Taiwan’s Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) has initiated a “Smart City Taiwan” project to create livable, business-facilitating, and innovation-fostering communities. Smart cities embed smart technology including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and other services to make living more efficient and accessible for its residents. Smart City Taiwan is changing the concept of the traditional city through the integration of smart applications and other technology.
Smart Transportation and Mobility
The transportation and technology industry has become one of the primary focal points of the government’s goals in the next five years. Throughout the development process, the Taiwanese government is expected to invest US$200 million in creating smart transportation technology such as smart traffic data analysis, smart parking meter systems, and smart ticketing systems using an app.
These technologies upgrade the transportation services and they will also minimise the time spent looking for a parking spot, eventually decreasing air pollution. The goal of this implementation is also to create new business opportunities and transform the transportation network’s digital infrastructure.
Smart Wearable Safety
As Taiwan was listed as a super-aged society, many elderly citizens suffer from dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. To prevent them from getting lost or going missing, Taiwan’s smart fashion company created a positioning smart sensor card using IoT and Bluetooth technology. Once a user wears it and leaves their designated area, their caregivers will receive a message alert to show where they are moving to. The card also includes an SOS emergency button in case of an injury and also has a battery that can last up to a year without needing to be charged regularly.
Smart Healthcare
Taiwan’s health tech industry is advancing progressively, but in rural areas of the country, some individuals are not able to access the same care as those living in urban areas. Around half of Taiwan’s rural areas lack ophthalmology clinics, leading Taiwan’s smart healthcare company to develop an AI-assisted ophthalmology patrol service that includes a portable eye examination kit.
Utilising medical manpower from the Universal Eye Center, the company is able to better provide optometric services to improve mobility and convenience for those who are unable to seek eye care. The innovation can also collect fundus photography images to establish a database to better diagnose and identify glaucoma, cataracts, and muscular diseases using AI.
Smart Agriculture
Due to the low birth rate and an increasingly ageing population, the agriculture sector in Taiwan is expected to have a labour shortage. Smart agriculture and precision farming technology have become a prominent solution to address this issue, where production value is approximately US$18.6 billion.
Smart Energy
To mitigate carbon emission, a manufacturing company has developed an AI-powered street light to improve energy efficiency. The street light includes a camera that detects vehicles, and if there are no signs of movement for more than 10 minutes the light will dim 50% to conserve electricity.
Smart Education
Around 43,000 smart classrooms at elementary and junior high schools have already been using Education technology, such as LiveABC’s, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). These tools are currently being used in both rural and urban areas to teach the English language. This allows students to fully immerse themselves into a virtual scene to better understand and practise the culture they are learning about from the comfort of their classroom.
Each year Taiwan hosts an event on smart cities to continuously gain more ideas and fresh innovations to achieve the goal of making society more convenient through technology. Many opportunities have been created for smart tech startups to market and network. With new creative and exciting tech projects coming up each year, Taipei is steadily moving up the top smartest cities list.
