Thirty-two Taiwanese start-ups plan to attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next month and the nation’s booth at the trade exhibition is to be the third-largest after those of France and the Netherlands, Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) told a news conference in Taipei on Tuesday.
The CES, which is to take place from Jan. 9 to Jan. 12, is the world’s biggest annual consumer electronics show, where technology giants and start-ups demonstrate their cutting-edge developments, Chen said, adding that this is the first time the ministry has convened a delegation to join the show.
The start-up teams are to present technologies that connect to five trends: artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, “smart” wearables, “smart” biotechnology and medicine applications, and virtual reality and augmented reality applications, he said.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Ministry officials are to host a “Taiwan night” networking event with foreign guests, including delegates from the Royal House of the Netherlands and the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Hsu Yu-chin (許有進) said.
The ministry expects a commercial value of about NT$300 million (US$10.1 million) from the teams’ participation in the convention, Hsu added.
Robotelf Technologies Co has been awarded the Robotics and Drones Innovation Award for its home security robot.
Equipped with face recognition and “big data” collection technology, the robot can enhance long-term care services, children’s education and security monitoring, and analyze consumer behavior, the company’s overseas sales representative David Luo (駱威郡) said while demonstrating a beta version on Tuesday.
The robot costs about NT$20,000, less than similar models, which sell for NT$40,000 to NT$100,000 or more, Luo said.
The company is refining its robotics and autonomous systems while expanding its applications, he added.
In related news, a three-day “Future Tech” exhibition organized by the ministry and the Taipei Computer Association opened yesterday and is to run through tomorrow at Taipei World Trade Center Hall 3.
The show features 109 new technologies related to “smart” applications, biotechnology, medicine, electronics and chemical engineering, the ministry said.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
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