Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan’s largest and one of the world’s leading high-tech applied research institutions announced it will introduce AI, robotics, and ICT technologies. ITRI’s featured technologies include the RGB-D AI Robot, the first collaborative robot that integrates smart 3D vision as a built-in standard; the Autonomous Selfie Drone, which flies itself to take the best picture based on advanced photography techniques; and the Interactive Time Machine, which automatically creates a unique real-time full-body 3D interactive avatar and experience combining a user’s motion, 3D model, surroundings, and display.
The RGB-D AI Robot is the world’s first collaborative robot featuring 3D vision as a built-in standard. The smart 3D vision sensing technology functions as a pair of sharp eyes on a robotic arm. It reduces the size of the sensor by 168 times compared with other robots, while increasing the sensing speed by 38.6 times.
The smart 3D vision sensing technology provides automatic three-dimensional scanning of the object area and assists the robotic arm in determining the correct angle of picking up objects based on the shape and placement of the object. Possible applications of the RGB-D AI Robot include sorting and packaging objects for smart automation in the manufacturing and logistics industries, while it also has potential use in retail or service businesses and healthcare to directly serve customers.
The Autonomous Selfie Drone frees the user from photography courses; does all the hard composition, angle, and lighting preparation; and flies itself to take the best selfie picture using AI algorithms and data acquired from essential photography techniques. Users who know photography also can follow their individual preferences to set up different close-up angles, photography body ratio, and compositions.
The drone can analyze posture and head orientation to automatically adjust its own position and the angle of depression to achieve the best composition. Its relative portrait mode uses smart framing technology to analyze the user and background, creating a natural and unobtrusive match between the subject and the surroundings.
Compared with other selfie drones, ITRI’s innovation distinguishes itself with fully automated photography, smart aesthetic composition, and the direct use of the phone camera, which grants superior resolution and removes the need to convert image formats.
ITRI’s Interactive Time Machine is the first and only system that creates with AI a 3D interactive avatar from the user’s full body rather than from the face only, automatically generates a younger-looking avatar including the user’s surroundings and forms a metaverse for avatars to interact with players in real-time. The user can move freely in front of the system, and the 3D model shown on the display creates the corresponding movements simultaneously.
The user can interact with a virtual self that looks younger or older, which creates a unique experience that intertwines the real world with the virtual one. Use cases include VR/AR/MR gaming, personal entertainment, teleconferences where people meet and interact with their 3D models, and exhibitions for interactive activities to attract visitors.
As reported by OpenGov Asia, ITRI and a Taiwan-based tech company jointly announced that they will collaborate on a next-generation integrated electrosurgery system and co-develop a hybrid energy system for minimally invasive surgery.
This collaborative project, supported by the Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT), Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), combines ITRI’s software-hardware integration ability and Catcher Technology’s expertise in material manufacturing to jointly develop advanced medical device applications. The aim is to foster an ecosystem of med-tech industrial clusters in Taiwan, increase the value of medical devices, and seize the smart and precision medicine markets.
