Taiwanese have won a prototype prize at the European Satellite Navigation Competition, the state-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) said yesterday.
Taiwan’s entry, a “connected vehicle” prototype, was awarded the Galileo Pro title, the second-highest in the prototype category.
The project, called “Driving with Safety, Responsiveness and Courtesy,” uses integrated automobile and communication technology. It allows drivers to send warnings or thank-you signals to nearby vehicles by pressing a button, instead of using the common forms of traffic communication such as hand signals or horns, the ITRI said.
The prototype, submitted by Hua-chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co and the ITRI, vied with 64 other entries in that category, the institute said.
The overall winner was a project from Portugal that aimed to offer seamless, reliable navigation, even indoors, by means of ultra-low-frequency magnetic field communication (ULF-MC), according to the competition Web site.
The European Satellite Navigation Competition is an international competition aimed at stimulating ideas, incubation and development of applications and services made possible by the European satellite navigation system Galileo.
Organized by Germany’s Application Center for Satellite Navigation Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO) since 2004, the competition is geared toward companies, entrepreneurs, research institutes, universities and private individuals.
This year, a total of 406 entries from more than 40 countries were submitted.
At the award ceremony, Thorsten Rudolph, managing director of the AZO, pointed out that the competition has enjoyed a very successful partnership with Taiwan and the ITRI since 2008.
He said that a total of 400 submissions from Taiwan have established the country as the competition’s most valuable partner. Moreover, a Taiwanese initiative led to the start of a new chapter for the competition last year — the inauguration of a prototyping prize, he said. With the integration of the prototyping prize, the competition has expanded its scope to include both ideas and their development into fully fledged products, he said.
Asked about the innovation power of the ITRI, Rudolph said the institute was good at transforming ideas or concepts into substantial products, which was evidenced by its cooperation with Hua-chuang to win this year’s prototyping prize.
“They really want to work with the industry at the beginning,” he said.
“The risk of a development to fail can be reduced by the strategy,” Rudolph said
“This is very important also for European companies to use these prototypes and come to Taiwan and cooperate with the ITRI,” he said.
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
SAFETY IN REGULATION: The proposal states that Chiayi should assess whether it is viable to establish such a district and draft rules to protect clients and sex workers The Chiayi City Council passed a motion yesterday to assess the viability of establishing a regulated red-light district. The council yesterday held its last session of the year, at which its fiscal 2024 budget was approved, along with 61 other proposals. The proposal to assess the viability of establishing a red-light district was put forward by independent Chiayi City Councilor Molly Yen (顏色不分藍綠支持性專區顏色田慎節). The proposal cited 2011 amendments to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulate that city and county governments can pass autonomous regulations on the sex trade to manage the industry and guarantee industry workers’ rights. A ban on the
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
STABILITY AND CHANGE: Flagging in recent polls, Ko this week pledged to maintain President Tsai’s foreign policy, with an emphasis on improving China relations Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday reiterated that he is “deep-green at heart” in response to accusations that he is pivoting his campaign to align closer with the ideology of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the face of flagging polls. Ko made the remark at an agricultural policy conference in Taipei, repeating his comments from an interview with CTS News a day earlier. Ko told the CTS host that he would continue to pursue President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) national defense and foreign policy in general, but with an emphasis on establishing a rapport with
RSS