:::

【2022 Solutions】 Complete checkout in 1 second, Viscovery AI image recognition assists smart retail

Artificial intelligence (AI) has gradually changed the way various industries operate in recent years. However, most of the work is still done by humans, with AI playing a supporting role. This has led to emergence of the term "AI Copilot," which stands for "AI-driven tools or assistants" that aim to assist users in completing various tasks and improve productivity and efficiency.

The concept of AI Copilot comes from the role of "co-pilot". During flight, the co-pilot assists the main pilot in completing various tasks to ensure flight safety and efficiency. In fact, there have been signs of various "machines" beginning to play the role of "copilot" in different fields since the Industrial Revolution, assisting humans in completing heavy physical and repetitive tasks, greatly improving factory production efficiency, and driving rapid economic development.

Following the advancement of computing equipment and breakthroughs in machine learning, deep learning, and image recognition technologies, the concept of AI Copilot has gradually taken shape. The development of AI Copilot marks the transition from "machine-assisted to AI-assisted." Early robots could only complete preset repetitive tasks, but today's AI copilot can learn and adapt to new environments and tasks, and continuously optimize its performance in practical applications. This transformation not only changes human-machine interactions, but also has a profound impact on various industries.

The application scope of AI copilot covers various industries, including: finance, healthcare, manufacturing, education, retail, etc., and are everywhere to be seen.

Application of AI copilot in the retail industry: AI image recognition checkout

In the retail industry, the application of AI copilot has begun to show concrete results.

Take Viscovery's AI image recognition checkout system as an example. This system is a type of AI copilot model that helps store clerks speed up checkout or assists consumers in simplifying the self-service checkout process.

The store clerk needs to scan the product barcodes one by one in the regular checkout method. If a product does not have a barcode, such as: bread and meals, the clerk needs to first visually confirm the items, and then input them into the POS checkout system one by one. Based on actual measurements at a chain bakery, it takes 22 seconds for an experienced clerk from "visual recognition" to "entering product information of a plate of 6 items into the checkout system." New clerks may need even more time. In addition, according to a Japanese bakery operator, it takes 1 to 2 months to train employees to become familiar with products.

Now with AI image recognition technology, store clerks let AI handle the "product recognition" step, and AI will play the role of copilot, quickly identifying items within 1 second, speeding up checkout to save 50% of checkout time, and optimizing customers'shopping experience. The time cost of training employees to identify bread can also be effectively shortened.

Even for products with barcodes, AI can quickly identify multiple items in one second, which is more efficient than scanning barcodes one by one!

The self-checkout system "assisted" by AI image recognition allows consumers to successfully complete shopping without the help of store clerks, eliminating the trouble of swiping barcodes or searching for items on the screen, which improves the shopping experience. In a time when store clerks are hard to hire due to labor shortage, this also helps stores reduce operating costs.

▲ AI quickly identifies multiple checkout items in just one second (Source of image: Viscovery)

Recently, startups dedicated to developing AI image recognition checkout solutions have emerged in various countries. The most lightweight solution currently known is in Taiwan. It can be immediately used by installing a Viscovery lens and a tablet installed with Viscovery AI image recognition software at the checkout counter to connect to the store's existing POS checkout system.

There are various integration methods, including plug-and-play and API solutions integrated with the store's POS system.

▲ Viscovery AI image recognition system can be painlessly integrated with the store's existing POS system (Source of image: Viscovery)

Example of AI image recognition checkout

Currently, the Viscovery AI image recognition system is being used in bakery chains in Taiwan, Chinese noodle shops in Singapore, micromarkets in department stores in Sendai, Japan, and Japanese bakeries and cake shops. Over 7 million transactions were completed through this AI system, which identified more than 40 million items. These use cases demonstrate the extensive application of the Viscovery AI image recognition system in the retail industry. In the future, the company will continue to explore the various possibilities of using Vision AI in retail and catering.

 

▲ The Viscovery AI image recognition system is already being used in bakeries, cake shops, restaurants, and convenience stores in Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan (Source of image: Viscovery)

Recommend Cases

【解決方案】AI電眼取代人眼 慧演智能運用AI幫製造業做品管
Using AI vision to replace human vision, Claireye Intelligence uses AI to help the manufacturing industry with quality control

In response to customer demand on a wide variety of products in small quantities in the manufacturing industry, there is an urgent need to find AI solutions from the cloud to terminals Claireye Intelligence provides a solution that integrates software and hardware - BailAI image inspection solution to assist traditional manufacturing industries in improving process efficiency and product quality, thereby achieving the initial goal of transformation After the government declared 2017 to be Taiwan's "First Year of AI," AI startups have sprung up in Taiwan Established in 2018, Claireye Intelligence targets smart manufacturing and provides a platform for AI image analysis and process optimization, using the power of deep learning to detect product defects and abnormalities in the assembly process It assists companies in building infrastructure from terminals to the cloud, which enables automated monitoring of factory production to improve process efficiency and quality Focusing on AI image inspection based on its familiarity with the production line quality control process Shirley Liu, founder and CEO of Claireye Intelligence, is a young entrepreneur She entered the manufacturing industry after graduating from college and held a quality control position in the plastic injection process of hard disk parts "She was already on the production line at the time, and is familiar with the production line process of production machinery" She later switched career paths to marketing and planning, and then worked as an AI product manager When the time came, Shirley Liu decided to start a business, focusing on AI image recognition in the manufacturing industry "The difficulty for enterprises is the lack of an AI development team Even if an enterprise has an AI team, development projects will take a lot of time, at least 6-12 months" said Shirley Liu, who is well versed in the market's pain points The problem that needs to be solved by platforms is to provide services that allow traditional manufacturing industries to build their own AI models without needing employees with a programming background, and to remotely assist production lines with troubleshooting and subsequent system maintenance, helping companies save development time and labor costs BailAI image inspection platform usage scenarios Facing the large number of competitors that provide AI image recognition in the market, what are the technical advantages of Claireye Intelligence Shirley Liu said that many companies currently have AOI equipment, but the bottleneck in the application of AOI is that it can only be used for defect inspection in fast production of large quantities, and parameters need to be adjusted after each inspection or production Based on her understanding of the industry, most SMEs are limited by their financial resources due to AOI equipment often costing over NT1 million, but they also want to use automated inspection This is where Claireye Intelligence comes in Shirley Liu went on to say that it is impossible for traditional manufacturing industries to maintain a technical team that includes AI engineers, data engineers, cloud architects, and terminal architects Claireye Intelligence specializes in software and hardware integration Enterprises can use the BailAI image inspection platform to easily solve inspection problems on the production line In other words, customers only need to provide images or samples for Claireye Intelligence to carry out model training, model deployment, and system integration, and they can easily use AI technology to optimize and monitor production line processes Participated in the AI New Talent Selection and achieved a recognition rate of over 90 in assembly behavioral image recognition For example, a certain connector manufacturer only has 1-2 AI engineers in its technical team The main problem that needs to be solved is that most operators are on the production line, while quality control and senior managers are not on site, and the company wants to understand the actual situation of the production line through remote monitoring Claireye Intelligence uses industrial cameras to capture production line images, and transmits AI image analysis to the remote end Supervisors and quality control personnel can observe if there are any errors in the production line assembly, such as whether the connectors and lines are connected properly, through the monitor Claireye Intelligence's AI image inspection operates on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform, and also utilizes terminal equipment, such as NVIDIA's edge computing equipment placed around the inspection station, to assist traditional manufacturing industries with improving production line efficiency and detecting problems early through an integrated solution from the cloud to terminals Claireye Intelligencersquos customers currently include aviation, electronic peripherals, connectors, and metal industries Assembly process solution for human behavior recognition in assembly lines achieves an accuracy of over 90 In order to demonstrate the depth of technology, Claireye Intelligence participated in the 2021 AI New Talents Selection of the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and provided Lite-On Technology with the "assembly process solution for human behavior recognition in assembly lines" The solution determines effective working hours and ineffective working hours of operators on the production line through cameras and AI image recognition It recognizes hand posture and position through images to determine the operator's assembly behavior, achieving an accuracy of over 90 Shirley Liu added that the assembly process of electronic components is complex, mostly carried out manually, and cannot be replaced by robotic arms Claireye Intelligence used cameras to film the assembly process of operators at Lite-On's assembly station The algorithm is then trained and corrected based on the video, and the final trained model can directly determine whether there are any errors in the assembly process to improve the overall process Project development time is expected to be shortened to 1 month by using the BailAI image inspection platform Since its establishment more than three years ago, Claireye Intelligence has accumulated a considerable amount of project experience and hopes to commercialize the project experience Shirley Liu pointed out that the trial version of BailAI image inspection will be completed this year 2022 Customers can choose industrial cameras or video cameras based on the detail of the object being inspected It can even use X-rays to capture images, and then the images are automatically marked by the platform Claireye Intelligence will provide customers with AI application models suitable for the field Inferences can also be made in the cloud or terminals for launch in the manufacturing industry The metals industry, metal casings of industrial computers, connectors, electronic peripherals, and mechanical parts can all use the platform for defect detection and object identification Claireye Intelligence will continue to improve its technical capabilities, accumulate customer experience to complete commercialization, and also accelerate the implementation of AI inspection applications In the mid-term, it will build terminal and cloud infrastructure and shorten the development time of enterprise AI projects from 6-12 months to 1 month, reducing usage time and lowering the threshold for enterprises The long-term goal is to target the Southeast Asian market where Taiwanese businesses are gathered, expand software and hardware integrated AI solutions to overseas markets, and expand the scale of operations

【解決方案】聲麥無線推出殺手級5G即時AI語音翻譯 降低5成口譯成本
VM-Fi launches killer 5G real-time AI voice translator that reduces interpretation costs by 50%

With "Voice as a Service VaaS", VM-Fi Inc launched the world's leading 5G real-time AI voice translation service "VM-Fi," providing AI real-time translation subtitles TranSpeech and AI multi-lingual smart counter TransDisplay The service is applied to real-time translation services in diverse fields, such as international exhibitions, tourism industry, and retail stores The translation service can be quickly set up in 15 minutes, which can significantly reduce the customer's interpretation service cost by 50, creating benefits in terms of time and labor costs This killer application is a product launched by VM-Fi, which has been established for three years It can significantly reduce the cost of interpretation by half It successfully entered the Japanese market and is highly popular among consumers TranSpeech real-time subtitles for speeches and TransDisplay smart counter AI service solution For organizers of international forums and exhibitions, paying high interpretation fees has always been a common pain point hard to put into words According to statistics, to hold an all-English forum in Taiwan, including two interpreters, setting up an interpretation booth, on-site radio station, control panel, and audio, the total cost will be at least NT100,000 to meet the on-site interpretation needs Established in September 2020, VM-Fi launched the "VM-Fi 5G real-time AI voice translation service" In just 2 years, and successively won the Mobileheroes of the Ministry of Economic Affairs Industrial Development Bureau, Start-up competition in the Smart City Project, Qualcomm Innovate in Taiwan Challenge QITC, Japan's JR Kyushu Innovative Business Competition Excellence Award, and the CES 2022 Innovation Award It has not only received praises in the market, but also attracted great attention from Taiwanese investors and was adopted by large Japanese trading companies It hopes to help people around the world avoid communication barriers through smart city solutions, and enjoy a convenient life in smart cities 5G real-time AI voice translation does not require expensive interpreters and equipment and reduces the interpretation cost by 50 The VM-Fi team, which has a solid technical foundation in language translation, digital content, and UX development, has learned that only 20 of high-end consumers in the market can afford the high cost of interpretation To meet the remaining 80 of market demand, VM-Fi combines 5G high-speed transmission and AI voice recognition technology help customers reduce labor and costs Its business solutions can be applied in international exhibitions, tourism services, shopping malls, and online and offline business meetings 5G high-speed AI speech translation service process "Unlike traditional interpreters' sentence-by-sentence interpretation, which is a time-consuming and inefficient process that prevents the audience from smoothly listening to a speech," VM-Fi further stated that the real-time AI speech translation service uses AI algorithms to analyze the speakers speech The AI determines the parts of speech and subject of the speaker, and then immediately translates it The lecturer does not need to wait for the interpreter, and only needs to connect the microphone cable to the VM-Fi 5G real-time AI voice translation service to speak freely The audience can immediately read the translated subtitles 5G real-time AI voice translation was used in the Kyoto Smart City Summit amp Expo for two consecutive years in 2022-2023 The "VM-Fi 5G real-time AI voice translation service" currently supports Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, and German, providing translation services between these seven languages During the pandemic, when the demand for online activities increased significantly, VM-Fi introduced the world's first real-time subtitle service solution The contents spoken by the foreign speaker is translated in real-time and displayed on the live broadcast screen, allowing the audience to understand contents shared by the speaker in real time The operation method is also very simple Audiences do not need to download the APP All they need to do is open the Youtube or Facebook live broadcast platforms provided by the organizer The real-time subtitle solution not only saves customers the trouble of translation work, but also allows online listeners to enjoy seamless real-time translation services without any worries Real-time subtitles provide audiences with seamless real-time translation service In addition, the smart counter solution TransDisplay launched by VM-Fi in Japan is also very popular among consumers VM-Fi stated that Japan has a large elderly population and a large number of tourists Especially during the pandemic, most consumers wore masks and there was often a gap in communication The smart counter directly converts the communication between two parties from voice to text and displays on the transparent partition, providing the most considerate service that the public can clearly see at a glance In the future, VM-Fi will work with Taiwanese panel manufacturers, integrating software and hardware to provide voice-to-real-time subtitle translation services in Japanrsquos shopping malls, stations, airports, and government agencies Smart counters provided people with friendly communication services during the pandemic User experience is the key to VM-Fi taking root in the Japanese market Facing the explosive growth of cross-border tourism business opportunities after the pandemic, VM-Fi is confident in business expansion VM-Fi stated that the VM-Fi 5G real-time AI voice translation service has demonstrated excellent product and service resilience during the pandemic, and can flexibly meet customer needs for various physical or online services VM-Fi plans to establish a headquarters in Japan before April 2025, and actively cooperates with Kansai and Kyoto prefectural and municipal governments to expand its operations After establishing a solid foundation in the Japanese market, the EU market will be the next important target VM-Fi participated in fundraising activities of the AI Founders Alliance of the AI Program of the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs The company relied on the assistance of the Institute for Information Technology III, Taiwan-Japan Industrial Collaboration Promotion Office TJPO, and the Japan External Trade Organization JETRO to actively seize Japan's market "Japan's market not only values digital transformation, but also user experience UX" Therefore, after the successful launch in Japan, everything will fall into place when it expands to other markets around the world VM-Fi app in Japan's shopping malls, stations, airports, and government agencies VM-Fi is a startup with passion and innovative spirit nbspfounded in 2020 We focus on AI speech recognition and real-time translation technologies, and are committed to allowing people around the world to enjoy high-speed speech translation during international speeches, at service counters, and during communication, completely removing the language barrier and allowing everyone to enjoy equal rights to information VM-Fi's AI service is not only a technological innovation, but also a commitment to global sustainable development A Digital solutions We are committed to reducing paper use Every sheet of A4 paper saved reduces carbon emissions by 78 grams, using practical digital solutions to promote environmental protection B Renewable energy decisions We choose cloud services that use renewable energy and plan to achieve the goal of using cloud services that use 100 renewable energy by 2025, in order to create a greener technology foundation for the future C Water saving decisions We are committed to using cloud services that achieve positive water benefits before 2030, ensuring that the replenishment of water resources exceeds consumption, and contributing to the future of the Earth D Net zero emission decisions When using new data centers, we will choose net-zero deforestation to protect the natural environment E Sustainable development goals Through the decisions above, we are making active efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals SDGs 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 13, exerting every effort to create a better world VM-Fi's vision is to create a world without communication barriers, allowing everyone to communicate freely and jointly move toward a better future Let us work together to contribute to global communication equality and sustainable development, and create a greener and better future nbsp

【解決方案】五年磨一劍 太奇雲端專注影像辨識 獲智慧城市創新應用獎
After five years of hard work in image recognition, Touch Cloud won the Smart City Innovation Application Award

During the opening ceremony of the 2022 Smart City Summit amp Expo co-organized by the National Development Council, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taipei City Government, Taoyuan City Government, Kaohsiung City Government, and Taipei Computer Association on March 22, 2022, founder and president of Touch Cloud Cheng-Hsun Li went on stage to receive the "2022 Smart City Innovation Application Award_Smart Security Award" This award is hard-won because after five years of hard work, Touch Cloud brought its core technology of AI image analysis back to Taiwan after gaining popularity in overseas markets, becoming an important smart city solutions provider "Since the company was established, we have positioned ourselves to make AI products that are stable, easy to use, and truly needed by the market" The company's positioning is very clear, this step took Touch Cloud five years It was not until the beginning of 2020 that Touch Cloud launched its first intrusion detection product In less than two years, Touch Cloud has now launched seven products, with each product receiving excellent reviews from the market Specializing in the field of smart cities, Touch Cloud successfully entered the Asian market Founded in February 2016, Touch Cloud originally focused on AOI defect detection However, the definition of defects is different for every customer As a result, applications in this field are mostly project development and could not be commercialized The company later directed its efforts to AI Application Box, a product that integrates software and hardware, and focused on smart cities, including transportation, industrial safety, and security related markets In view of the high acceptance and price advantage of AI in overseas markets, Cheng-Hsun Li targeted the overseas market in the early stages of the company's development, and has produced many successful results in several major countries, including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand Among them, Touch Cloud successfully entered the Hong Kong market with its debut in the Hong Kong International Airport project In 2018, Hong Kong International Airport planned to monitor ships around airline oil storage platforms to prevent ships from colliding with the oil storage platform However, the oil storage platform is located in the middle of the sea and lacks electricity and Internet connection, so it could only set up a camera on shore 3 km away from the platform In addition to the long distance and poor line of sight, monitoring was also affected by weather conditions, such as clouds and fog, and was ineffective Touch Cloud customized an AI algorithm specifically for the project, and continuously collected image data for model training It took half a year of discussions with the customer and system corrections to finally achieve an accuracy rate of 98, successfully completing the goal Touch Cloud won the 2022 Smart City Innovation Application Award_Smart Security Award Minister of Economic Affairs Mei-Hua Wang on the left, Touch Cloud founder and president Cheng-Hsun Li on the right Touch Cloud products have three advantages that provide customers with a better AI user experience 1 Plug and play 2 Provides flexible services, in addition to standard products, customized services meet customers' needs for quick launch and reliable problem solving 3 High adaptability and ability to achieve extremely high recognition accuracy in different environments Cheng-Hsun Li believes that the design of AI products should be as simple as using a "home appliance" and have a clear purpose Therefore, Touch Cloud built an AI Application Box to design products from the perspective of scene applications, focusing on image analysis related to "people" and "vehicles" At present, a total of seven products have been developed, including KekkAI personnel intrusion detection, card swiping and tailgating detection, KekkAI-H construction site safety detection, Abaci-P people flow and head count, Abaci-V traffic flow and vehicle count, Greygoose personnel intrusion detection and people flow, GotchA cross-camera person tracking search, and AISense license plate recognition Cross-camera tracking product GotchA won the Smart City Innovation Application Award GotchA is the product that won the Smart City Innovation Application Award This cross-camera tracking product is unique in the market Its system uses AI technology to search and track people by analyzing their features at the time Users can use image search to search for the path of a specific person in multiple cameras they can also use multiple appearance features to find suitable target groups Using GotchA, you can actively search for lost people, understand the shopping behavior of VIP customers in the mall, and even manage the footprints of visitors in the building For example, it is not uncommon for children to get lost in hypermarkets GotchA can access footage from the entrance camera for an image search, and compare the walking path of the child to quickly find the missing child Using GotchA in shopping malls and amusement parks, where people come and go, to find lost people It not only significantly reduces the time spent by 90, but also transforms the traditional approach of the service counter making an announcement to the lost person into an active search based on image analysis, thereby improving service levels and accuracy Touch Cloud's excellent AI image analysis technology is favored by large enterprises Cheng-Hsun Li said that his experience abroad has taught him to help customers find AI usage scenarios For example, a T-Bar large advertising billboard operator in Thailand wants to attract business, and advertisers want to understand the flow of people to evaluate advertising effectiveness The T-Bar company has more than 1,000 cameras and can determine the type of vehicle from the images and then calculate the number of people, which can be converted to advertising effectiveness After Touch Cloud used the data for training, it can even identify special vehicle types in various countries For example, the nbsp"pickup truck" is a special vehicle type in Thailand Model training is carried out through Open Data, scenario data, and Touch Cloud's self-built database, and can accurately identify traffic flow and vehicle type, which is used to estimate the number of people reached by the advertisement Rapid business development after returning to the Taiwan market from overseas Touch Cloud currently accounts for 70 of the overseas market, with customers in Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines In the future, it will also develop into other Asian markets, such as Vietnam In addition to the Asian market, Touch Cloud has not forgotten to serve Taiwanese customers, and began to actively recruit partners to jointly develop the Taiwan market in June 2021 So far, the number of customers has quickly accumulated to more than a hundred Touch Cloud's excellent AI image analysis technology is favored by many companies, and most investors are strategic partners, working together to create synergies and allow Touch Cloud's technology to be quickly applied Cheng-Hsun Li said that it often takes more than five years for an AI startup to get its operations on track, and it takes at least three years to cultivate good AI talents Results are gradually emerging thanks to the considerable flexibility and space given by strategic investors to the company Touch Cloud products are already being put into practical use in major Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan, and are expected to enter more Asian countries within two years, driving more advanced image analysis applications The company hopes to complete representative cases in Asian markets every year, and move towards an IPO as a company featuring AI products