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【2019 Solutions】 NexCOBOT - Smart Self-Checkout System Makes Future Shopping Convenient

Imagine a future where all shops have no clerks, fully replaced by smart devices. Simply placing items on the table and letting the intelligent self-checkout system handle the rest makes shopping convenient and easy. This scenario is not far-fetched, as unmanned store projects have already emerged in Taiwan, such as the recent multi-million investment by FamilyMart to create their second tech-concept store. Through human-machine collaboration and the latest technology, they aim to alleviate clerical work, and NexCOBOT hopes to bring this concept into unmanned stores to simplify the checkout process for consumers.

▲ NexCOBOT introduces a smart self-checkout system, aiming to incorporate this technology into unmanned stores, simplifying the checkout experience for consumers.

Dedicated to smart retail solutions to enhance consumer technology experience

NexCOBOT, a subsidiary of NEXCOM, specializes in the independent development of six-axis robots and smart retail solutions. With the rise of the Internet of Things, the line between physical and virtual commerce has blurred. NexCOBOT identifies three foundational elements of IoT commerce: smart retail, smart logistics, and cloud-based real-time management systems. Continually, NexCOBOT commits to smart retail solutions, addressing major pain points for business owners while considering enhanced technological experiences for consumers, hoping to pioneer unprecedented innovative applications.

NexStore machine displays the initial screen and confirms user identity
▲ When it's time to check out, simply place the items on the table, and a scanner will identify the products and display both the items and prices on the screen.

How does NexCOBOT's smart self-checkout system work? When checking out, place the shopping cart's items on the table. An overhead scanner performs image recognition, then the screen displays the types of products and the amounts. Payment can then be made using cards, smartphones, or other payment devices. It can even integrate with facial recognition systems, allowing customers to pay through face scanning, which saves the time previously spent scanning barcodes and queuing. Additionally, the store can utilize backend analyses to track customer data and popular products.

NexStore machine interface completes scanning food items, confirmation stage diagram
▲ Due to the need for precise image scanning, a detailed product database must be established beforehand. The store can also analyze customer data and popular items through backend analytics.

Establishing a product database to gain control of product information

Precise image scanning requires that all items have a previously established database. Scanning could include detailed 3D images of merchandise like cookie boxes or drink cans. The more detailed the database, the faster the checkout process and the more effective the backend analytics. However, because of limited space on counters, scanning large volumes of merchandise could be problematic. Initially, items easily recognizable (like those in bakeries) might be prioritized. Additionally, NexCOBOT offers modular solutions such as smart shelves, smart self-order systems, smart self-checkouts, smart marketing dashboards, etc., all customizable as per the client's requirements. Integration with existing systems such as Point of Sale (POS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Digital Signage is also feasible.

▲ Besides using payment devices, it can even integrate with facial recognition systems, allowing customers to pay through facial scanning, eliminating the need for manual barcode scanning.

「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only. Translation date:2024-05-19」

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【解決方案】7毫秒內分離人聲 洞見未來科技協助聽損者「聽說更簡單」
Voice Separation in 7 Milliseconds: RelaJet's Future Technology Makes 'Hearing and Speaking Easier' for the Hearing Impaired

One rainy Thursday afternoon near Taipei Arena, the Taipei Experience Center of RelaJet was fully booked with appointments from people with hearing loss eager to try hearing aids made with a voice separation engine For the hearing impaired, having affordable, lightweight, and effective noise-reducing hearing aids is truly a blessing 'We hope to help users in need to hear the world's wonders again' This empathetic expectation by RelaJet's founder and CEO Po-Ju Chen, who is also hearing impaired, illustrates his understanding of the needs of the hearing impaired He hopes that RelaJet's unique voice amplification hearing aid technology will benefit many more people Affordable hearing aids benefit many with hearing loss Founded in 2018 by Po-Ju Chen and his brother Yu-Ren Chen, RelaJet developed a multi-voice separation engine paired with Qualcomm's Bluetooth audio platform, drastically reducing the price of imported hearing aids, typically costing 80,000-100,000 NT dollars, to just under 10,000 NT dollars They aim to develop affordable goods with excellent noise-cancelling capabilities that wirelessly connect to smartphones In its first two years, the company primarily developed the multi-voice separation engine, which significantly improved the noise reduction quality Once equipped with Qualcomm Bluetooth earphone chips, the audio processing time is drastically short, at about 7 milliseconds to enhance main voice projection and reduce ambient noise, less than half the time required by traditional medical standard of 16 milliseconds for hearing aids, nearly 'zero-delay' 洞見未來科技推出平價助輔聽器,大大嘉惠聽損者 Yu-Ren Chen explains that the primary use of Qualcomm chips for edge computing, along with a streamlined algorithm, achieves extremely low latency and better noise reduction The hearing aids can cover 18 channels, whereas traditional hearing aids cover 4-48 channels In the future, RelaJet will progressively increase the number of channels According to statistics, there are 470 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rapid product development In light of this, Po-Ju Chen, formerly a semiconductor engineer at MediaTek, leads the technical development, while Yu-Ren Chen, with a legal background, manages the operations Their seamless collaboration, along with their team employing AI algorithms and chip integration, learns from thousands of hours of audio files in databases through neural networks and deep learning technologies to develop low-latency, high-noise-reduction voice amplification technologies for hearing aids In 2019, this sound processing technology was integrated into Qualcomm Bluetooth chips, winning first place in the Qualcomm Taiwan Startup Competition and becoming a partner in Qualcomm's Global Expansion Program, significantly boosting product development pace In 2021, they launched their own Otoadd series of hearingenhancement products in Taiwan, which received both market favor and positive reviews from many with hearing loss Based on different consumer needs, various product 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anticipated to be exported to international markets in the latter half of this year Additionally, a hearing aid product combining Bluetooth functionality, set to launch in June this year, is sized like typical Bluetooth earphones, targeting visually conscious consumers with hearing loss Its small size and attractive wireless earphone design allow for phone calls, and if approved by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, eligible users can apply for government subsidies RelaJet to expand into overseas markets, using the USA as a beachhead An interesting question arises due to the pandemic everyone must wear masks which impedes lip-reading How does this affect those with hearing loss Yu-Ren Chen indicates that this situation highlights RelaJet's advantages As each person with hearing loss has different levels of hearing ability, hearing aids can only augment to an appropriate volume, assisting users to hear about 60-70 content, with the remainder relying on lip reading and gestures During 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【解決方案】AI智慧眼鏡 雄欣科技鎖定智慧照護市場 讓老者住得安心安全
AI + Smart Glasses: Hsiung-Hsin Technology Targets Smart Care Market, Ensuring Safety and Security for the Elderly

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combined with Hsiung-Hsin Technology's AI algorithms, to launch 'AI Care Recognition Service System' and a life-saving 'Fall Prevention System' The 'AI Care Recognition Service System' uses radar millimeter waves and Time-of-Flight ToF among various sensor technologies combined with point cloud and mmWave deep learning analysis in AI algorithms While protecting personal privacy, it can detect patients' physiological data upon hospital admission as well as detect falls and bed exits during bed care The 'life-saving fall prevention system', on the other hand, utilizes artificial intelligence and 3D technology, combined with radar sensing devices, while protecting personal data through 'de-identification' technology, detecting falls in real-time in the environment Building the AI Care Recognition Service System, Hsiung-Hsin Technology is aiming at the smart care market Lee Jia-Hsin, founder and chairman of Hsiung-Hsin Technology, who has worked for IBM Taiwan for 14 years, states that 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Hsiung-Hsin Technology also applies its image recognition technology in places like factory safety and parking lot license plate recognition, and future applications will continue to expand boundlessly Hsiung-Hsin Technology's founder and chairman, Lee Jia-Hsin「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only Translation date:2024-05-19」

【解決案例】神經元科技 動鑑觀顫 以眼為始 最佳智慧醫療輔助者
Neuron Technology, moving and observing, starting with the eyes, the best smart medical assistant

Looking around the world and in Taiwan, the number of patients suffering from vertigo is increasing year by year When faced with vertigo testing, most people will choose to have it diagnosed by a doctor or hospitalized with neuromedical imaging tools such as MRI or CT for interpretation However, this may lead to misdiagnosis of vertigo, overdiagnosis of patients, waste of medical resources, etc, and cannot be effectively traced back The actual condition of the patient's dizziness In order to solve the long-term clinical pain point of vertigo, Neurobit has developed a smart wearable medical device - NeuroSpeed smart glasses and an AI assistance system It provides an AI smart solution for rapid screening of vertigo, assisting doctors in quickly screening more than 80 of brain diseases Efficient detection power with accuracy and sensitivity of over 90 Neuron Technology was founded in 2016 The co-founders include Yang Juncheng, Chen Weicheng, Huang Jinxun and Wang Jingfu The four of them were studying at the National Taiwan University Medical Engineering Institute and the Creative Entrepreneurship Program to jointly offer the "Biomedical Innovation and Commercialization" course Next, let’s embark on the entrepreneurial journey together The core team members of Neuron Technology are mainly composed of cross-field experts in medical engineering, information technology, neurology, patents, business, etc The common entrepreneurial concept is to continuously explore and explore unsolved pain points in medical clinical practice Seeing that patients were suffering from vertigo, Neuron Technology invented and independently developed an efficient and practical wearable smart medical device, NeuroSpeed Smart Glasses, which combines hardware AI-assisted decision-making system software to provide an AI smart solution for rapid dizziness screening Neuron Technology CEO Yang Juncheng said that the proportion of people in Taiwan and the world who suffer from vertigo is very high In Taiwan, as many as 3 of the people about 700,000 suffer from vertigo, while in the United States, about 1,000 people suffer from vertigo Tens of thousands of people go to see a doctor due to vertigo From the data, it can be seen that the vertigo medical care market is quite huge Regarding rapid screening for vertigo diagnosis in the clinic, current rapid screening tools in hospitals mainly use neurological examinations, and most of them are processed through questionnaire-type scales The diagnosis will rely too much on the patient's chief complaint and the doctor's experience judgment, and lacks quantitative indicators, resulting in Misdiagnosis of vertigo and loss of golden treatment time For patients with vertigo who are admitted to the emergency department, medical diagnosis in the past relied heavily on neuromedical imaging tools such as computed tomography CT or magnetic resonance imaging MRI After observation, it was found that the equipment was insufficient In the United States, the number of patients admitted to the emergency department Less than 3 of the population can receive immediate MRI diagnosis, and less than 50 can receive CT diagnosis However, excessive use of CT or MRI diagnosis may lead to overdiagnosis and treatment of patients, and even waste of medical resources In order to help vertigo patients accurately and efficiently screen and triage and reduce over-diagnosis in clinics and emergency rooms, NeuroSpeed Smart Glasses, a wearable smart medical device developed by Neuron Technology, is believed to have a great impact on the overall application of medical resources and patient diagnosis and treatment It is very helpful Yang Juncheng said that if it is not necessary to use MRI to track the diagnosis, this device can be used as a rapid screening test before the existing MRI neuroimaging tools and after the patient is admitted to the hospital, reducing over-diagnosis of patients NeuroSpeed's examination method is to quickly screen for nystagmus to identify patients with potential brain diseases The examination method of this technology is to observe the trembling state of the eyes and a series of eye movements when the subject is staring at a stationary object, so as to judge Brain risks for appropriate diagnosis and treatment NeuroSPeed smart glasses can crack brain and eye diseases, clinical trial sensitivity reaches 90 With the active research and development of Neuron Technology, two generations of NeuroSpeed smart glasses have been successfully launched The first generation NeuroSpeed mainly provides doctors with real-time observation of high-quality eye images and eye movement response-related examination data reference, and does not provide auxiliary diagnosis services The second generation of NeuroSpeed allows physicians to record, track, store and view relevant eye movement analysis and pupil area identification, thereby effectively diagnosing diseases of the central, meridian and peripheral nervous systems Because the second-generation NeuroSpeed product has the function of assisting doctors in analysis and diagnosis, it has been classified as a Class II medical device in the United States and must be certified by the US FDA before it can be sold externally At this stage, this product has completed pre-submission and will be submitted for review after the biocompatibility test is completed It is expected that the second generation NeuroSpeed will successfully obtain US FDA certification next year In terms of actual verification fields, NeuroSpeed has currently cooperated with New Taipei Shuanghe Hospital and Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital for clinical verification Its clinical results have confirmed the classification judgment of central nervous system diseases such as stroke and other vestibular system diseases With the addition of NeuroSpeed Smart glasses are designed to be lightweight and easy to carry, detect quickly and easily, and have the functional characteristics of automatic interpretation They can effectively assist doctors in quickly screening for potential brain disease risks in patients with vertigo Field verification with foreign medical centers mainly involves vertigo patients admitted to the emergency department Physicians can use NeuroSpeed smart devices to interpret the phenomenon of stroke diagnosis Currently, the accuracy of clinical trials in the above-mentioned cooperative hospitals reaches 80 and the sensitivity reaches 90 Neuron Technology develops smart wearable medical device NeuroSpeed smart glasses In addition to becoming the best smart medical assistant for doctors to quickly screen brain disease risks in the clinic and emergency department, NeuroSpeed smart glasses also assist doctors in the detection and assessment of strabismus risk They are jointly developed with the Tri-Service General Hospital through neuron technology The "Portable Strabismus and Abnormal Eye Movement Diagnosis System" is implemented in the Tri-Service General Hospital, providing doctors with a complete preoperative assessment of strabismus and postoperative tracking basis This excellent RD technology achievement was recognized by the 17th National Innovation Award-Clinical Innovation Award in 2020 We know that many diseases can cause congenital or acquired eye movement abnormalities, and even cause symptoms of strabismus or nystagmus Among them, as for strabismus, according to expert physician consultation surveys, the global prevalence of strabismus among school-age children is 2 5, while the prevalence of strabismus among school-age children in Taiwan is about 1 to 4 Yang Juncheng said that clinical diagnosis of the symptoms of these diseases is mainly divided into two categories deviation measurement of eye position and eye movement test It has been observed that there is currently a lack of objective quantitative methods for diagnosing eyeball position deviation, and eyeball deviation measuring instruments are used to check subjectively For Neuron Technology, the current NeuroSpeed instrument and strabismus and abnormal eye movement diagnosis system software can integrate objective and clear eyeball images, eye muscle function and eye deviation angle data as a rapid test that meets clinical diagnostic criteria Service, the data of these tests can be used as the basis for doctors’ complete preoperative assessment and postoperative tracking of strabismus Therefore, this system can provide objective and effective quantitative analysis, which can greatly reduce the medical risks of patients during surgery In terms of business model, Neuron Technology mainly cooperates with hospitals to sell research-based products It is believed that the company expects to have significant revenue performance after passing the FDA next year At present, Neuron Technology will use the country's first wearable smart medical device NeuroSpeed smart glasses and AI assistance system to provide software and hardware integrated solutions to assist doctors in quickly screening brain diseases and eye diseases, extending patients' golden treatment time and reducing social risks health care costs to create a triple win NeuroSpeed smart glasses assist doctors in quickly screening brain and eye diseases Looking at the world, the pioneer of smart medical equipment, a new paradigm of biomedical software and hardware system integration In the early days of Neuron Technology’s entrepreneurship, technology research and development and business expansion faced many challenges Yang Juncheng expressed his sentiments that since the NeuroSpeed product is the first medical smart glasses developed in China, both in terms of obtaining hardware raw materials and developing technical specifications, The challenges associated with building and integrating related systems are higher than those for consumer electronics Additionally, bringing together cross-disciplinary talent and integrating it into a core team is also an entrepreneurial challenge In terms of business development, although the company has accumulated clinical verification results and published related outputs, the establishment of market channels still requires continuous efforts to expand It is hoped that it can continue to rely on the assistance of legal persons such as the Capital Strategy Council to actively create more diversified market channels and connect potential Cooperating manufacturers In order to accelerate international expansion and market operation exchanges, the company will conduct a new round of fundraising planning at this stage to meet development Since its establishment, Neuron Technology has taken long-term development and stable profits as its operating goals Yang Juncheng said that in addition to focusing on existing professional fields, we also develop and apply value-added products through the company's software development and software development The accumulated RD energy of hard integration is expanded to other medical disciplines and fields Yang Juncheng hopes that Neuron Technology can become a pioneer in smart medical equipment, with research and development oriented to meet the needs of users and patients, and also hopes to become a model for the integration of biomedical software and hardware systems For the medium and long-term layout, the company will promote industry-university exchanges and cultivate biomedical talents integrate upstream and downstream industry resources to create smart medical solutions and platforms and actively explore foreign sales markets such as the United States and Europe as a basis for sustainable development of the company Vision 「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only Translation date:2024-05-19」