As the drive toward making a comprehensive Internet of Things system continues, this year’s Computex Taipei demonstrated that many companies are expanding their reach in the sector through applications such as home security, smart vehicles and various lifestyle devices.
Many of the new applications were designed to provide consumers with more convenience by integrating the smart city and smart home concepts.
Taiwanese start-up Zillians Inc (奇群科技) demonstrated a smart feeder that employs a feline facial recognition algorithm for families that own more than one cat.
The smart feeder, CatFi, features weight sensors underneath the feeding tray, and can automatically measure and calculate a cat’s food and water intake, as well as their weight, to further understand each cat’s daily dietary status, Zillians said.
When a cat approaches the smart feeder and steps on the feeding tray, CatFi activates its facial recognition software and delivers food and water for the cat, the firm said.
“Users can monitor their cat’s daily, weekly and monthly dietary status simply by checking a mobile app developed by Zillians, which is critical to monitoring a cat’s health,” senior marketing specialist Jennifer Chiu (邱敬恩) told the Taipei Times in the company’s booth at the Computex trade show.
Chiu said measured data is collected and analyzed in Zillians’ cloud-based servers. Users can receive a warning message from the app when a cat exhibits abnormal dietary behavior, she said.
The firm plans to start worldwide shipments of CatFi, which is priced at US$199 for pre-orders including shipping, at the end of this year.
Zillians’ target markets are the US and Japan, Chiu said, as there are more than 100 million cats owned by families in the US, with an average of two cats per family.
Another Taiwanese start-up, Here Co Ltd (迪英佳科技), showcased LifeBring, which aims to remind users to take important things with them before leaving home.
LifeBring, priced at NT$1,299, includes a B-Door device, which is attached to doors, and the B-Tag, a coin-shaped device that can be put on a keychain or in a wallet, the company said.
The B-Door was designed to alert users when they forget to take their smartphones with them, while a mobile app helps users find belongings that have a B-Tag attached, the company said.
According to Computex organizers, this year more than 700 exhibitors, or 40 percent, were focused on the Internet of Things and mobile applications, followed by big data and cloud-computing technology.
Targeting corporate clients, BenQ Corp (明基電通) offered a series of integrated smart solutions, brand communication manager Debby Chen (陳蕙欣) said, referring to the company’s smart energy system on display at the annual expo.
The system was designed to collect an area’s energy consumption data and analyze it via BenQ’s cloud-based service, then offering the most efficient energy efficient conservation plans to customers, Chen said.
President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) has adopted BenQ’s energy management solutions at more than 500 stores nationwide, she said, as well as a system that instantly shows product information on a wall display when consumers pick up products from shelves.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”