The Taipei Market Administration Office yesterday introduced touchscreen kiosks at Xihu Market (西湖市場) that allow customers to order meals in the food court by using their smartphone to scan a quick response code.
The system was unveiled for the Taipei Traditional Market Festival, which opened at Xihu Market.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said that as the market shares a building with MRT Xihu Station and receives ample foot traffic, the office last year budgeted funding to renovate the market in the hopes of attracting more visitors and making the market a tourist attraction in Neihu District (內湖).
Photo: CNA
The renovation included changing floor tiles, tables and chairs at the market’s second-floor food court; improving entry, exit and information signs and layout maps; and remodeling 15 stalls, the office said.
Five touchscreen kiosks, which were installed near entrances this week, display products sold at each food stall and provide codes that customers can scan to order meals, it said.
The market is near Neihu Technology Park (內湖科技園區) and many of the park’s workers frequent its food court, the office said, adding that it collaborated with two technology companies to introduce the point-of-sale kiosks in the hopes of making food orders more convenient and less time-consuming.
The office said that it plans to introduce the system at three other traditional markets in the second half of this year.
With the Central Epidemic Command Center easing disease prevention measures and the city’s public facilities beginning to gradually reopen to the public today, people can choose not to wear a mask if they can maintain social distancing on public transportation, Huang said.
However, vendors and visitors at the city’s public markets are still required to wear masks, she said.
DOING ENOUGH? The HPA budgets NT$1.3 billion to prevent the health hazards of tobacco, but has no separate budget to fight teen drinking, a doctor said The government should step up alcohol education and prevention efforts, and allocate more of the budget to it, doctors said on Friday, citing the high consumption of alcohol among Taiwanese adolescents. One out of four 12-to-17-year-olds has consumed alcohol, said Yen Tsung-hai (顏宗海), director of Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Department of Clinical Toxicology. The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) budgets NT$1.3 billion (US$43.9 million) annually to prevent the health hazards of tobacco, but it has not allocated a separate budget for preventing teenage drinking or excessive alcohol use, Yen said. “There is no so-called ‘safe drinking level’ for minors,” because any amount consumed
The Fancy Frontier manga and anime expo held in Taipei over the weekend has sparked controversy, after a participant allegedly contravened the Act on Offenses Against Sexual Morality (妨害風化罪) by publicly exposing her private parts during a photo shoot. The two-day event opened at the Expo Dome at the Taipei Expo Park on Saturday, attracting numerous comic and anime creators, cosplayers, photographers and fans. Allegedly, a female cosplayer who was not wearing any underwear lifted up her skirt and revealed her private parts at an outdoor photography area near the venue. Event organizers said yesterday that to prevent indecent exposure, they have since
YOUNGEST PATIENT: Cases of botulism have been only sporadically reported over the past few years, with two in 2015, six in 2016 and none in the past three years The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of infant botulism this year, a four-month-old boy in northern Taiwan, as well as five new cases of Japanese encephalitis confirmed last week. The boy was introduced to homemade solid food in the middle of last month, but began to experience constipation and loss of appetite on June 23, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said, adding that he was taken to the hospital when he developed a fever and shortness of breath on June 25. In the hospital, the boy also experienced a rapid heartbeat, limb
The National Taiwan Museum’s Railway Department Park in Taipei is to open to the public today. The park in Datong District (大同) near the North Gate (北門, Beimen) is one of the museum’s four branches. During the Japanese colonial era, the site housed the railway department of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan’s Bureau of Transportation. After World War II, it served as the headquarters for the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) for several decades. In 2007, it was listed as a national monument under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法). At an opening ceremony yesterday, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung
RSS