The National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) yesterday said that it would display its smart disaster monitoring systems at the Secutech Thailand exhibit next week in a bid to boost technological and industrial ties with Southeast Asian nations.
The NARL would be attending the exhibit for the first time, after establishing the its first overseas office at the Thailand Science Park in Bangkok in March, said NARL vice president Wu Kuang-chong (吳光鐘), who is to lead a delegation to the exhibit from Monday to Thursday next week.
The NARL is to exhibit five disaster monitoring and warning technologies developed by its National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering and its National Center for High-performance Computing.
Its “Smart Earth Simulator” platform utilizes geographic and building information systems, images and data gathered by satellites, uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) as well as light detection and ranging devices to produce spatial models to monitor flooding, earthquakes and traffic safety, and can incorporate virtual reality and augmented reality imagery when necessary, the NARL said.
The “On-site Earthquake Early Warning System” can detect faster and subtler primary waves created by an earthquake, and estimate the intensity of secondary waves to issue warnings using artificial intelligence technology, which has been used to help mitigate the effects of earthquakes in many semiconductor manufacturing plants, high-speed rail stations and school buildings, it said.
The “Safety and Disaster Prevention Management System for Intelligent Bridges” monitors bridge deterioration and facilitates maintenance work, while the “Smart Flood-proofing System” integrates forecasts of rain and tidal levels to issue inundation alarms, it said.
The “Integration Platform of Multi-dimensional Information Fusion” can integrate terrain data, as well as UAV and shapefile data to produce 3D spatial models, including details such as underground pipelines and fault lines, it said.
The NARL is also collaborating with the Thai Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency in the country’s efforts to develop its own satellites.
The NARL built its first overseas office in Thailand mainly because the National Space Organization has long had a partnership with the Thai space agency, Wu said.
The NARL’s earthquake research center would help schools in northern Thailand reinforce their buildings to withstand earthquakes, as a magnitude 6 earthquake in 2014 damaged many buildings in the region, Wu said.
Thai National Science and Technology Development Agency President Narong Sirilertworakul is expected to visit Taiwan soon to discuss opportunities for further bilateral collaboration, Wu added.
Part of Smart City Solutions Week, Secutech Thailand is held at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre with the Thailand Lighting Fair, Thailand Building Fair and Digital Thailand Big Bang.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS