Round up of the Computex Trade Show Taiwan 2017
The Computex Trade Show ran from May 30 to June 3 2017. For those of you have are not across it, this trade show is an information and communication technology trade show which this year was held in Taiwan. It attracted attendees from 167 countries with the majority of visitors from China but with a significant surge of attendees from Southeast Asian nations as well.
Many trade shows such as the CES and IFA focus mainly on the Chinese market. The Computex Trade Show puts much more emphasis on the global market. This year the trade show had five main themes namely:
- AI & Robotics
- IoT Applications
- Innovations & Startups
- Business Solutions, and
- Gaming & VR
For those who have attended the Computex Trade Show over a number of years, it is great to see that start ups seem to be getting more space to show their “stuff”. Of course given that many Smart Ring companies fall into this category we had hoped that more would be represented in this category at the trade show.
The trade show certainly showcase smart devices in the form of smart watches, bands and the like. Many of these exhibitors represented as part of the InnoVEX (Innovation and Startups) category.
As we said above, it is to be expected, given the infancy of the Smart Ring market, there was not a significant Smart Ring representation at the trade show this year. However Orii by Origami Labs did make an appearance.
Yay for the Orii Smart Ring!!!
Yep, that is the Buy Smart Rings team getting excited that Orii (of Origami Labs), the very-first voice assistant ring, was represented at the trade show in Taiwan. We have written about Orii in the past and we are closely following their progress in the Smart Ring space. This Smart Ring connects to your phone through Bluetooth and works via gesture and voice commands. You can also make and receive calls. We think the Orii ring has significant application to all lifestyles including those who are hearing impaired. See our blog post about Orii here.
Isa Rodriguez of GadgetMatch wrote an article about her first hand (or should we say first finger?) experience with Orii and its capability at the trade show. You can check that out here.
Other related Smart technology of interest – Smart Gloves
The trade show also showcased a new pair of smart gloves. Now technically, Smart Gloves are outside the Smart Ring niche given they are hand worn and not worn on a finger like a Smart Ring. But an overview of its capabilities is likely to interest some of our Buy Smart Rings community so here is a quick overview.
Developed by Taiwanese company Yingmi Tech, the gloves feature sensors in the fingers as well as a gyroscope and accelerometer in a unit on the wrist. The sensors transmit finger and hand movements via Bluetooth to a smartphone app, translating gestures to text.
Gesture-recognition technology has promising application to break down communication barriers and isolation for people who are deaf or have hearing loss. By translating finger and hand movements into text, the gloves will allow deaf people to easily communicate with strangers through a smartphone app.
As we mentioned earlier, we are a little bummed that there weren’t any other Smart Rings represented at the Computex Trade Show this year, especially given the trade show opened the door to more startups. But don’t be despondent, the Wearable EuropeTrade Show kicks off next week in Berlin, Germany. This conference plus exhibition focusses on wearables, applications and device commercialisation progress. The line up includes over 225 speakers across the two day event and some 200 exhibitors from 61 countries. We have our fingers crossed for some Smart Rings and related news to showcase from that event shortly.
Further reading
Apparently a chess playing robot was the star of the trade show this year. Obviously Smart Rings are “our thing” so we won’t go into detail about other aspects of the trade show here but please feel free to peruse these additional articles we’ve rounded up below.
Article covering chess playing robot
http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2017/05/31/chess-playing-robot-star-of-taiwan-tech-fair-.html
General feedback on the Computex Trade Show
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/141173-computex-2017-all-the-announcements-that-matter
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/Operators/69829.php
http://www.news18.com/photogallery/tech/computex-taipei-2017-asias-biggest-tech-show-1417313.html
https://www.cnet.com/au/news/heres-what-i-learnt-after-ten-years-of-computex/
Computer/PC based feedback on the Computex Trade Show
http://www.computerdealernews.com/slideshows/top-new-products-from-the-computex-show-2017
http://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-pc-cases-of-computex-2017
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