A lifesaving watch, a singing faucet, a talking clothes hanger and an LED wedding dress are among the 2,000 new inventions and technologies to be showcased at this year’s Taipei Invention Show and Technomart, scheduled to begin on Thursday.
The watch, which functions as a flotation device that can support a person weighing up to 200kg in the water, contains an airbag that can be inflated within seconds. The wedding dress made of LED-embedded yarn aims to create a glowing visual effect to awe an audience.
The singing faucet, which plays music for 15 seconds before any water comes out, is supposed to encourage users to rub their hands thoroughly with liquid soap before washing, while the talking clothes hanger provides information about the material, style and price of a garment.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
“We hope the singing faucets can be used in hospitals, kindergartens, nursery schools and care homes for the elderly,” the makers said on Thursday at a pre-show press conference.
Now in its sixth year, the show at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1 will feature the latest innovations and technologies from 20 countries and more than 660 companies, according to the organizers, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (外貿協會) and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
This year’s show promotes green products, inventions for use in everyday life and biotechnology items that improve people’s well-being, IPO deputy director Chu Hsing-hua (朱興華) said.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Information Industry (資策會) will showcase a 3G femtocell base station at the invention show.
The institute has said that it will seek international standardization certification for Taiwan’s first locally made compact base station, which is designed to increase residential wireless coverage, by the end of this year.
The institute said in a statement on Friday that it hopes local companies will be able to gain a share of a booming market for base stations after the Third Generation Partnership Project — the standardization organization in the field — certifies the technology at an upcoming event.
Major telecom operators in North America and the UK, such as AT&T Inc, Verizon Inc, Sprint Nextel Corp and Vodafone Group PLC have launched similar devices to provide better home coverage, the institute said.
Locally developed femtocells will likely cost only US$100 per unit, well below the current average of US$180 per unit for imported ones, the institute estimated.
The invention show will last until Oct. 3 and is estimated to draw 86,000 visitors this year, according to the trade development council.
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