A chess-playing robot stole the show as Asia’s largest tech fair kicked off in Taiwan with artificial intelligence center stage.
The annual Computex trade show in Taipei comes as Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen seeks to boost the island’s economy with her ‘Asian Silicon Valley’ project, nurturing startups and attracting investments from major international companies.
The full-size robot impressed visitors by taking a pawn piece in a mocked-up chess game and demonstrating its skill to detect how much coffee is left in the other player’s cup to determine if it needs to be refilled.
Chess playing robot uses an intelligent vision system to interpret the visual world, act on visual information and learn from experience. The robot was able to play chess with attendees and fill coffee at various fill levels while the coffee cup is at random locations. Hong Kong firm Zotac displayed its VR backpack that lets the user move around without fear of tripping over connecting wires while playing a video game. Taiwan’s personal computer maker Acer showed off its VR headset StarVR – developed jointly with Swedish firm Starbreeze – which is being rolled out in IMAX theaters.
The system enables robots and other machines to interpret the visual world, act on visual information, change their behavior and perform tasks based on random events and requirements.
Inventors say they envisage the machine having a range of uses, from working on assembly lines to care-giving.
‘It can recognize the shape of a small chess pawn, notify its brain, execute AI movements and interact with its opponent,’ said division director Lewis Liu of the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan, which built the robot.
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan’s largest and one of the world’s leading high-tech applied research institutions, first revealed it had designed a robot that uses an intelligent vision system early this year.
This technology enables the robot and other machines to interpret the visual world, act on visual information and learn from experience.
The intelligent vision system can be applied to consumer and industrial requirements.
For example, the chess-playing robot uses an intelligent vision system to detect how much is left in your coffee cup to determine if it needs to be refilled.
And the firm unveiled the robot to the world at the Taiwan robot fair.
The robot was able to play chess with attendees and fill coffee at various fill levels while the coffee cup is at random locations.
In an industrial-automation and Industry 4.0 application, a robot equipped with ITRI’s intelligent vision system could grip and move an item to another location based on the robot’s perception of its attributes such as size, color, shape, and location.
Taiwan has already introduced a troop of mini-robots going by the name of ‘Pepper’ into workplaces.
They were launched at two banks and an insurance company in Taipei last year, dancing to music, playing with children in lobbies and leading staff aerobics sessions.
US electric car company Tesla also emphasized the importance of artificial intelligence as it exhibited its Model S and X vehicles at the fair for the first time.
The US automaker entered the Taiwan market last September.
‘We are on our way to become fully driverless,’ said Hans Li, marketing and communications manager for Tesla in Taiwan.
Checking out the car models was Taiwan’s Vice President Chen Chien-jen, who said the government had set up an AI lab with the private sector last month and described the field as a ‘key focus for our nation’s development’.
After a hyped year over virtual reality in 2016, it was still pervasive with companies developing new ways to use the technology aside from entertainment and gaming.
Hong Kong firm Zotac displayed its VR backpack that lets the user move around without fear of tripping over connecting wires while playing a video game.
Zenbo is a $599 home robot it hopes will help bring robotics into the home. The robot was unveiled at Computex 2016 alongside a new range of mobile phones. ASUS Zenbo arose from Chairman Jonney Shih’s ambition to enable robotic computing for every household.’Zenbo is a friendly and capable home robot designed to provide assistance, entertainment, and companionship to families and meant to address the needs of each family member in this ubiquitous computing era,’ the firm said.’With a full range of capabilities, including the ability to move independently and understand spoken commands, Zenbo can assist in the home and interacting with him is easy and fun.’As a home care assistant, he proactively provides convenient, spoken reminders of important information, such as doctor’s appointments, medication and exercise schedules, and anything else that needs to be remembered. Zenbo also monitors the home for emergency situations — such as falls — and immediately responds to them by notifying specified family members on their smartphones, no matter where they are. When they receive an emergency notification, family members can remotely control Zenbo to move nearby and use Zenbo’s built-in camera to visually check on their loved one.
But Jacky Huang, Zotac’s product director, said many clients used it for non-entertainment purposes, including combat training and post-trauma treatment for soldiers.
Taiwan’s personal computer maker Acer showed off its VR headset StarVR – developed jointly with Swedish firm Starbreeze – which is being rolled out in IMAX theaters.
Acer CEO Jason Chen said the firm hoped to jump from VR to AI in future.
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