A group of professors and research assistants from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US shared the latest artificial-intelligence technology with researchers from Taiwan last week.
The four-day Oxygen Alliance workshop held at Acer Inc's Aspire Park in Taoyuan County -- the first time the research group has met outside the US -- ended on Friday.
Thirty-two participants took part in the workshops, learning about at least three new speech and face recognition technologies.
Launched in June 2000, the Oxygen Alliance is a US$50 million five-year project that intends to increase computer use and make their operation more human, creating technologies to replace desktop computers and keyboards with smaller, portable electronic devices. The group is also developing voice-controlled devices that can be hidden inside the walls of buildings and structures, making computers ultimately invisible to the majority of users.
MIT delegates at the workshop shared Galaxy, SpeechBuilder, and a face and speech recognition technology with participants, teaching them how to install and make enhancements to the technologies so that they can create their own branded products. Galaxy allows technicians to integrate speech technologies into devices to create conversational language systems. SpeechBuilder is a means to allow engineers unfamiliar with speech and language processing to create their own speech-based applications.
Security applications
MIT's face and speech-recognition technology allows a face snapshot to be taken and sent to a face-detection and face-recognition server wirelessly. Participants also learned about other technologies for use in digital personal organizers and tablet PCs.
A total of 250 researchers are involved in the Oxygen Alliance, which includes two MIT laboratories, Taiwan's Acer Group and Delta Electronics Inc (
"Acer has long cooperated with world class companies to conduct research into technologies designed to fit people's most natural and practical needs, and to drive innovation in a knowledge-based economy," said a statement from the company issued during the workshop last week.
Two examples of how Acer is developing artificially intelligent technologies were given in the statement. iRobot Corp, a joint venture between Acer and MIT, launched the automatic vacuum cleaner "Roomba" last September. The pizza-sized device uses intelligent navigation technology to clean hardwood, carpet or tiled floors without the need for human direction.
SensAble Technologies, also an Acer-MIT joint venture, made the first transatlantic handshake over the Internet in October 2002, using a computer and small robotic arm in the US and the UK.
Acer launched the Acer Value Lab in October last year as part of the Oxygen Alliance project. The primary objective of Acer Value Lab "is not only to create new technologies, but also to find practical ways to implement them to the best benefit of users," Acer's written statement said.
Handset camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Sunday reported a 6.71 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for the third quarter, despite revenue last month hitting the highest level in 11 months. Third-quarter revenue was NT$17.68 billion (US$581.2 million), compared with NT$18.95 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement. The figure was in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$17.9 billion, but missed the market consensus estimate of NT$18.97 billion. The third-quarter revenue was a 51.44 percent increase from NT$11.67 billion in the second quarter, as the quarter is usually the peak
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
RSS