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 million people globally with hearing disabilities, with a 30 average device use rate in developed countries, with the highest in Western countries Taiwan has nearly 15 million people with disabling hearing loss, of which the middle-aged and elderly make up 30, yet the device use rate is only about 10, which is quite low Yu-Ren Chen further analyzes that the low device usage rate is due to two reasons firstly, the high average selling price of international big brands ranges from 80,000 to 200,000 NT dollars with a three-year usability period, which deters many due to the high cost and maintenance Secondly, in noisy environments, the noise is also amplified which does not necessarily ensure clarity for the users, and the sound parameters can't be adjusted in real-time, making it inconvenient to frequently visit stores for tuning Thirdly, most models cannot connect to smartphones, making it inconvenient for the hearing impaired to take phone calls Utilizing Qualcomm Bluetooth chips for 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 designs are available According to Yu-Ren Chen, the Otoadd wireless earphones with hearing enhancement functions, model N1, are entry-level neckband style priced at 9,500 NT per pair Users can wear the hearing aid while taking calls, and control noise reduction strength and volume through a mobile app They plan to develop accessories in the future tailored to the needs of older adults Besides being available for trials at experience centers in Taipei and Kaohsiung, this hearing aid is also sold through PChome, Taiwan Mobile's myfone, and Elder Age networks, among other channels Another model intended for individuals with mild to severe hearing loss is the Classic R hearing aid, which received the Japanese Good Design Award in 2021 Since its market debut last year, it has attracted those with congenital hearing loss, with users noting improved clarity in noisy environments and appreciating the convenience of Bluetooth connectivity for calls and watching videos This product is 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 the pandemic, as everyone wears masks, masks also muffle sounds, but RelaJet's voice separation engine can correct and strengthen the separation, making it easier for those with hearing loss to recognize voices Besides the Taiwan market, RelaJet's next stage will be expanding into overseas markets, expecting to obtain ISO 13485 medical device quality management system certification and US medical device approval in 2022 They plan to enter the US market, either under their own brand or through OEM arrangements Apart from the Taiwan market, RelaJet will also enter the US market in the next phase for hearing aids「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only Translation date：2024-05-19」

The use of drones for intelligent inspection is becoming increasingly common, with major petrochemical and solar power plants continuing to adopt drone applications Located in Hsinchu, Extreme Present Technology earthbook has established a 4D cloud platform using its proprietary technology, offering drone, software, and data analysis platform services for intelligent inspections at solar power and petrochemical plants, reducing the total cost to just one-fifth of traditional methods involving hardware and software purchases, and cutting down the time from one month to approximately 24 hours, making it highly cost-effective For petrochemical industry operators who are constantly in a high-temperature, high-pressure dangerous environment, the safety control and inspection of plant facilities are critical 'As long as we can enhance the capabilities of facility inspection and risk identification in petrochemical sites, resource input is absolutely not an issue,' said a petrochemical industry representative with emphasis By implementing the drone 4D AI inspection cloud platform, the efficiency and safety of facility inspections among petrochemical operators can be elevated, further reducing the risk of equipment downtime Founded in March 2018, Extreme Present Tech has become a consistent winner in domestic entrepreneurship competitions, including being crowned champion in the 2019 OPEN DATA Business Innovation Practice, selected into Microsoft's startup accelerator in 2020, chosen for NVIDIA's AI startup team in 2021, and its products have been launched on the Microsoft Azure platform, earning investments from the National Development Fund and major domestic groups, thereby securing strong market validation for its technical prowess and services The founder and CEO of Extreme Present Tech, Hsu Wei-Cheng, mentioned that at the beginning of its establishment, the company took on the national space center's satellite 3D photography scheduling system and specialized in the integration of geographic information into 3D images As drone hardware technologies matured, the company shifted its operations towards the drone market and combined it with AI image recognition systems to establish a 4D cloud DaaS platform, offering services including online aerial photography ordering DaaS, 5GAIoT cloud platform SaaS, and enterpriseAPI server software, to meet the demands of drones in smart cities, facility inspection, engineering management, disaster response, pollution monitoring, and other applications, maximizing the value of drone services Smart aerial inspection regularly tracks the health status of plant equipment at a glance The quantity and area of petrochemical plants in Taiwan are immense, lacking sufficient manpower for comprehensive equipment inspections Given that petrochemical plants produce high-temperature flammable and corrosive chemicals that must be transmitted and stored through pipelines and tanks, long-term risks like pipeline ruptures and tank blockages could lead to severe occupational safety disasters, equipment downtime, and production stagnation Given the shortfalls in personnel for equipment inspections among petrochemical operators, Extreme Tech has already implemented a 4D AI drone inspection cloud platform combined with AI image recognition technology in petrochemical plant areas, providing ground-breaking evidence through the use of drones and proprietary app software services that connect on-site aerial data collection to the cloud platform, achieving fully automated and real-time aerial monitoring of petrochemical plant equipment pipelines, tanks, and ensuring precise locations and angles for each aerial operation, effectively compensating for the discrepancy in human inspection Hsu Wei-Cheng pointed out that the inspection drones used in petrochemical plants are equipped with dual lenses, one visible light and the other thermal infrared, which allow for determining pipeline obstructions through temperature conditions, enabling clients to immediately view the inspection status of the plant area from remote locations via the earthbook website, enhancing clients' inspection efficiency and accuracy The 4D aerial data platform meets diverse applications such as smart cities, transportation, engineering management, and pollution monitoring DaaS Online Order-Use Model Innovates Aerial Photography Business Model Saving 15 Costs Apart from providing a 4D aerial data platform, Extreme Present Tech also offers DaaS Drone as a Service After customers place orders on the website, Extreme Present coordinates with professionally licensed aerial photographers to provide on-site services Customers can monitor real-time operations through the platform and quickly obtain aerial data to evaluate any abnormalities, enabling timely alerts Take the solar power plant monitoring service as an example Given that solar power plant areas are large and widely distributed, located in the remote Pingtung area with the headquarters in Taipei, for inspections of the Pingtung plant, the customer just needs to use the DaaS service model, directly order online and upload a map of the Pingtung plant, obtain a quote from the company, and then entrust local Pingtung pilots to perform aerial inspections of the solar power plant During the process, the drone's route is automatically calculated by AI to plan the flight path, and the aerial data is transmitted to the client's cloud account, allowing the Taipei headquarters clients to immediately see the inspection status of the solar power plant from the earthbook website such as the condition of the solar panels, dust detection, or abnormal heat generation from solar electromagnetism, effectively helping the customer significantly reduce operational costs and efficiently complete the solar power plant inspection service Introduction of DaaS online aerial photography service in petrochemical plants According to estimates, solar power plant clients often incur high personnel costs by purchasing drones or outsourcing aerial photography With the long-term provision of aerial photography devices and the DaaS business model by Extreme Present Tech, customers can save 45 of aerial photography costs, and obtain aerial inspection reports within 24 hours post-operation, helping clients efficiently identify issues with solar panels Aiming to become the largest aerial data service company and enter the Southeast Asian market Since its establishment in 2018, Extreme Present Tech has rapidly grown in the aerial photography market with innovative thinking, actively expanding its aerial data application services Currently focused on cultivating the Taiwan market, the company aims to enter Southeast Asian nations, with Indonesia chosen as the first stop due to its high demand for infrastructure Hsu Wei-Cheng hopes that earthbook becomes the world's largest aerial data service platform Besides completing the initial round of funding from the National Development Fund and major groups, to penetrate the international market, the company continuously improves its drone data services and AI technology innovations, while also requiring the assistance of entities like the Industrial Technology Research Institute to find strategic investors that complement the company, fulfilling its goal of becoming an international aerial data corporation in phases Founder and CEO of Extreme Present Tech, Hsu Wei-Cheng「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only Translation date：2024-05-19」

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 nbsp 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