New Technology, New Applications — Taitronics 2016

With continual advances being made in exciting areas such as wearable devices, smart products, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0, this year’s Taipei International Electronics Show (Taitronics) was an event not to be missed.

The 42nd edition of Taitronics, organised by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA), was held from 6–9 October at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. The organisers had kindly invited What’s New in Electronics to attend, and it was clear from the outset that the scale of the show was far in excess of any electronics industry event one could expect to find in Australia.

Under the theme of ‘New Technology, New Applications’, exhibitors representing 530 different organisations and 11 different countries showcased their wares to around 24,000 guests. As we navigated our way through over 1000 booths, we encountered exhibition areas such as Meters & Instruments, Smart Manufacturing and Medical Care, indicating the wide range of products and applications that we would be coming across. There were also eight themed pavilions which brought together displays from a variety of vendors, covering fields such as cloud computing, smart living and smart safety.

Innovation

For five years now, the organisers of Taitronics have presented annual Technology Innovation Awards, honouring a selection of products for their innovation, industry contribution, market value, energy-saving potential, and aesthetics and design. This year, Gold Awards were presented across three categories, with a number of runner-up Quality Awards in each.

GW Instek won the Broadband Products & Cloud Tech Gold Award for its 3.25 GHz Spectrum Analyser, which has the novel feature of being able to analyse data while in the process of collecting it. King Design Industrial won the Electronic Products Gold Award for its sunlight simulator, Apollo, for manufacturers who need to measure the efficiency of solar cells on production lines and in the laboratory. Finally, the Electronics Components & Parts Gold Award went to SFI Electronics Technology for its semiconductor-based ESD protection device (SGD), which is said to save processing time, improve quality and reduce part of component storage space.

There were also several Quality Awards presented in each category. These included the Yantouch EyE Speaker, which combines music with a light display; the Guider Senya smart watch, which includes safety features such as location tracking and fall detection; and Transverse Industries’ walking assist device, which includes a laser floor marker to help rehab patients who are learning to walk again.

In the home

While not all the products on display could be award winners, that didn’t mean they couldn’t be innovative. For example, Sampo’s Smart Home gateway allows you to remotely control your lighting, security and appliances. With the inclusion of sensors that indicate air quality, humidity, whether doors are open and the likelihood of rain, the user can alter their appliances’ settings to match the conditions. The gateway even includes a secret camera so you can monitor what’s going on in your home, Meet the Parents style!

Meanwhile, OUiGO was showcasing its massive 100″ New TV screen, claimed to be the world’s largest TV projector screen. Taking the phrase ‘home theatre’ to a whole new level, the screen is suitable for a projector with a laser light source, meaning the screen itself will never deteriorate and can effectively last forever. Furthermore, the picture is said to be better quality than on an LED/LCD screen, with a soft image that shouldn’t damage the user’s eyes.

In the workplace

With data analytics becoming an increasingly important part of marketing, Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry (III) has launched the So Fashion Omni-Channel Commercial Solution. The platform collects both raw sales data and records of customer behaviour via social media reviews. It then analyses this data to help corporations get a better understanding of what their customers think of them — and their competitors.

For more industrial applications, NEXCOM is making a shift to the IoT automation space. Factory owners who install their computers with the company’s PLC controller will receive machine automation control, with the ability to stop, start or program machines with the tap of the screen. You can even monitor progress through your phone, so if a machine shuts down for some reason, you’ll be informed immediately.

In the great outdoors

For the more active electronics enthusiasts out there, AiQ has launched its Smart Clothing range for sport and fitness applications, as well as leisure, home care and health care. The company’s BioMan fitness range, for example, features integrated wearable (and washable) electrodes that pick up signals from your skin as you exercise. These are then sent to an app on your phone, which allows you to monitor vital health information such as heart rate.

The Sightour MySight360 wearable virtual reality (VR) camera, on the other hand, is designed for hikers who want to share and relive their experiences. The lightweight (<90 g) camera is smaller than a business card, meaning it can be easily clipped onto the user’s clothes. Featuring a fish-eye lens for an immersive viewing experience, its calibration algorithm provides steady viewing. The dustproof, splashproof camera will be launched on Kickstarter in November.

In the hospital

This heading is a bit of a cheat, since it’s more about keeping people out of hospital. For example, the III’s Postoperative Wound Analytics Service allows a discharged patient to take a photo of their wound and send it to the cloud via a smartphone. The server’s analytics capability will detect if the wound could be infected and notify the doctor, who can contact the patient as needed. This eliminates the need for unnecessary appointments, which is especially useful for patients living in regional areas.

Start-up company Giant Power Biomedical Technology has meanwhile released the COMGO health bracelet — a wearable device which features both ECG (electrocardiography) and PPG (photoplethysmography) signals for precision analysis and operation. It is intended for people who would otherwise not be able to measure physiology information such as pulse, blood oxygen, blood pressure and body temperature. This makes it particularly suitable for nursing home residents.

In the virtual world

With products such as the Oculus Rift taking the world by storm, it is clear that VR is becoming, well, reality! There were a variety of VR entertainment options on display at the show, with Gelly Bomb Games showcasing its VR Somatosensory Game. The player flies around on a magic carpet within the game, trying to collect gems and avoid obstacles along the way. Movements within the game are controlled by the user’s own balance and body movements while sitting on a real-life carpet. It was an enjoyable game to experience, but this reporter recommends wearing something other than a skirt while playing it!

But VR is not all about fast-paced gaming — it can also be about art. Taiwan’s National Palace Museum offers Roaming through Fantasy Land, which adapts painter Zhao Mengfu’s ‘Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains’ into an immersive VR experience. As the participant sits in a small boat, slowly rowing down the ancient Yellow River, one can almost feel the boat bobbing up and down on the water. It is a very calming experience, with the outside world all but blocked out, and quite unlike other VR experiences that are out there.

In the air

Devotees of drone technology witnessed the launch (no pun intended) of Nuvoton’s M4 Drone Kit, which includes a flight control board, a joystick, a 2.4G RF module, a section board and an emulator. The package also features a complete Attitude Heading and Reference System (AHRS) Library to facilitate user control, so users no longer have to work out how to calculate the attitude and heading — instead, they can focus on perfecting the flight controls and developing flight applications.

GeoSat Aerospace & Technology went in a different direction, announcing a lightweight drone which is primarily designed for taking selfies. Named ‘Venus’ and intended to open up the drone market to women, the drone comes equipped with a 1.3 MP camera and a smart detection feature that automatically takes a photo if it senses a smile. Venus is expected to go on sale during the second quarter of 2017.

In the cloud

Of course, a number of the above technologies would not be possible without cloud computing. But how do you know what type of cloud system is best for your organisation? Infinities Soft’s Hybrid Cloud Management Platform is intended to optimise use of the public cloud, so users can schedule their clouds to be on or off as needed rather than running 24/7. They can also track the expenses associated with each cloud and receive regular reports, including notifications if any suspicious wastage seems to be occurring.

For private users, Beaconpliance has announced the BOXIE personal mobile cloud for iOS devices. Photos and videos shot with the BOXIE app are directly stored in the cloud without taking up any of the local storage on the user’s iPhone or Pad. This allows you to record a 4K video for up 100 minutes, with low battery consumption, even with a 16 GB iPhone. The app is available for pre-order now.

In conclusion

It would be impossible to cover every exhibitor, seminar, forum and conference that took place over Taitronics’ four-day runtime — if I so much as tried, we’d be here all day. I can only conclude that the best way to experience Taitronics is to attend it for yourself. You may not get a chance to see everything, but you’ll see a lot more than could ever be summed up in one 1600-word article.

The show will once again be open to the public in 2017, and overseas attendees can pre-register online for free entry. For more information on the show, including assistance and subsidy opportunities, contact Taiwan Trade Centre, Sydney on 61-2-9279-4800 or visit https://www.taitronics.tw/.