Intel Corp, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Asia Pacific Telecom Co (APT, 亞太電信) yesterday jointly unveiled a multi-access edge computing (MEC) platform and facial recognition technology, the result their collaborative efforts in 5G technology solutions.
“The technologies are applicable to a wide range of scenarios, such as a smarter shopping experience in department stores, smart security for home and companies, smart medical services and more,” Hon Hai business group president and APT chairman Lu Fang-ming (呂芳銘) told a news conference in Taipei.
The MEC platform represents Hon Hai and Intel’s first collaborative work on 5G technology that went public since the two companies inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in June last year for the development of network infrastructure on the foundation of 5G connectivity.
Hon Hai participated in the platform’s development with Intel and is in charge of sensor manufacturing for facial recognition technology, while APT provides network connectivity, the companies said.
The MEC is a cloud-based network architecture at the edge of the core network, which brings real-time, high-bandwidth and low-latency access to the network, largely reducing network congestion, Lu said.
The MEC is a solution to data deluge in the 5G environment, because it shares the workload of the core network to process data closer to the users, Lu said.
For example, the platform can prevent network congestion at a stadium during concerts or sports events, he said.
The platform is part of the foundation to build a high-speed 5G connectivity environment, Intel visual cloud division general manager Lynn Comp said.
Facial recognition is one of the applications that can be used on the platform, Lu said, adding that Hon Hai has been using facial recognition with door access control at two of its plants in New Taipei City for one-and-a-half years.
Instead of clocking in and out, more than 200,000 employees at the two plants use facial recognition to report for work and enter the plants, he said.
Facial recognition on the platform can also be used in department stores, Lu said. “For example, facial recognition can instantly provide the customer’s purchase history at the store or alert the sales personnel that the incoming person is a VIP customer.”
APT is in talks with domestic retailers to adopt the platform with facial recognition technology, Lu said.
“We expect to see progress with retailers in the next three to six months,” he said.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
MARKET LEADERSHIP: Investors are flocking to Nvidia, drawn by the company’s long-term fundamntals, dominant position in the AI sector, and pricing and margin power Two years after Nvidia Corp made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach US$4 trillion. After the emergence of China’s DeepSeek (深度求索) sent the stock plunging earlier this year and stoked concerns that outlays on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were set to slow, Nvidia shares have rallied back to a record. The company’s biggest customers remain full steam ahead on spending, much of which is flowing to its computing systems. Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
The US overtaking China as Taiwan’s top export destination could boost industrial development and wage growth, given the US is a high-income economy, an economist said yesterday. However, Taiwan still needs to diversify its export markets due to the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s administration, said Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), an economics professor at National Central University. Taiwan’s exports soared to a record US$51.74 billion last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and continued orders, with information and communication technology (ICT) and audio/video products leading all sectors. The US reclaimed its position as Taiwan’s top export market, accounting for
RSS