Intelligentization has become a key global trend in every industry. AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), a company that has thrived for many years in the field of optoelectronics, recently hosted the "AUO Tech Forum 2020" which invited experts from industry, academia, and government to speak about exciting developments in 4 major fields of intelligentization.In terms of smart manufacturing, Wang Shou-tian, Director of AI Platform at Edgetech, a subsidiary of AUO, gave a talk on "Smart Industry Services Under an Oasis Sky" and introduced AUO Group's current deployment and solutions in the field. He pointed out that AUO established subsidiaries Mega Insight and Edgetech to assist manufacturers in taking the first successful step towards intelligentization by providing comprehensive AIoT solutions for smart factories.Both of the companies have defined positions within smart manufacturing. Mega Insight is a company built to help the industry sustainably develop self-driven smart ecosystems, integration methods, and industrial software that provide indispensable smart manufacturing services. Edgetech's vision is to implement AI technology solutions that are innovative, practical, and competitive by fully integrating technologies and platforms to assist businesses in building an all-encompassing manufacturing platform.Based on the goals and visions above, both companies each released smart manufacturing solutions. Mega Insight's industrial AIoT platform integrates the maturation levels of various industries with industrial software and provides professional consulting to assist manufacturers in building optimized smart manufacturing systems. Edgetech focuses on AI, allowing manufacturers to build self-learning, self-training AI systems. Combining the platforms of Mega Insight and Edgetech enables manufacturers with a comprehensive smart manufacturing architecture from cloud to edge that successfully activates their digital transformation.In order to realize the visions of intelligentization, it's imperative to identify pain points to pinpoint a company's requirements and build suitable systems. During the topic of "Next Gen Smart Factory," ADLINK IoT Solution & Technology Director Yang Jia-wei spoke about the necessary concepts needed by manufacturers in the smart era. He mentioned that 3 major factors are critical in building smart systems, including equipment data, professionalism in the manufacturing industry, and field of manufacturing; once these 3 requirements are met, it's possible to select functions according to requirements. Based on the experience of ADLINK, the basic smart manufacturing functions currently available in the market include the 5 aspects of AI imaging, inspection robots, connected equipment, advanced diagnosis for equipment, and virtual repair. These technologies are mature with many application scenarios and are suitable as the basic system for manufacturers looking to take the first step towards their smart transformation. A method that caters both stability and innovation is expanding with additional systems once the foundation is stable and benefits are observable.In addition to visions and platforms, another major issue is how to assist clients achieve smart manufacturing. During his talk on "Ubiquitous Edge AI", Vincent Tseng, General Manager of APAC Region at ADLINK shared many successful cases including details on how their company helped partners integrate software and hardware to help land smart manufacturing. For instance, designing non-invasive systems to reduce the rate of erroneous reports. By adding plug-ins to existing AOI systems, solutions can be rapidly implemented and used while also protecting a company's previous investments. The result is effectively reducing more than 90% of erroneous reports, shortening processes, and improving unit production capacity. Vincent Tseng also introduced AI anomaly detection software and a smart hearthstone vibration monitoring platform. Both systems were smart manufacturing solutions built in collaboration between ADLINK and partners that allowed existing production systems to generate significant benefits.Robotic arms have long been viewed as the representative technology in automation. Based on their long years of experience in collaborative robots, Techman Robot has risen to the world's second largest brand in industrial cobots. During the forum, Techman Robot Director Hsiao Yi-lung spoke at length on the "Vision of Robotic Manufacturing". He points out that the manufacturing industry has changed from mass production to a production model with high variation and low volume. Due to this trend, traditional robotic arms can no longer satisfy the flexibility requirements of manufacturing systems. This will give rise to cobots that are lightweight, allow human collaboration, can be used across production lines, and are simple to control; these robots will play a key role in future production lines. At the same time, he expressed that robotic arms will transform from being hardware oriented to focus on hardware software integration in the smart era to expand the diversity and value of equipment.MIRLE is one of the leading domestic companies in the field of automation; over the recent years, the company has been assertive in promoting smart manufacturing strategies. During his talk on "Intelligentization, New Logistics - Smart Factory Solutions", Marketing Director Chen Jian-sheng of MIRLE pointed out that their company began in the production of traditional manufacturing equipment before pivoting and launching excellent products in the 3 major fields of semiconductors, optoelectronics, and new logistics. In terms of logistics, he introduced the company's "Automatic Material Handling System" (AHMS) which is widely implemented in semiconductor manufacturing by assisting clients in building a material transport system that maximizes the use of space. Due to the fact that this system is closely related to the design of manufacturing sites, MIRLE provides a detailed assessment plan to help clients successfully implement the system to maximum efficiency and gain a stable foothold in their highly competitive markets.Edgetech Director of AI Platform Wang Shou-tian gave his talk "Smart Industry Services under an Oasis Sky" at AUO Tech ForumAUO subsidiaries Mega Insight and Edgetech provide comprehensive AIoT smart factory solutionsADLINK and partners demonstrate various smart manufacturing solutions

Demand for digital transformations has risen sharply in the post-pandemic era. At the "smart healthcare" sub forum during "AUO Tech Forum 2020," the company and its partners displayed innovative integration of AIoT and display technologies to assist healthcare industries in finding key opportunities for smart upgrades.Displays are key devices in smart hospitals, with 4K and 3D soon to become main streamChang Tsz-yin, leader of the ITRI Biomedical Technology and Device Research Lab was the first to take the stage with an analysis of the current conditions and future outlook of smart healthcare. She pointed out that any ICT technology solutions relating to medical decision-making, enhancing doctor-patient relations, improving operational efficiency, simplifying administrative processes, or optimizing service processes could be selected as long as they solve the problems and pain points in the field of medicine.Chang Tsz-yin mentioned that as we enter the era of healthcare 4.0, there is an emphasis of big data, IoT , AI integrated decision-making and interpretation, as well as connecting different clinical operations and information systems. Medical displays are an indispensable technology in smart hospitals as they assist physicians with visualizing the conditions within a patient's body for clinicopathological diagnosis and displaying treatment progress; 4K and 3D displays are expected to become mainstream in medical imaging applications due to their enhanced clarity.MedicalTek CEO Jack Liu stated that while there are numerous methods of treatment, physicians still rely on surgical treatments at critical junctures; utilizing technology to build safe, high quality surgical models is extremely important.Technological advancements have replaced traditional open surgery with minimally invasive surgeries. Operating theatres have become areas with high display density as physicians utilize endoscopes and displays to view patient lesions, thereby making requirements for picture quality even higher. Display resolutions have gone from SD, 2K all the way to improved full color gamut, improved resolution of reds, and better emphasis of ICG fluorescence in 4K and 8K displays to help doctors identify lesions with enhanced clarity.Eddie Huang, the NVIDIA Solution Architect Director of Healthcare mentioned that models are the soul of AI. When problem solving within industries, single modules are rarely utilized; instead, multiple modules are often linked as jobs, then multiple jobs are linked to form pipelines. Due to this complicated architecture, NVIDIA developed a data center platform architecture to assist users with the acceleration of end-to-end processes; additionally, the NVIDIA Clara framework was developed for healthcare applications. It includes a wealth of reference applications and SDK so that physicians can develop AI autonomously without having to rely on IT.Reliance on professional medical displays to effectively solve pain points within the fieldAUO General Display Business Division Director Jerry Chen elaborated on the new opportunities of medical displays and sensing in the post-pandemic era. This pandemic has driven the medical field to accelerate towards digital transformations based on the theme of "ABCD" (AI, big data, cloud, and displays). AUO has accumulated strong capabilities in research and technology after years of investment in the field of medical applications. Today, the company holds more than 20% of the global market share in both professional medical displays and X-ray sensors.Jerry Chen stated that "physicians have very high expectations for displays in areas such as high definition imaging and color fidelity due to their prolonged periods of daily use". AUO designs human-centric professional medical displays to solve the pain points within the field.By utilizing 4K Deep-Red surgical displays, the company has successfully overcome the restrictions of color gamut with enhanced performance at high saturation to display multiple levels of red so that surgeons can clearly identify the differences between tissues and lesions. Diagnostic displays with high contrast ratio and wide viewing angles utilize enhanced contrast to emphasize light and dark levels so that radiologists can view fine tissue with clarity.AUO offers the world's first "super narrow bezel and true portrait" design, creating a superior visual experience to give radiologists improved image reading quality during diagnosis. A.R.T (Advanced Reflectionless Technology) displays effectively improves the visual comfort of physicians during prolonged viewings by reducing glare and reflections.The event's finale concluded with talks by Yu-li Tsai, Director of the Embedded Platform and Module Department of ADLINK Technology and Ken Yu, Chairman and CEO of imedtac. Yu-li Tsai pointed out that edge computing in medical imaging is the quickest application to land in the field of smart healthcare; While ADLINK Technology first started in designing controllers, the company formed alliances with industry leaders and behemoths such as AUO, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm. The company developed various AIOM smart modules based on industry standards and combined them with AI-enabled machine vision systems to provide a comprehensive application-ready edge computing platform in the field of healthcare; edge video analysis (EVA) is provided to assist with simple data collection, advanced processing, model training, to complicated processes such as system deployment in healthcare.Ken Yu stated that medical institutions place an emphasis on satisfying the demands of OT (operational technology), yet rarely pay attention to the evolution of IT technologies. The reason that AI, IoT, and robotics can thrive in healthcare is due to their OT value in requiring "less focus", "less attention", and "less effort". Based on this context, imedtac invested in a series of AIoT based smart medical solutions for smart guided treatment, high-quality nursing, smart operating theatres, medical logistics, and green hospitals in the hopes of accessing foreign markets by exporting modules or planning entire hospitals.Hence, the company has held a long-term partnership with AUO as imedtac's product deployment encompasses turnkey solutions for software/hardware integration, touch displays, and the management platform's automated dispensing cabinet (ADC), all of which heavily rely on professional medical displays.Medical IoT is the cornerstone of future hospitals and is critical for conducting broad sensing and data acquisition in key areas such of outpatient clinics, wards, operating theatres, storage, disinfection, and supply rooms. By combining technologies such as AI analytics and displays, the quality and safety of healthcare can be enhanced by assisting physicians and administrators in monitoring medical processes.AUO General Display Business Division Director, Chen Yu-cun, provided a keynote on AUO Tech Forum 2020ADLINK has launched an efficient and safe intelligent diagnosis solutionAUO's professional medical care display technologies are able to assist medical staff in making accurate diagnosis

Growing maturity of artificial intelligence (AI) technology is enabling leaping advances in automated optical inspection (AOI) for the manufacturing sector. ADLINK is working with leading information technology (IT) provider Fujitsu to introduce a False Call Reduction (FCR) system - a new smart manufacturing solution built with Fujitsu's robust AI computing power and ADLINK's extensive experiences in collecting manufacturing data and developing manufacturing applications. They expect to bring the solution into action on the surface mount technology (SMT) production lines by year end.Quality control is a step in the manufacturing process that is critical to production yield and product quality optimization. It has generally been performed by human workers and automated optical inspection (AOI) until the rise of smart manufacturing wherein AI is reshaping production line systems. As part of its active undertakings in AI-enabled solutions, ADLINK began collaborations with Japan-based IT technology provider Fujitsu in 2020 to integrate Fujitsu Advanced Image Recognition(F|AIR) with ADLINK's edge computing industrial PC (IPC) to boost visual inspection accuracy above 90% and thereby reduce AOI false call rates on SMT production lines so that manufacturers can achieve higher precision quality control.With defect detection being an essential part of quality control, manufacturers have been making use of AOI equipment to help production line workers identify defects at a higher level of accuracy. To make the process more efficient, maturing AI technology is being introduced in AOI to tap the power of deep learning algorithms and make defect detection more intelligent and more accurate.AOI may not necessarily increase production line efficiencyAccording to Ming-Che Cheng, Business Development Director, Smart Factory Business Center, IoT Solutions & Technology Business Unit of ADLINK , when manufacturers incorporate AOI equipment on their SMT production lines for quality control, they generally configure AOI settings with rigorous standards. This results in a high number of false calls, each of which requires reexamination by human workers and manual data update or input. Such added processes not only hinder efficient production line operation but also burden human workers with so much work that they may be prone to misjudge defective products as good products due to fatigue, causing return, rework or even damage to manufacturers' business reputation.ADLINK joins forces with Fujitsu to create a new integrated AI platformADLINK is endeavoring to find a solution to the issue, noted Cheng. After years of development, ADLINK's AI-based inspection hardware has reached maturity. For software capabilities, ADLINK turns to Fujitsu in hopes of leveraging its robust AI software strength to jointly build a hardware-software integrated FCR system. According to Jung-Lang Wang, technical manager, Digital Co-creation, Fujitsu, global IT heavyweights flex their muscles by presenting powerful supercomputers. Fujitsu builds F|AIR on top of its high-performing servers and has put the solution to use at its production bases in Europe. It is then in search of partners to help bring F|AIR to Asia, the world's manufacturing hub. The partnership between ADLINK and Fujitsu is a perfect match. By combining Fujitsu's F|AIR and ADLINK's edge computing IPC, they offer manufacturers engaging in SMT processing an ideal solution that reduces AOI false calls.Boosting the FCR system's adoption by ensuring continuous uptimeFeaturing a non-intrusive design, the partnership FCR system can be installed without having to shut down the SMT line. It can be up and running after simple parameter adjustments, which can be replicated to other production lines. It can learn from the training models about defects in images while in operation and reduce false calls by more than 90% without having to train on a large quantity of images. Then, the significantly reduced number of images determined to have defects are turned over to human inspectors who can take the time to conduct reexamination and improve quality of work. Furthermore, the FCR system can aggregate the reexamination results for subsequent training. Not only is the inspection process made more efficient, manufacturers get to enjoy higher units per hour (UPH). More importantly, all software and hardware run in parallel to existing AOI equipment so manufacturers' past investments will not go to waste.Based on a deep learning algorithm, the FCR system will deliver a higher level of accuracy with a larger quantity and variety of training images. That is, the system will grow in accuracy with the time it runs on the SMT line. Aside from training purposes, the images it collects on the production line can also be used to trace production history for manufacturers to improve product quality and for customers to gain insights into the production process through visual data.The FCR system is built for small-volume large-variety productionThe FCR system now runs on ADLINK's own SMT line. It is especially suitable for small-volume large-variety production, said Wang. Its deep learning implementation allows it to accommodate a diverse range of production requirements. ADLINK and Fujitsu will continue to work together and expand the application scope for the system to help manufacturers address challenges in AI-based visual inspection.ADLINK turns to Fujitsu in hopes of leveraging its robust AI software strength to jointly build a hardware-software integrated FCR systemDaniel Yang, president of ADLINK (left) and Yuguchi Akashi, Fujitsu Taiwan president (right)

The trend towards AI at the edge and the rapid advance of machine learning algorithms have brought new application challenges to traditional video surveillance systems. As a result, the edge video analysis (EVA) market, which uses AI to analyze images and videos and derive actionable information, has recently come to the forefront.Since becoming an NVIDIA Quadro Embedded Preferred Partner, OEM Preferred Partner, and Jetson Elite Partner, ADLINK, has transformed from an embedded system developer to a leading provider of AI edge computing, and has worked with NVIDIA to create comprehensive AI edge platforms and solutions. By doing so, the two companies aim to help customers realize the value of AI edge computing and bring EVA functions to a diverse range of edge devices, and assist companies across industries to achieve business transformation.In the "When ADLINK meets NVIDIA" webinar held on July 9th, the latest AI edge computing trends and optimal solutions jointly provided by the two companies were presented. In addition, application cases and practical deployment experience for different verticals, including manufacturing, healthcare, smart cities, and defense, were also introduced.AI edge computing enables business transformation and added value"AI has become a game-changing technology," said Jim Liu, Chairman and CEO of ADLINK, in the "Expert Talk", a session in which Eunice Chiu, VP, Sales & GM of Taiwan at NVIDIA Corporation, also participated. "By realizing AI at the edge, the way many devices are used will change from automation to autonomy.""In particular, intelligent vision analysis will drive business transformation and value enhancement for various industries, such as manufacturing, retail, medical, smart cities, and sports. By leveraging our deep experience in the embedded market and integrating NVIDIA's powerful GPU product portfolio and rich software stacks for different verticals, I believe that our partnership will play an important role in the market.""Data, domain knowledge, and fields for validation are the three requisites for successful AI solutions," Jim Liu stressed. "In addition, the deployment of AI edge computing involves the integration of processors, application software, platforms, security and other building blocks. No single company can provide all solutions alone. Therefore, partnership is very important and we should work with companies that have knowledge in different domains."Eunice Chiu echoed by saying, "The challenges faced by the industry and its application requirements continue to evolve. For NVIDIA, we not only keep improving our GPU performance and product portfolios, but have also established comprehensive software stacks for various vertical markets. Our goal is to build complete end-to-end solutions so that we can help companies accelerate the innovation and deployment of AI edge computing." She also emphasized that, when selecting a technology partner for AI deployment, in order to ensure investment, it is necessary to cooperate with suppliers that can provide complete solutions, scalability and future-proof capabilities, as well as simplify complexity.The two experts highlighted the fact that ADLINK and NVIDIA have worked together over the past few years and have invested a lot of resources to build the optimal platform for edge computing. As the development of AI edge applications matures, the problem of how to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and optimization of deployment will be the next issue facing the industry. In this regard, the two companies will together strengthen cooperation with end customers across industries and strive to embrace the huge opportunities in the new era of smart economy.EVA in manufacturing, healthcare, smart cities, and defense industriesIn the second part of the webinar, four "Solution Sessions" targeting manufacturing, healthcare, smart cities, and defense industries introduced the latest solutions from ADLINK and NVIDIA.For smart manufacturing, ADLINK explained how edge AI vision can be deployed to assist the operations of automated optical inspection (AOI). Application cases including intelligent robotics, smart pallet, and AI AOI for contact lens defect inspection were discussed. Compared with traditional machine vision, AI AOI can successfully help manufacturers improve the accuracy and productivity of inspection.For healthcare applications, a detailed explanation was given on how to improve speed and accuracy in medical imaging. By adopting diversified products jointly developed by ADLINK and NVIDIA, multiple challenges, including improving image quality, reducing harmful radiation exposure to patients, and satisfying the compact and small form factor requirements for advanced imaging equipment, can be overcome.For smart cities, NVIDIA described how intelligent video analytics can be used to solve important problems across a range of smart city applications, such as retail, warehouse, and transportation, by using its Jetson-based hardware and Metropolis application/platform, and how to create higher value by realizing edge-to-cloud inference at the edge.Finally, in the defense field, NVIDIA discussed the impacts and changes that AI has brought to defense applications. For example, radar, communications, sonar, image processing and other applications will more widely use AIOM (AI-on-Module) products with built-in GPUs to perform visual analysis, encryption, simulation and other functions, a fact that will drive significant growth of GPUs within military. In addition, a series of rugged board and module products jointly developed with ADLINK can meet the various size, reliability, and performance requirements of the next generation of defense devices.AI will be ubiquitous in the future. Rapid and successfully AI deployment will be a key factor for the successful transformation to AI industrialization. ADLINK has evolved from focusing on embedded system development to being a leading provider of AI edge solutions in recent years. By leveraging NVIDIA's powerful GPU product portfolio and a wide range of vertical software stacks, ADLINK has created complete end-to-end solutions covering software/hardware platforms and system implementation. With the most suitable solutions, ADLINK aims to help customers accelerate their deployment and realization of innovative AI edge applications.To learn more information about the optimal AI edge solutions jointly provided by ADLINK and NVIDIA, watch a replay of the webinar!To learn more information about the optimal AI edge solutions ,watch a replay of the webinar

The global demand for healthcare services is growing, due in part to increases in aging populations, chronic diseases, and patient volumes in emerging countries. These trends and others will boost global healthcare spending, which is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% through 2023.Smart Healthcare SolutionsWith healthcare providers caring for more patients and battling the spread of infectious diseases, medical-grade computers can help by improving healthcare efficiency and patient safety. ADLINK's antibacterial medical panel computers deliver the high performance and a hygienic design needed to meet the stringent requirements of the healthcare industry. This case study describes how a Taiwan-based medical systems integrator, iMedtac, deployed ADLINK products to build surgical imaging systems and mobile medical carts to address some of the challenges facing healthcare providers.iMedtac's solutions are widely used by large medical institutions, both at home and abroad, mainly for two reasons: they closely match hospital needs and can be up and running in no time, ready-to-use by medical care teams.ChallengesEnable faster and safer surgeriesDoctors operating on patients need to view pre-surgery images stored in an archive along with images captured during surgery. When medical imaging devices are located throughout the operating room, doctors must look up and around to find the information they need, which can distract them and slow down the surgery.Reduce medical device-related infectionsPreventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is a top priority in the healthcare industry, and perhaps even more so with the rise in infectious diseases throughout the world. HAIs can occur when the medical device itself becomes contaminated and serves as a means of transmission of microorganisms directly or indirectly from an infected individual to a patient.2 SolutionsAn integrated view of medical images increases efficiency and safetyAn imaging platform developed by iMedtac allows doctors to view multiple medical images from one display built with ADLINK's MLC8 and MLC-AK/KL medical panel computers. Further addressing patient safety and healthcare efficiency, the solution eliminates the need for doctors to physically press a key with their hand or foot by incorporating gesture recognition.By implementing contactless switching from one image to another, the platform helps reduce the risk of infection and the time needed to clean the operating room, thereby shortening the operating room turnover time.Hygienic design prevents the spread of infectionA mobile medical cart designed for hospitals facilitates safe, contactless doctor-patient communication and medical data access by combining gesture recognition and video conferencing. Built by iMedtac, the cart integrates medical images (e.g., electrocardiogram, ultrasound, and Horus Scope) with information from hospital information systems (HIS) and/or picture archiving and communication systems (PACS). The solution increases the portability and usability of medical devices for both intensive care units (ICUs) and remote healthcare settings.Medical-Grade ComputersiMedtac's surgical imaging systems and mobile medical carts are respectively based on ADLINK's MLC8 and MLC-AL/KL medical panel computers that are medically-certified products, suitable for use in operating rooms and ICUs. According to iMedtac, even with gesture control, there are still situations when users need to physically enter commands via the touch panel. This is why iMedtac selected ADLINK's MLC8 and MLC-AL/KL medical panel computers with hygienic-design features.These ADLINK computers allow for easy cleaning by medical care teams after use, prevent bacterial growth in cracks, and shorten operating room turnover time. The hygienic design includes a screwless, fully-sealed housing, edge-to-edge touch panel (no frame), on-screen buttons (no physical buttons), antibacterial surface coating, and IP54 protection.Integrating ADLINK Panel ComputersiMedtac reduces its medical system integration efforts by starting with a standard architecture and then customizing the remaining portion (approximately 30%) to satisfy particular customer needs. ADLINK panel computers fully support this development model, providing high levels of flexibility and functionality. This includes a 4K or full HD display, customizable touch control, and laminated with anti-glare coated safety glass and optical bonding to present clear medical images. ADLINK-based solutions also provide an isolated I/O interface, expansion slots, and network ports to accommodate connection to wide-ranging devices to facilitate system integration.ADLINK's medical-grade panel computers are IEC/EN-60601-1 and IEC/EN-60601-1-2 certified. These certifications protect the safety of those operating the medical devices and prevent the devices from interfering with one another in operating rooms and ICUs, which help ensure the safety of the operating room staff and patients.Smart Healthcare SolutionsADLINK and iMedtac are committed to collaborating and bringing smart healthcare solutions with a fresh perspective to the healthcare industry. For information about ADLINK medical-grade panel computers, please visit the website.An imaging platform developed by iMedtac allows doctors to view multiple medical images from one display built with ADLINK's MLC8 and MLC-AK/KL medical panel computersADLINK panel computers fully support this development model, providing high levels of flexibility and functionality

The world's population is aging. According to American Association of Retired Persons, 22% of the world's population will be 60 and older by 2050. At the same time, developers are making use of new technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and big data analytics to design all types of systems to raise the quality and efficiency of healthcare. With the increase in both supply and demand, smartization is becoming an important trend for the healthcare industry. According to Jason Miao, business development manager, iMedtac, medical devices play a critical role on patient health and safety so system developers must have professional knowledge in both healthcare and technology to be able to build optimized medical systems. For this reason, iMedtac not only employs a team of technology and medical professionals but also partners with ADLINK, which has accumulated extensive experience in medical devices, to introduce complete smart solutions to suit hospital needs.Founded in 2016, iMedtac focuses on developing smart medical devices targeting medical treatment and healthcare. Going forward, it plans to expand its offerings to include health promotion products for use by the general public. As opposed to most other smart medical device providers, iMedtac starts with developing more technologically challenging products and then expands toward more straightforward healthcare and health promotion devices. Miao explains that iMedtac is able to implement the distinct product planning strategy thanks to its team with extensive industrial PC experience and medical background. Not only does the team have no problem communicating with medical professionals to fully grasp their needs, it can even think from the user's perspective and thereby actively propose suited solutions.Citing an integrated operation room solution iMedtac developed for a teaching hospital in southern Taiwan as an example, Miao points out that when doctors operate on a patient, they need to monitor the patient's ultrasound, CT scan or other medical images in real time to ensure a smooth and safe surgery. Imaging devices are generally mounted individually at different locations in the operating room (OR). Doctors often have to look up to find the image they need. To help improve efficiency, iMedtac has purpose-built a platform for the hospital, onto which all images are streamed and integrated. Surgical assistants can quickly switch to the image the surgeon needs to look at.Aside from the surgical image streaming system, iMedtac has also designed a surgical safety check system to help medical care teams keep track of surgical inventory count and surgical procedure checklist. As time and instrument control is a crucial part of OR management, iMedtac's solution can help medical care teams stay on top of tight OR schedules, thereby avoiding delays while enhancing patient safety and OR management efficiency.iMedtac's solutions are widely used by large medical institutions both at home and abroad as they closely match hospital needs and they can quickly be developed and ready-to-use by medical care teams. These features enabling iMedtac's solutions to be highly praised by hospitals are the result of close collaborations between iMedtac and ADLINK. According to Miao, iMedtac builds its solutions on the foundation of a 60% to 70% standardized architecture and customizes the remaining portion to suit specific customer needs, thereby speeding up the development cycle. ADLINK provides critical support for the 30% to 40% customization portion with its professionalism in smart medical devices.Having accumulated extensive experience in developing medical devices, ADLINK has a large portfolio of medical-grade products and is therefore in a good position to help iMedtac address user needs and design optimized systems. iMedtac's surgical image streaming system mentioned above is based on ADLINK's MLC 8-21 medical panel computer. Furthermore, iMedtac's medical cart for epidemic prevention uses ADLINK's compact MLC Lite. Both these products are enthusiastically embraced by customers.In light of the important smartization trend of the healthcare industry, iMedtac is picking up pace in its development efforts toward this sector. Going forward, it plans to expand its footprint to Southeast Asian markets. Leveraging ADLINK's global presence and service network in Southeast Asia, iMedtac and ADLINK will continue to engage in close collaboration to bring smart healthcare solutions with a fresh perspective to the market.According to iMedtac business development manager Chung-Sheng Miao, iMedtac's medical cart for epidemic prevention based on ADLINK's medical panel computer is enthusiastically embraced by customers

The petrochemical industry produces products of tremendous value through labor-intensive and complex processes. Any unexpected production equipment failure may result in production shutdown and significant losses. With Industrial 4.0 becoming a key development trend for manufacturing industries in recent years, the petrochemical industry is beginning to incorporate smart manufacturing and attach importance to data. Prowave, with three decades of experience in equipment vibration research, engaged in collaboration with ADLINK to develop a new machine condition monitoring system for a large petrochemical company in Taiwan to help ensure more reliable and safer production equipment operation.Concerns over cost and payback period no longer hinder adoption of machine condition monitoring solutionsProwave successfully helped a renowned petrochemical company in Taiwan incorporate a machine monitoring system operating across multiple production sites. The system not only enables the company to stay on top of the operating conditions of production line equipment but also generates additional benefits.Smartization in manufacturing remains in the initial stage, so many manufacturers hesitate to introduce smart systems into their production process. In particular, machine condition monitoring systems are not considered revenue-generating equipment. Moreover, in view of their high upfront cost and long payback period, manufacturers generally take a wait-and-see attitude toward their adoption. However, we will see a new side of things from a different perspective. If we look closely at current market developments, we will find market-leading manufacturers have long engaged in building up machine condition monitoring systems. This vouches for the value of these systems. From the use case of the petrochemical company in Taiwan, we see that the machine monitoring system has created four major benefits of machine condition monitoring as follows.Benefit 1: Maintaining reliable production line operationProduction equipment is the most valuable revenue-generating asset to manufacturers. A machine condition monitoring system helps ensure reliable operation of production equipment so that manufacturers can rest assured of their product quality and production yield. It can prevent unexpected equipment failure from resulting in production shutdown and shipment delay, which may damage business reputation.Benefit 2: Significantly reducing maintenance costA machine condition monitoring system will immediately issue an alert when detecting a warning sign of equipment failure. Factory managers can therefore take early action and root out the cause of the problem at minimal cost. Not only will it save manufacturers from the cost of replacing failed units but it can also effectively extend equipment life and maximize manufacturers' return on investment.Benefit 3: Ensuring labor safetyA machine condition monitoring system can use smart monitoring solutions to detect the conditions of machines operating in hazardous environments such as at high altitudes or with toxic gas. It therefore eliminates the need for human inspectors and reduces the chance of labor safety incidents.Benefit 4: Driving smart transformation using big data analyticsEquipment condition data collected by a machine condition monitoring system can serve as the basis for analysis by backend platforms to help factory managers make production plans and drive digital transformation for the corporation.The high-performance system precisely captures equipment conditionIn light of all the above benefits, Prowave built the machine condition monitoring system for the petrochemical company in Taiwan using ADLINK's MCM-100 and MCM-204. Featuring high resolution and high bandwidth, MCM-100 and MCM-204 meet the system's requirements for machine vibration detection. Their built-in RJ-45 Ethernet ports significantly shorten cabling distance and therefore minimize signal interference. With 4-CH 24-Bit 128kS/s simultaneous sampling analog input, different machines can easily be connected to form an Internet of Machines. MCM-100, powered by Intel Atom x7-E3950, is suitable for use as workstations at manufacturing sites. MCM-204, featuring ARM Cortex-A9, can perform edge computing. Its small footprint also allows easy integration with the production equipment on site.ADLINK's high-performance hardware enables Prowave's vibration detection technology developed through long-term devotion to work at its best. In the use case, the machine condition monitoring system Prowave built for the petrochemical company analyzes data collected from on-site production equipment in real time. The vibration thresholds at which the system will issue warning or critical events can be customized based on user requirements. Furthermore, Prowave provides complete maintenance service. It will perform annual system calibration based on on-site operation condition after the system is put into place. Prowave will also build vibration models for the production equipment to enable more precise analysis and maintenance going forward.Professional manufacturer selects the system for its high quality and high performanceA slew of global machine condition monitoring solution providers took part in the tendering process of the petrochemical company, which is also an equipment manufacturer and production line system expert itself. The system jointly created by machine condition monitoring solution specialists ADLINK and Prowave was approved and selected by the tender project managers over the other competing systems from global leading firms. They are now working together to put the system in place at the petrochemical company's plants. Aside from the petrochemical industry, the system is also ideal for the semiconductor, display panel, pulp and paper and other large-scale manufacturing industries. With the system, factory managers will be able to leverage real-time machine condition monitoring to stay on top of production equipment health and take the first step to smart transformation.With Industrial 4.0 becoming a key development trend for manufacturing industries in recent years, the petrochemical industry is beginning to incorporate smart manufacturing and attach importance to data.

Problem-free equipment operation is critical to maintaining optimum production yield and quality for common metalworking processes such as stamping and welding. If something is wrong with the equipment, or if the equipment unexpectedly fails, a large amount of output may have to be scrapped, or production shut down. In either case, the manufacturer will have to bear a significant loss.To address these issues, Good Tech Instruments combines its machine learning algorithm with ADLINK's MCM-100 edge inference device to build a smart production equipment monitoring platform. The MCM-100 enables metal processors to use artificial intelligence (AI) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) implementations for real-time monitoring on all types of metal processing equipment to enhance production performance.According to Vincent Hsu, Technical Manager at Good Tech Instruments, metal processing lines use a wide range of different equipment categorized as continuous or discontinuous based on operational use. Continuous machines like motors operate around the clock while discontinuous machines include large robotic arms, stamping presses and automatic welders. These machines are valuable tools to manufacturers, and any problem or failure can result in a large economic loss.Hsu takes automobile manufacturing as an example. Stamping is a common process in the manufacturing of automotive parts. A defect in a mold will influence output quality, but such an issue may not be discovered until a quality check is performed later in the workflow. However, by then, a large quantity of substandard items may already have been produced. Aside from financial losses, there is also time wasted when the production line has to be halted for equipment inspection and repair. These problems do not just plague the automobile manufacturing industry, but can happen to the production process of any metal parts, from screws to components for aerospace applications.A diverse range of smart equipment monitoring systems is available on the market to address such issues. These systems all make use of IIoT sensor networks and AI to detect and analyze equipment conditions to warn factory managers before equipment failure occurs. AI machine learning algorithms play an important role in these systems. Hsu points out that in a discontinuous metalworking process, sensors can be used to detect equipment conditions including vibration of stamping machines, and electric current variation of welding machines, which produce repeated, predictable patterns. In conventional manufacturing environments, machine operators develop a sense about such patterns from long-term experience. Smart manufacturing systems turn workers' experience into machine learning algorithms that can be used to warn factory managers when anomalies in vibration or electric current patterns are detected.AI machine learning algorithms require a large amount of data for training. As such, most of the systems on the market using machine learning algorithms need to first deploy sensors to gather data. Then, when equipment anomalies happen, the sensor data is marked to train the machine to learn from the data. This approach is undesirable in that manufacturers often have to spend a lot of time and money on data collection. However, Good Tech Instruments has developed an equipment monitoring system that can be up and running in an instant. According to Hsu, Good Tech Instruments preloads a trained vibration or electric current model on the end device, saving the manufacturer from having to collect the data. Then, the platform quickly learns from the range of data specified by the manufacturer. The system that has completed the training is capable of automatic tracking and detection, logging the operating conditions of every piece of equipment and reporting the data back to the manager, who can then adjust the equipment to optimize operation.ADLINK's MCM-100 plays an instrumental role enabling the ready-to-use design of Good Tech Instruments' equipment monitoring system. Hsu notes that conventional equipment monitoring systems do not come with end devices. Instead, manufacturers have to additionally purchase industrial computers and extraction cards and assemble them into a complete system after testing and calibration. This not only extends the development cycle but also puts extra burden on their engineers. The MCM-100 eliminates such hassles. Designed specifically for smart manufacturing, the MCM-100 is a ready-to-use vibration/condition monitoring platform for rotating machinery that features high-performance edge computing. With built-in four-channel 24-bit 128 kS/s simultaneous sampling of analog input, it can monitor signals sent from multiple sensors at the same time. It also supports a wide range of I/O interfaces for optimal interoperability. Leveraging the MCM-100's high level of integration and powerful performance, Good Tech Instruments can focus efforts on system development, allowing the system to be up and running very quickly.Hsu comments that "smartization" is the most important trend in manufacturing in recent years and equipment monitoring is regarded by most manufacturers as the first step to the introduction of smart manufacturing systems. With smartization being a new concept to the manufacturing industry, it takes tremendous resources for manufacturers to introduce and calibrate a smart manufacturing system. Delivering optimal performance through a high level of software and hardware integration, the AI-based equipment monitor platform built by Good Tech Instruments and ADLINK enables quick introduction at significantly reduced costs so that manufacturers can begin to enjoy the benefits of smart manufacturing sooner, and have a smooth start embarking on digital transformation.Good Tech Instruments' VMS-ML machine learning system enables real-time monitoring for stamping and punching processesAccording to Vincent Hsu, technical manager, Good Tech Instruments, equipment monitoring can significantly boost production line performance

The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) brought about the smartization trend that not only has transformed traditional manufacturing, but also challenges the manufacturing industry's thinking about business operation. With the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data analytics implementations in place, equipment suppliers are now able to provide value-added services in addition to simply selling products to expand into a service-oriented business model.According to Zake Lin, product manager at ADLINK, to operate this business model, equipment suppliers need to have a comprehensive plan and commit R&D resources before they are clear about customers' intentions. This imposes an enormous burden on equipment suppliers. In view of this, ADLINK has recently introduced a remote monitoring solution targeting manufacturing equipment such as pumps and compressors. Featuring a complete range of functions, ADLINK's solution helps equipment suppliers quickly build up a system and create another wave of business opportunities.Reliability is a fundamental requirement for manufacturing equipment, especially pumps and compressors that play a vital role in production line operation. An unexpected equipment failure could result in production shutdown. To prevent this, manufacturers and equipment suppliers generally include regular maintenance terms in their purchase agreements. Manufacturers are usually willing to pay for maintenance services even after a warranty expires to ensure reliable production line operation.Regular maintenance can significantly boost equipment reliability, but still does not totally eliminate the chance of unexpected failure. The growing Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) implementations in recent years make use of sensor networks, big data analytics and AI technologies for online real-time equipment monitoring and failure prediction. This allows managers to remotely monitor equipment condition and schedule maintenance accordingly to maximize production line uptime.According to Lin, a real-time remote monitoring system is a total IIoT solution that requires complete implementations from end nodes to cloud platforms to bring it into full play. However, the design and development of such a system is not possible without highly specialized expertise, which many equipment suppliers lack and are therefore unable to capture the emerging opportunities arising from real-time remote monitoring services.Furthermore, if equipment suppliers can quickly build a real-time remote monitoring system, they stand a chance of creating more business models. To help them achieve this, ADLINK offers a one-stop total solution targeting rotating machinery such as pumps and compressors. The solution includes everything from front-end sensors to the top-layer cloud platform while featuring high system reliability. More than that, ADLINK's team designed the system with significantly simplified introduction procedures so that equipment suppliers can have it up and running in no time.Lin points out that the solution is built with ADLINK's MCM-204 embedded edge device designed specifically for equipment monitoring as the end node. Its simple and compact mechanical design allows quick installation at the manufacturing site and therefore shortens system deployment time. Moreover, the system is optimized with ARM processors and data acquisition (DAQ) modules to enable one-stop sensor data collection, analysis and upload through a powerful edge computing capability and advantage. With no need for IoT gateways, users can enjoy savings in deployment costs.The solution uses integrated circuit piezoelectric (ICP) accelerometers to detect vibration, digital temperature sensors to detect temperature and tachometers to detect rotation speed. The cloud platform, DataConnect Pro, is built on top of Microsoft's Azure SaaS and features a full range of functionalities and plug-and-play usability, making ADLINK's one-stop remote monitoring solution the most powerful tool helping equipment suppliers tap into new business opportunities. Lin notes that the solution enables three main advantages for equipment suppliers. First, it helps them strengthen customer relationships by allowing them to add differentiating services to their existing product sales business model so that they can maintain their revenue stream. Second, it helps them expand service scope and create new business models. For example, they are now able to offer a fee-based (for example, by annual subscription) equipment monitoring service by upgrading their regular maintenance service program to online real-time monitoring and maintenance. This way, manufacturers can add extra protection for their production equipment. Last, it can help raise maintenance efficiency. With a full and instant grasp on equipment condition, manufacturers can flexibly arrange their maintenance schedule and precisely control component inventory, thereby making smarter use of corporate resources.Equipment suppliers are beginning to change their market positioning with the growing popularity of smart manufacturing. Simple product sales and maintenance services will not be enough to keep up with customer demand. Only suppliers that are able to provide diverse and satisfactory services will stand strong in the face of fierce competition. In today's business world, firms are increasingly specialized in their field of expertise. It is a smart strategy for a firm to leverage a third party's strength to give itself a competitive edge. By adopting ADLINK's remote monitoring solution, equipment suppliers will be able to boost performance with limited resources and expand business models, thereby bringing a diverse range of values to both their customers and themselves.According to Zake Lin, product manager, ADLINK, as a complete system with powerful functions, ADLINK's remote monitoring solution can enable whole new business models for equipment suppliersA real-time remote monitoring system is a total IIoT solution that requires complete implementations from end nodes to cloud platforms to bring it into full play

As the final step in the production process, inspection is of critical importance to the manufacturing industry. Manufacturers generally allot adequate staff resources to perform inspection for the purpose of safeguarding product quality. However, there is a limit to what people can do and human visual inspection may be error-prone.To address the issue, LEDA Technology adopted ADLINK's machine vision system and built a smart inspection solution for use as part of a contact lens manufacturing process. According to LEDA Technology CEO Che-Hsian Huang, aside from quickly catching product defects through machine vision-based inspection, the solution can also collect data from individual inspection devices and conduct AI training to keep strengthening the inspection performance.Starting out as a developer of image processing technologies, LEDA has been expanding into artificial intelligence (AI) technology research as smartization becomes a trend in manufacturing in recent years. It is working on solutions that capture and feed image data to the system to do further processing, the result of which then serves as the basis for making process improvements. LEDA currently focuses on technology development and system application for the manufacturing industry, including defect inspection of LED, metal work pieces and contact lenses. In particular, its solution used in the contact lens manufacturing process is a benchmark representative of LEDA's incredible achievement in AI-enabled machine vision.The CEO said that consumer demand for contact lenses is on the rise for style and convenience reasons. To keep up with the increasing demand, manufacturers need to produce them at a rapid rate. As contact lenses are made from transparent materials, making machine vision-based inspection very challenging, inspection has generally been performed by humans. Furthermore, manufacturers conduct 100% full inspection on contact lenses as opposed to most other products for which sampling inspection is more common. Due to production in a large quantity and at a rapid rate in addition to 100% full inspection, inspectors have to visually check about 4,000 small contact lenses a day, which causes the rates of false discovery and missed detection to remain high. LEDA's solution can improve inspection performance for manufacturers with help from ADLINK's hardware platform and professional technical support.According to LEDA CTO Si-Syuan Huang, to improve manufacturing system performance, instabilities on the production line need to be kept to a minimum so that data can be steadily generated and accurately tracked and then used to calibrate the production process for maximum benefits. Human visual inspection is the main cause of instability in the current manufacturing process, especially in the case of contact lens production lines where mass-quantity inspection is conducted. In view of this, LEDA first introduced a machine vision system to replace human visual inspection and then used the digital data gathered by the system to develop AI algorithms, thereby building a smart manufacturing system from the bottom up.LEDA's AI-enabled machine vision inspection system for contact lenses built on top of ADLINK's EOS-i6000 vision system features the Intel Movidius accelerator, the 9th generation Intel Core i7 processor and support for Intel OpenVINO. The system comes preloaded with a validated AI development platform so it can reduce the efforts needed for testing and integration, thereby significantly shortening the development cycle. EOS-i6000 is optimized for machine vision applications and fully supports a wide variety of deep learning applications. With proven track records in energy consumption, heat dissipation and compatibility, the platform is an ideal edge device complementing a smart manufacturing system.The CTO indicated that due to the complexity of production line configurations and the diversity of factory equipment, when setting up machine vision systems for customers, system providers often have to test all kinds of industrial cameras with different specs and features. If the test results are not as good as expected, the engineering team will have to study the cameras under test again until the system performance meets expectation. ADLINK's EOS-i6000 comes with a built-in GigE camera interface and image capture app along with its proprietary ADLINK Edge development kit, allowing quick and easy connection to other equipment and cloud, so that the LEDA team can focus on algorithm development and shorten the time it takes to get the system up and running.With ADLINK's help, LEDA successfully developed the AI-enabled machine vision inspection system for contact lenses, which allows users to configure the standard on defect detection and precisely screens products based on the user-defined standard. It solved the problem of high false discovery and missed detection rates with human visual inspection. The system can also keep inspection logs which serve as product traceability records for customer reference. In addition to precise product inspection, LEDA's solution also leverages EOS-i6000's features to build deep learning systems for customers.The precision of deep learning hinges not only on the algorithm but more importantly on the data. Only with a sufficient amount of high-quality data can the model training results be accurate. However, due to manufacturing systems' limited capabilities, AI system providers generally have to wait until a certain amount data has been accumulated from the manufacturing process and then send the data back to do training. The back-and-forth process is time-consuming and it takes a long time to get the system up and running. To address this issue, LEDA makes use of EOS-i6000's strength to allow its machine vision system to collect data on the production line and tap into the customer's servers to perform deep training. According to the CEO, in its early development stage, LEDA's AI-enabled machine vision inspection system for contact lenses first learned from humans by having the AI system operate alongside experienced human inspectors who would correct and mark the mistakes the AI system made. The approach enabled the system to develop the rules and logics of the deep learning algorithm while accumulating adequate data for the system to keep improving its precision.The AI-enabled machine vision inspection system for contact lenses LEDA built is now in operation on its customer's production line. LEDA was able to get the system up and running within a short period time. The CEO attributed the success to ADLINK's full support. He pointed out that although there is a wide selection of AI-enabled visual hardware platforms on the market, very few vendors have the expertise in both AI and machine vision. With years of experience in machine vision and a team of AI experts, ADLINK gave LEDA its full support throughout their collaboration. This allowed LEDA to significantly cut down the development time and cost. Going forward, the two firms will continue to engage in close partnership, crafting tailor-made smart systems suited to customer needs.Explore the contact lens inspection solutions, please visit the page.LEDA Technology Che-Hsian Huang (left) and CTO Si-Syuan Huang (right) both point out that AI-enabled machine vision not only ensures stable product quality but also aggregates data for use in process improvementLEDA Technology adopted ADLINK's machine vision system and built a smart inspection solution for use as part of a contact lens manufacturing process