only three language via Alexa.Google is also actively soliciting cooperation from hardware manufacturers, not only to enrich the product portfolio supporting Google Assistant, but also aim to simplify user's operation processes for smart household appliances, or efficiently integrate support for smart products, while also addressing the security issue faced by IoT devices currently.Digitimes Research believes that more market-niche applications such as medical and smart healthcare are likely to emerge as smart home devices have continued to evolve to become mainstream. Granted that the need for smart healthcare may eventually spur up demand for smart home devices, and single-person households are also likely to increase the purchase of smart home products, the smart home device market is expected to grow exponentially in 2018.

Demand for automotive memory is showing explosive growth in recent years as a result of maturing ADAS technology, increasing demand for in-vehicle infotainment systems and automotive display as well as instrument cluster display gradually upgrading from conventional 4.5-inch panels to 12.3-inch smart panels.Take automotive display for example. In-vehicle displays are growing in bulk and dimensions to meet a range of demands arising from infotainment, safety and telematics. According to IHS, worldwide shipments of components for automotive displays will enjoy a CAGR of 6% through year-end 2021, totaling 176 million units. It is estimated the number of 7-inch and larger automotive displays will top 33.5 million units, representing a CAGR of nearly 10% through 2021.The changes in these in-vehicle systems will spur considerable growth of automotive data, and the required memory capacity, data transfer rate, reliability level and safety features must make advances as well. IC Insights reported that consumer demand for safer driving systems and government mandates are expected to raise the automotive IC market by 22% to a market value of US$28 billion in 2018. Rising DRAM and memory prices will further boost growth of the automotive IC market, with product costs expected to increase 22.4% in 2018.Reliability is a top concern for automotive electronics componentsReliability remains a top concern when manufacturers select the automotive components they use. As an integral part of the automotive industry chain, the design and manufacture of automotive electronics has to take a wide range of possible use scenarios into consideration to ensure safety. Although automotive memory does not directly enforce safety protection, its performance may have an influence on road safety. Aside from safety features, data retention is also among automakers' considerations when choosing automotive memory. SPI NOR flash has long dominated the automotive memory market mainly because of its superior data retention characteristics, which is also the reason for its widespread use by the automotive industry.However, the automotive memory market has started to show some changes since 2017. In the present automotive market, ADAS and instrument cluster applications have been driving fast growth in demand for automotive memory, and new requirements have also been constantly emerging. There are particularly immense needs for features such as high density and instant boot.For example, automakers generally require electronics systems be able to load the operating system, transmit data and boot up into normal operation within one second. If some of the tasks, such as data transmission, can be optimized, the system will be able to boot up faster.In view of this, William Chen, deputy director, flash product marketing center, Winbond, thinks NOR flash is suitable for applications with a small memory footprint. However, for use scenarios where a large amount of data needs to be sent to DRAM instantly, such as automotive applications, and where error-correcting code (ECC) is required, automotive grade NAND flash solutions are a new trend.High performance, optimal reliability and low cost: Winbond's new Serial NAND is gaining traction in the automotive marketAutomotive applications such as instrument cluster and center information display (CID) will growingly require memory solutions with high density, large capacity and instant data transfer in line with booming developments in the automotive market. Automotive memory needs have grown from NOR flash with densities ranging from 64Mb to 512Mb that were able to support most cars in the past, to 1-2Gbit today and the costs will increase accordingly as well, commented William.In response, automakers can use embedded multimedia card (eMMC) as an alternative but it is more suitable for high-end instrument clusters. To meet the memory needs by entry-level and mid-range automotive applications, Winbond has introduced a High Performance Serial NAND product family ranging in density from 1Gb to 2Gb with a 4Gb product on the roadmap.Serial NAND in 8-pin packages offers cost advantages compared to the previous generation parallel flash products with the smallest package offered in 48-pin packages. It also offers higher performance than Parallel NAND as it uses Winbond's proprietary Continuous Read technology to achieve a data read and transfer rate surpassing earlier-generation products.As a matter of fact, 70% of Serial NAND used to be integrated in network communication equipment (ADSL, XDSL and G-PON) and 30% was used in industrial (safety and protection) applications. With respect to memory use in automotive platforms, manufacturers placed more emphasis on NOR flash in the past but have begun to make some changes. Starting from 2017, many tier-1 automotive system vendors have been evaluating the adoption of Serial NAND, according to Winbond."This is because the new High Performance Serial NAND enables a data transfer rate four times faster than Parallel NAND and other Serial NAND currently on the market," said Wilson Huang, manager, electronics product marketing division I, Winbond. In terms of hardware specifications, the company's solution is housed in the same package as conventional NOR flash on the market, so compatibility will not be an issue.Transferring data at 80MB/s, which far exceeds competing NAND flash on the market, Winbond's new solution accelerates instrument cluster boot-up time. It also supports dual-quad I/O interface to accommodate higher storage density or data transfer rate up to 160 MB/s. The selection allowing for single, dual and quad I/O means customers can enjoy more flexibility compared to what competitors can offer.In the past when the industry could provide memory mostly with single I/O, Winbond was already capable of offering quad I/O solutions. Now, staying committed to bringing new innovations, Winbond further boosts data transfer rate through architecture design ingenuities to meet customers' applications requirements.According to William, SoCs are streaming data on the data bus of the next-generation ADAS and instrument cluster at a maximum of about 200 MB/s. Winbond's solution through dual-quad I/O interface can support 80% of the data flow.Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND is an SLC NAND and is more reliable and cost-effective than automotive eMMC solutions on the market. Compared to NOR flash, Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND has a superior cost-performance ratio.Furthermore, Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND is an AEC-Q100 compliant NAND flash with an operating temperature range between -40 degree C and 105 degree C. In terms of data retention characteristics, Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND can support 10 years of data retention at 85 degree C after 1,000 cycles, whereas eMMC can only support data retention for a fraction of that time under the same conditions even when used in pSLC mode."Winbond looks to replace high density NOR flash with high quality automotive grade NAND flash," said William. The current automotive display, ADAS and other automotive applications still largely use high density NOR flash, ranging from 256 Mbit to 1Gbit. Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND offers both cost and performance advantages and stands a chance of taking over a share of the high density NOR flash market. In addition, Winbond, with its in-house fabrication capacity, has full control over the manufacturing process and therefore can guarantee long-term steady supply to customers.As more cars become connected, the demand for data storage is expected to reach 1TB by 2020. Many world-leading memory suppliers have been expanding into the automotive industry. Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND, leveraging its Continuous Read technology and lower packaging cost, will be able to meet the automotive industry's stringent requirements for high performance, high reliability and low cost components.Winbond's serial NAND

Following a business re-organization in the second half of 2017, Gigabyte Technology is now looking to unifying all its products under the Aorus gaming brand, seeking to bring a consistent user experience, according to Gigabyte's Sales and Marketing Center vice president, Eddie Lin.To expand Aorus' penetration, Gigabyte also recently entered several new component and product business segments and will release a series of devices for each of them to answer customers' demand. Digitimes recently had a chance to chat with Lin about the company's operation, the company's plans for the gaming businesses, and the cryptocurrency business opportunity.Q: What is the latest status of Gigabyte's Aorus gaming product lineup?A: Although Gigabyte has just gone through a business re-organization, the company actually has not changed much in terms of the basic business structure. Most of the changes are in the business culture.In the past, Gigabyte's product development strategy focused on individual projects: we would complete one project before moving on to the next. We identified features and technologies our gaming customers would want and implemented them into our devices.Now, the new strategy is to think how our products can echo one another all under our Aorus gaming brand. For example, our motherboards, graphics cards, mice and keyboards should all have a unified industrial design to build up the feel they belong to the same series, and the same concept also applies to our software user interfaces and user experience.Most importantly, this feel of a unified series should also echo what our customers are seeking in their gaming products. Simply put, we want to let our customers feel that their positive experiences using Gigabyte's products are consistent, so whatever values they are seeking in any of Gigabyte's devices can also be found in any of our other products.Since Gigabyte has already merged the desktop and all its component businesses into a unified gaming business group, we expect the process of synchronizing our product lines to be much easier than before.For Aorus, in addition to our existing product lines including notebooks, motherboards, graphics cards, keyboards, mice and other peripherals, we have expanded the brand's product portfolio to include new devices such as monitors, solid state drives (SSD) and DRAM.As for the desktop, Gigabyte continues focusing on developing its Brix series mini-PCs.Q: What are the company's goals for Aorus gaming products in 2018?A: The year 2017 was the beginning year of our Aorus gaming brand and for the second year, Gigabyte's main targets are to further refine the series by listening to and understanding the needs of our customers; to work with the customers to enrich the gaming ecosystem; and to expand the series both horizontally and vertically.For the vertical expansion, we have been strengthening our marketing resources and approaches to improve related contents and materials. We also have created a mascot to represent the Aorus spirit.For the horizontal expansion, cultivating deeper into each region is Gigabyte's main focus. For example, the company has opened several Gigabyte flagship stores in China for demonstrating and selling Gigabyte's hardware. We are also partnering with Internet cafes in China, decorating them with Aorus themes as a form of promotion.Meanwhile, Gigabyte continues taking aggressive approaches to supporting e-sport events and is scheduled to host Aorus Open PUBG Tournament 2018 in June and July with gaming competitions to take place in several major regions including China, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, the US and France.The company is also increasing its resources for sponsoring e-sport activities in 2018. Gigabyte sponsored a total of nine major gaming events in 2017 and the number will rise to 12 this year.In addition to sponsorships for downstream e-sport players, Gigabyte also has new partnerships with Intel and Nvidia. Gigabyte is currently working with Intel to push Core i+ series motherboards that natively support Optane Memory. These motherboards all come with 32GB of Optane Memory for enhanced CPU performance.Customers will also continue seeing Gigabyte's exclusive technologies including RGB Fusion with Digital LEDs, ESS Sabre reference DAC music chip with audiophile Grade capacitors and Ultra Durable components in their favorite Gigabyte motherboards.However, we are not satisfied by simply adopting the best components into our products. Our target is to study customers' usage habits and improve our components to meet the habits.Despite the business re-organization and the management changes, Gigabyte is still the same Gigabyte and our user-oriented business culture and emphasis on product quality remain the same.We have also been forming partnerships with other enterprises for some interesting gaming-related projects. Apart from Arous Open PUBG Tournament 2018, which has helped us established partnerships with several enterprises, we have also collaborated with Electronic Arts (EA) to release an energy drink in Germany with Aorus and EA product images on the can.We also have been in talks over many other projects, but it is not yet time to reveal the details about them.In addition to physical products, we have many cooperation cases with game streamers worldwide for product promotions and are also investing resources to launch marketing campaigns with upstream and downstream partners.In the past, Gigabyte's promotion activities focused mainly on traditional channels, but since 2017, we have started to use more diverse types of marketing in different channels. With Gigabyte having integrated all its gaming-related businesses under the Aorus brand and the fact that we have shown our determination of running the Aorus brand, we have earned many invitations from worldwide businesses and gamers for gaming-related cooperation.Q: What innovations or technologies will be unveiled or showcased at Computex 2018?A: We do not have any new products for Computex 2018 as our upstream platform partners have not prepared any new products for the show.However, we are showcasing our extended peripheral product lines under the Aorus brand including SSDs and memory and are displaying the full series of our existing Aorus brand products at our Computex booth.Q: What is Gigabyte's thought on cryptocurrencies? Will ASICs have some impact on graphics card demand from the cryptocurrency industry?A: Cryptocurrencies are one of the applications of the blockchain technology and the technology is becoming a popular topic in the IT industry. To fairly distribute the cryptocurrencies to users, mining has become one of the main methods for the system to give out the digital currencies.However, mining is not the only way as there are also cryptocurrencies that have adopted other type of distributing methods.In my personal view, blockchain actually has a lot potential and because of the technology's characteristic of creating records in multiple terminals. It is able to significantly limit a trading system's dependence on a center machine and eliminate many of the recording flaws seen on traditional systems. Compared to blockchain business in general, opportunities from cryptocurrencies are not as stable.As for the rise in demand for cryptocurrency ASICs, I believe the growing popularity of ASICs will have some impacts on the cryptocurrency industry's demand for graphics cards, but the problem will not be as serious as many market watchers expect.As I said before, cryptocurrencies are a rather unstable business. Each ASIC is created specifically for the calculation of one particular type of cryptocurrency and cannot be switched to support other cryptocurrency mining. This will give advantages to graphics cards, which can widely support any kind of cryptocurrency mining process. Most miners will be wary of the risks of switching all its machines to ASICs.Eddie Lin, Gigabyte's Sales and Marketing Center vice presidentPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2018

Shipments of handsets by Taiwan's brand vendors and ODMs totaled 17.8 million units in the first quarter of 2018, down 27.8% on quarter but up 17.5% on year, according to Digitimes Research.The Foxconn Group led all brand vendors and ODMs in unit shipments in the first quarter despite a cutback in both smartphone and feature phone orders from HMD Global (Nokia). Asustek Computer and HTC managed to retain their second and third rankings in the quarter although both saw their shipments decrease.ODMs Compal Electronics and Arima Communications took the fourth and fifth positions, respectively, in unit shipments.Digitimes Research expects combined handset shipments by Taiwan's brand vendors and ODMs to expand 24.2% sequentially in the second quarter, as Foxconn is set to ramp up its shipments thanks to a rebound in orders from HMD Global, and Asustek will see a significant shipment growth in the quarter amid the increasing availability of its new models.

In 2010, the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) officially selected Wuxi National Hi-Tech Industry Development Zone as a national electronic information industry (sensor network) demonstration base, setting off a global IoT trend that has extended into 2018. Although explosive growth has yet to happen, applications continue to roll out and high-tech developments continue to advance, especially communication technologies.Aside from existing WLAN and Bluetooth, additional networking standards designed for IoT applications have been burgeoning over recent years. According to Eric Yu, Assistant Vice President, signal integrity business unit, Integrated Service Technology (iST), IoT applications are diverse and so are their use scenarios, so they impose wide-ranging requirements on communication technologies. This is also the biggest challenge to be addressed during the development phase of IoT products.Communication technologies for IoT applications can be categorized based on the distance over which signals are transmitted into near-field, short-range and long-range. Near-field communication protocols such as NFC and EMVCo enable two devices to communicate with each other within a 10cm distance. Short-range protocols allow communication over a distance between 10cm and 5km and include WPAN (Bluetooth and Zigbee) and WLAN (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac) respectively for closer and farther ranges. Long-range protocols are for communication across a more than 5km distance over networks include free LPWAN (LoRa) and license-based cellular networks (LTE, 3GPP, GSM, WCDMA, etc). These are main standards currently used by IoT applications. Communication is essential to IoT system operation and stability is a crucial consideration in product design. Although there are no mandated IoT testing standards regarding to performance at present, experienced laboratory test procedures can help manufacturers ensure their product quality. Furthermore, professional labs with extensive experiences can also help discover blind spots that may have been overlooked during the design phase and solve problems that occur when a product is put to use under special circumstances, said Yu.Current lab tests include basic tests, performance tests, special function tests and certification tests. Basic tests check safety, regularity, energy consumption and reliability. Performance tests measure connectivity, desense and transmission capacity. Special function tests validate system integration and information security. Certification tests verify compliance with special requirements set by government institutions or industry alliances.Among the four types of tests, certification tests are usually mandatory while basic tests on safety, regularity and energy consumption are required by national or regional regulations and reliability tests are conducted on manufacturer's own initiative. Although not all of these tests are obligatory, manufacturers regard them as necessary and make it a habit to send products to tests in view of market demand on product quality. In comparison to certification tests and basic tests, performance tests and special function tests are not mandatory and are generally self-initiated by manufacturers. However, due to IoT's special characteristics, Yu thinks the two will play an influential role to IoT product design and market competition.IoT products make use of not one but multiple technologies. Yu draws on smart home devices for example. Smart lighting in a future home will likely use Zigbee or Bluetooth and smart meters will likely use NB-IoT to send signals to a relay device such as a hub or gateway which then forwards the signals via WLAN networks. The market has begun to see such a mixed use of multiple communication technologies. However, certifications of wireless communication standards are still implemented on a one-by-one basis. Only Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA) subsidiary Converged Wireless Group (CWG) has proposed specifications on device performance when operating concurrently with cell phone signal and Wi-Fi signal. Other countries or regions have yet to engage in such practices.Yu thinks when multiple communication standards are engaged by IoT systems, testing will be more important than when a single standard is used. Take smart lighting again for example. The lighting market is dominated by a few leaders such as Philips and Samsung. They not only have their own products but also their own standards. They have also incorporated communication mechanisms in their product design. But the market still lacks established standards that support interoperability among communication technologies developed by different manufacturers.Furthermore, there is the problem of desense. Wireless communication uses a very concentrated range of frequencies, mostly on 2.4GHz and 5GHz now. Communication technologies operating within the same range of frequencies can use different demodulation techniques so that the receiving end can make accurate detection of the signals but interference is still unavoidable, particularly in the 2.4GHz band, which already has Bluetooth and WiFi. Furthermore USB 3.0 operates on 5GHz data rate could also have strong interference to 2.4GHz signals. There have been reports of such interferences occurring in TV, for example.Test items for TV used to typically focus on the quality of HDMI, video performance, and tuner. However, as the media industry began to undergo some changes in 2016, people getting use to watch video signals stream over Ethernet rather than over cable networks. The way it works is that signals coming to the home via external Ethernet are then sent to TV using Wi-Fi through an Access Point (AP). As such, Wi-Fi has become the fourth main test item for TV. For a home theater systems with standalone speakers, signal transmission between the TV and speakers is via Bluetooth connection. Accordingly, the TV sends video signals via both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the same 2.4GHz range, which makes it susceptible to interference. The situation is bad enough for TV. Just think how much worse it will be when a future home is deployed with a complete IoT system and all devices are operating simultaneously.Customized testing is the solution to such a problem, proposed Yu. To test smart home devices, a common current practice is to set up a mockup home environment such as a living room, bathroom, kitchen or bedroom and then install IoT devices there to check how well the devices operate together and gain an understanding on their communication and operation status in the environment. This only checks one particular indoor setting but not able to cover different types of indoor environment which cannot be considered as a quick and effective initial test. In real-world application, IoT systems have to cope with different home settings and decorations and their functions may also vary based on home owner needs. As such, the test practice using a mockup home environment to check interoperability and performance provides little help to manufacturers.For now, emulator testing will be a cost-effective approach, said Yu. A software-based emulator environment is built wherein throughput capacity, roaming and desense tests are conducted. However, this must be backed by robust technologies. Take iST for example. Its chose the emulator base on correct theory and trustworthy. It is no easy to build a test environment using a emulator. With respect to throughput capacity testing, the tester has to know the signal strength and the influence of home decoration materials and arrangements on signals. iST's emulator developed with theory and field trial results taken into consideration produces a model of a real environment. First, a far field test environment is defined according to CTIA' test specifications and then correct parameters are input to the emulator to create a channel model of the indoor environment.Communication issues of IoT devices can be resolved in no time using the emulator. For example, iST helped a TV manufacturer work out a product glitch, said Yu. The TV manufacturer's products sold to the U.S. were returned by residents of an entire community because of poor Wi-Fi signal quality so the manufacturer came to iST for assistance. As the problem occurred in the U.S., it would be inefficient to dispatch engineers to conduct on-site tests. iST therefore chose to use the emulator to create a model of the scenario where the TV was put to use. It was able to discover that the root cause affecting Wi-Fi sensitivity field pattern. Knowing the root cause, the manufacturer then came up with a solution and used the emulator to test the feasibility of the solution, thereby solving the issue.Yu comments that connectivity is the biggest challenge for IoT system operation. On a system level, performance tests not only can help boost system performance from 80% to 90% but of more critical importance, they can help a system jump from 0% to 80%. After all, only when signals can be transmitted without error and glitch will system deployment be meaningful. Yu also reiterates with IoT developments picking up speed over recent years, different types of applications will begin to emerge. Mixed use of multiple technologies will be the only way to go. Testing is an essential step in guaranteeing system reliability, and customized testing tailored to fit different use scenarios will also be instrumental to product R&D in the future. The use of emulator to create modeled test environments will help manufacturers quickly get to the root of the problem and establish a strong foothold in the IoT market.Eric Yu, assistant vice president, signal integrity business unit, Integrated Service Technology (iST)

Google is now actively soliciting support for its ARCore and Google Lens platforms from handset vendors as it has taken the lesson from the ill-fated Tango platform which was discontinued due to increasing challenge from Apple's ARKit after it managed only to secure support from two handset makers and failed to entice significant inputs from application developers and to reach end consumers in scale, according to Digitimes Research.As of May 2018, the number of handset makers, excluding Google Pixel, which have decided to have their gadgets supporting ARCore and Google Lens has reached 10, respectively. Those who will support the ARCore include Samsung Electronics, Huawei, Xiaomi Technology, while China-based Transsion Holdings, a leading handset provider in Africa, will join the Google Lens club.To enhance the functionality of the two AR platforms, Googel announced ARCore 1.2 at the Google I/O 2018 developer's conference held in early May. The latest version of ARCore introduces three major new features: Sceneform, Augmented Images, and Cloud Anchors. Among them, the Augmented Images and Cloud Anchors are designed to enhance the liveliness and shared interactivity of virtual objects, Digitimes Research says.Meanwhile, the functionality of Google Lens was also expanded to support Google Camera, in addition to the previous support of Google Photo and Google Assistant.