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Hong Kong tech firms pitch in to fight COVID-19 (nationthailand.com)

Hong Kong tech firms pitch in to fight COVID-19

Dec 07. 2020This undated file photo shows Rice, the delivery robot, using an elevator. Rice can navigate through different floors of a building and even use the lift by itself. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVT) 

By Wang Zhan
China Daily/ANN

HONG KONG -Technology firms at the Science Park are using their know-how to help fight the pandemic.

One company has developed a compact little robot called Rice that is proving useful during these times of social distancing while another has come up with a real-time monitoring system that detects abnormalities in people’s body temperature, pulse rate and blood oxygen level.

Hong Kong reported 101 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, including 92 locally transmitted infections, bringing the city’s tally to 6,802

Technology company founder & CEO Victor Lee said Rice can help minimize staff contact with travelers who are required to undergo quarantine in hotels under the COVID-19 regulations.

“We provide the robots to some of the local hotels that provide a quarantine service to some of the guests in Hong Kong. Our robots also contribute to provide contactless delivery to the guests,” Lee said.

Rice can deliver documents and food automatically, as long as the destination address is input properly. It can navigate through different floors of a building, even using the lift by itself. When a task is completed, it goes straight back to the charging station.

Brilliant duo

Rice is equipped with a camera and an ultrasound sensor. Together with the light detection and ranging as well as the simultaneous localization and mapping technologies, it can detect objects and avoid obstacles in its path.

It is not the only robot playing a role in the epidemic fight. There is another robot with a spraying function that can be used to deposit a fine mist of disinfectant into the air. It is usually deployed to busy shopping malls.

“To hotels, our robots can provide the value of bringing a contactless solution to the guests. In shopping malls, the value is very different. The robots can greet the guests, can take a Q&A, and can provide air disinfection,” said Lee.

Real-time monitoring

Another medical technology company at the Science Park has developed a real-time monitoring system to check people’s body temperature, pulse rate and blood oxygen level.

The system alarm is triggered when it detects abnormalities and enables medical staff to promptly check on their patients.

Technology company CEO Lydia Leung (right) explains that the real-time monitoring system is useful for checking the health condition of those under quarantine or confirmed cases of COVID-19 in hospitals. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVT)

Technology company CEO Lydia Leung explained that this is particularly useful for monitoring the health condition of those under quarantine or confirmed cases of COVID-19 in hospitals.

“The real-time monitoring system mainly makes use of a cellular connected device,” she said.

“We can send data to our cloud and have a real-time display for doctors or caregivers, such that they can in real time, whether in hospitals, in canteens or even in their homes, monitor the situation of patients or users,” she added.

Leung added that the Hospital Authority has conducted trials of the system in public hospitals and a quarantine centre.

She hopes the technology can help limit doctors and healthcare workers’ direct contact with COVID-19 patients and relieve the pressure on local frontline healthcare professionals.

This synergy between technology and creativity has enabled Hong Kong’s entrepreneurs to contribute in a variety of ways to help fight the COVID-19 epidemic and support the public during this unprecedented situation.

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Korean Air to charge additional fees on emergency exit seats (nationthailand.com)

Korean Air to charge additional fees on emergency exit seats

Dec 07. 2020In the Oct. 4, 2020, file photo, airplanes of Korean Air Lines Co. arrive at Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul. (Yonhap) 

By The Korea Herald/ANN

Korean Air Lines Co. said Monday it will begin charging additional fees on emergency exit row seats when booking international flights next year.

South Korea’s biggest carrier said on its website that optional fees will be charged on exit row seats with extra legroom, which are located in the front row of each section of the economy class, starting Jan. 14.

Emergency exit row seats will be limited to passengers that satisfy the official safety requirements, and those who book the seats will be required to follow crews’ instructions during emergencies, the airline said.

Additional fees range from 20,000 won to 150,000 won ($18.5-$138) depending on the place of departure.

Seats for handicapped people and pregnant women, as well as passengers with infants, will be available without additional fees, it noted.

Korean Air’s price policy change is seen as a way to improve its revenue as airlines are grappling with weak passenger demand amid the pandemic. 

The company swung to an operating loss of 11.74 billion won in the first nine months, and its sales declined 40 percent to 5.7 trillion won, its financial statement showed. (Yonhap)

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China’s Chang’e 5 set to start journey to Earth (nationthailand.com)

China’s Chang’e 5 set to start journey to Earth

Dec 07. 2020Technicians at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center monitor the docking of the Chang’e 5 lunar probe’s ascender with its orbiter-reentry capsule combination on Sunday. JIN LIWANG/XINHUA 

By ZHAO LEI
China Daily/ANN

Lunar samples collected by China’s Chang’e 5 robotic probe will soon start their journey toward Earth, according to the China National Space Administration.

The rocks and dust from the moon have been delivered from Chang’e 5’s ascender to their final host－the probe’s reentry capsule, which will later bring them to Earth.

The 400-kilogram ascender docked with the 2.3-metric ton orbiter-reentry capsule combination early on Sunday morning and then transferred a sealed container holding 2 kilograms of lunar samples into the capsule.

The operation was the first automated rendezvous and docking of any spacecraft in lunar orbit.

The last time two components of a spacecraft docked with each other in lunar orbit was in December 1972 during the final Apollo mission, and that was monitored and controlled by astronauts.

One of the most crucial devices during the highly sophisticated docking maneuver on Sunday morning, a microwave radar, which is mounted on the orbiter, worked with its transponder on the ascender to measure the rapidly changing distance and provided communication between the two traveling vehicles to allow them to adjust their position during the docking.

Engineers at the 25th Institute of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp Second Academy designed and built the devices. They applied multiple advanced technologies to the apparatus, making them the best of their kind in the world, said Sun Wu, the equipment’s chief designer at the institute.

Several hours after the docking, the ascender departed from the orbiter-reentry capsule combination around noon, while the combination continued orbiting the moon before its journey back to Earth, the space administration said in a statement on Sunday afternoon.

After arriving in Earth orbit, the pair will separate in due course, and the reentry capsule will conduct a series of complicated maneuvers to return to a preset landing site in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region in mid-December.

Chang’e 5, China’s largest and most sophisticated lunar probe, has four main components－an orbiter, lander, ascender and reentry capsule. The spacecraft was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket on Nov 24 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, setting out on China’s most challenging lunar adventure and the world’s first mission since 1976 to bring lunar samples to Earth.

The probe separated into two parts－the orbiter-reentry capsule combination and the lander-ascender combination－while in lunar orbit on Nov 30.

Late on Tuesday, the lander-ascender combination landed on the moon, becoming the world’s third spacecraft to touch down on the lunar surface this century after its predecessors－Chang’e 3 and 4.Shortly after the landing, it began to use a drill to obtain samples from 2 meters beneath the lunar surface.

It finished the underground operation on Wednesday morning, and then started to use a mechanical arm to recover surface dirt.

All collection and packing processes were completed on Wednesday night, much sooner than expected. Samples were packed into a vacuum container inside the ascender.

The ascender activated an engine on Thursday night to lift itself into an elliptical lunar orbit to prepare for docking with the reentry capsule, marking the first time a Chinese spacecraft has blasted off from an extraterrestrial body.

If this mission is successful, it will make China the third nation to bring samples back from the moon, after the United States and the former Soviet Union.

A total of about 382 kilograms of lunar rocks and dust were recovered by the US Apollo mission astronauts and the Soviet Luna robotic landers from 1969 to 1976.

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Aeon creates UV-based shopping basket sanitizer (nationthailand.com)

Aeon creates UV-based shopping basket sanitizer

Dec 07. 2020An Aeon Retail Co. official shows an automated shopping basket sanitizer. (The Yomiuri Shimbun) 

By The Japan News/ANN

Aeon Retail Co. has developed an automated shopping basket sanitizer that disinfects baskets with ultraviolet light.

The device supplements the retailer’s precautions against the spread of the new coronavirus and promotes safer shopping practices. It can sterilize a batch of 60 shopping baskets in about 12 minutes, the firm said.

When switched on, the device lifts each shopping basket and disinfects it — including the back of the handle — using ultraviolet light.

At Aeon outlets, store employees have been wiping each basket one by one to sterilize them. But as the number of used baskets totals about 10,000 per day at large stores, sanitizing baskets by hand is an extreme burden for employees.

The device was developed jointly with a manufacturer in Kyoto. It has already been installed in some stores in Kyoto and Saitama prefectures, and will be expanded to 14 of its stores by the end of this year.

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Vietnam to begin human trials of COVID-19 vaccine this week (nationthailand.com)

Vietnam to begin human trials of COVID-19 vaccine this week

Dec 07. 2020

Việt Nam will begin the first stage of human trials of a COVID-19 vaccine from December 1. Photo for illustration. — baochinhphu.vn 

By Viet Nam News/ANN

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam will begin the first stage of human trials of a COVID-19 vaccine from December 10, according to the Ministry of Health.

The vaccine was produced by the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology company, said deputy minister of health Nguyễn Thanh Long at a meeting with COVID-19 vaccine producers in Việt Nam on Saturday.

The company will work with the Military Medical Academy to recruit volunteers to participate in the first phase of human trials on Thursday. The volunteers will be given the first test shots of the vaccine a week later.

The ministry said about 20 volunteers, aged 18-40, are expected to be injected with the vaccine during the first phase.

Long asked agencies to get ready for the second phase of human clinical trials.

He said the ministry would create all favourable conditions for vaccine production units, including relaxing administrative procedures and speeding up registration and licensing of products. The ministry will report the investment policy for vaccine production to the Government and co-ordinate with related institutions to help them access capital for research and production, he added.

“We need to be proactive in all phases in order to be able to get the vaccine as soon as possible,” he said.

Việt Nam has four COVID-19 vaccines produced by Nanogen, Vabiotech, Polyvac and the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC) currently under research.

The health ministry earlier assessed Nanogen’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate as among the most promising, having been successfully produced it on a laboratory scale and provoking immunogenicity during animal testing.

IVAC and Vabiotech have completed their laboratory-scale production process and are evaluating the safety and immunity of their vaccines on animals.

The ministry has asked Polyvac to work with producers in Russia and China to get access to their vaccines.

Long said the ministry has promoted COVID-19 vaccine research and production activities while at the same time increasing co-operation, exchanges and negotiations with foreign vaccine producers to soon get access to sources of vaccine to meet domestic demand. — VNS