That’s down to the Digital Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation system, the latest technology in the QuietPoint series that ensures superb music experience when travelling or working outdoors. The 4 built-in microphones enhance noise cancellation efficiency while the 40 mm drivers with their carbon-coated diaphragms deliver high-frequency sound with clarity and power. The headphones are now on sale for Bt11,500.

The new toothbrush utilises Kyocera’s proprietary ceramic piezoelectric element inside the head of the toothbrush, turning electrical signals into vibrations to transmit music directly to the user without the use of external speakers, so only the child can hear the music.

Possi is a toothbrush for the parent’s final brushing after a child brushes on their own. The round shape and candy-colored design appeal to children. Kyocera’s small ceramic piezoelectric element and digital-driven amplifier mounted on the body cause the toothbrush head to vibrate, allowing the child to hear and enjoy music only when the brush head is in contact with the child’s teeth or the inside of the mouth.

The SoftBank Group Corp. affiliate aims to implement the system in fiscal 2020 to provide driverless transport services in areas where transportation is lacking due to depopulation or a shortage of bus drivers.

The test used the Navya Arma, a vehicle developed by France’s Navya SA.

The Navya Arma, marketed as an unmanned self-driving bus, has no driver’s seat or steering wheel. It can be remotely operated in the event of an emergency.

For the tests, the vehicle drives at speeds of up to 15 kph for about 300 meters on a public road encircling a park in the urban area.

GPS is used to determine the position of the bus, and a high-performance sensor at the front of the vehicle detects obstacles on the road ahead.

The bus finished its test run without a hitch on Wednesday. It automatically stopped when it detected a pedestrian and oncoming car, and accelerated again after confirming the coast was clear.

As safety precautions, a remote system monitored the operation and a driver with a remote control accompanied the media on board.

“Personnel costs can be reduced because you don’t need a driver, making it possible to introduce the system in sparsely populated areas at low cost,” said Yuki Saji, president and chief executive officer of SB Drive. “I want to make it an everyday means of local transportation.”

NetDragon, a global leader in building internet communities, said Promethean was continuing its over two decades of developing purpose-built products designed by teachers for teachers.

The new ActivPanel Elements series is a recent winner of the prestigious international Red Dot Design Award.

“The series is purpose-built to make teaching more efficient and enjoyable while enriching student learning experiences,” Vin Riera, the CEO of Promethean, said. “It employs a ground-breaking unified menu to control all apps and settings on the panel, and source switching across connected devices. This means teachers can move seamlessly between content and resources with greater confidence and less training time required, and don’t need to manually switch inputs across hardware,” Riera added.

Another powerful feature is Promethean’s proprietary new Vellum writing technology, which brings together elements of hardware and software to make the writing experience natural and enjoyable. Vellum technology brings the instant whiteboard to life with unparalleled free-form writing, pinch-zoom navigation, and pre-loaded teaching tools, Riera said.

“In terms of classroom applications, the ActivPanel Elements series includes classroom essential apps. At the touch of a button, teachers can use the infinite canvas on the highly intuitive whiteboard app to instantly supplement lessons. They can also draw, highlight, and annotate over any content from any source with the annotate app, and add excitement to activities with the customisable spinner and timer apps. In addition, the ActivPanel Elements series includes Promethean’s award-winning, interactive lesson delivery software products. Both ActivInspire and ClassFlow are supported and available without an additional subscription,” Riera said.

The ActivPanel Elements series also empowers secure, multi-device collaboration via screen-sharing across the ActivPanel, smartphones, Chromebooks, tablets, and laptops. This frees teachers to move anywhere in the classroom and create small/large group interactions that drive student engagement, Riera added.

Over the next five years, the penetration rate for smart meters among electricity customers in the US and Canada is projected to increase from around 60 per cent in 2018 to more than 80 per cent by the end of 2024.

“North America has long been at the forefront of smart grid technology adoption and a large share of the major utilities in the region are now either fully deployed or in the implementation or planning stages of full-scale rollouts,” said Levi Östling, IoT analyst at Berg Insight and author of the report.

“The market is, however, highly heterogenous in terms of penetration. Some states or provinces remain sceptical towards the business case for advanced metering investments whereas others are soon to begin a second wave of deployments.”

Canada has reached a high penetration of smart meters through ambitious initiatives in its most populous provinces. Continued growth in North America over the next few years will largely be driven by the large investor-owned utilities in the US that are yet to roll out smart meters for their customers.

According to the report, yearly shipments of smart electricity meters in North America will grow ‪from 8.8‬ million units in 2018 to 19.9 million units in 2024. Over the next few years, first-wave deployments by utilities such as Consolidated Edison, Duke Energy, Ameren, Entergy, PSEG, National Grid and Xcel Energy will boost shipments. Second wave deployments will gradually make their way into the shipment numbers at the end of the forecast period.

EDITED LUCI

Tech

The study polled 9,000 participants across nine countries in Asia, including 1,000 consumers in Thailand. The survey was designed to uncover insights into consumer preferences around OTT services, including subscription tiers and motivators driving subscriptions; how much consumers are willing to pay; their tolerance to advertising and ad-supported subscriptions; and openness to a shoppable TV experience post-programming.

The study reported that

– 40 per cent of respondents in Thailand said they might be open to a reduced monthly subscription package that serves ads depending on the price and 38 per cent said they would definitely sign up, representing a potential market size of 78 per cent of respondents polled favouring this option.

– 59 per cent of “Lapsed” respondents are planning to sign-up for OTT services again in the future.

– The top three reasons for subscribing to multiple OTT services were: to satisfy the content needs of their family (45 per cent), free trials and promotions (44 per cent), and less expensive than pay TV (34 per cent).

– Thinking about the future, 26 per cent of respondents in Thailand want to pay nothing and watch ads as a trade off to consuming content, 25 per cent elected to pay a lower fee and see limited ads, and 17 per cent stated they are willing to pay a higher fee to not see ads.

– When asked how much respondents would be willing to pay for OTT services, 33 per cent stated less than US$1 (Bt30) per month, 25 per cent would pay $1-$4 per month, and 38 per cent would pay somewhere between $5-$20 per month.

– 25 per cent of respondents in Thailand found one ad as an acceptable advertising load per ad break and 18 per cent were open to two ads per break.

• Access on mobile (42 per cent), offline downloads (38 per cent), and access on Apple TV, Android TV or Smart TV apps (37 per cent) were the top three OTT service features most wanted by respondents in Thailand.

• When asked if respondents would be open to purchasing product seen on TV, 72 per cent of respondents were receptive to the idea of shoppable TV.

Greg Armshaw, head of sales for Asia at Brightcove said: “Our research indicates that Thais are more overwhelmed by the number of OTT choices than other Southeast Asia markets. However only 17 per cent of respondents stated that there is not enough TV content online. That indicates that an OTT service provider should aim to satisfy a large enough user base in order to be profitable.

The Cisco-PSU initiative provides a blueprint for cities in Thailand that are planning urban innovation through the novel application of technologies, partnerships, funding models, and community involvement.

PSU has implemented Cisco’s core network technology and its IoT platform with an end-to-end secure connection. This provides a strong foundation for digital transformation at PSU, enabling the university to build a smart-city model that can be replicated elsewhere in Thailand.

Vatsun Thirapatarapong, Cisco’s managing director for Thailand said that Cisco is behind the success of smart-city projects in several countries. “We have provided our core network technology and AI–ready data centre to support smart solutions and applications, along with end-to-end security, to help build smart cities,” he explained.

“A smart-city project has to be driven by professionals who truly understand technology and innovation. Cisco is therefore committed to providing the necessary skills and expertise to PSU staff through the Cisco Network Academy, including foundational knowledge about IoT and DevNet, which delivers networking knowledge from software developers who specialise in Cisco’s networking technology. Cisco will provide training, knowledge and skills to the PSU workforce to address future demands in the digital world. This collaboration is part of our ‘Co-Innovation’ initiative which aims to embrace meaningful and innovative solutions for sustainable development by collaborating with public and private organisations.”

Niwat Keawpradub, President, Prince of Songkla University (PSU), said that PSU acts as an advisor for 14 southern provinces, and each city in those provinces will learn how to leverage technology for city development and follow this model.

“The partnership with Cisco helps PSU to build smart solutions and an IoT platform, while enhancing the digital skills of our professionals, enabling us to implement our smart-city initiative more effectively and successfully. We aim to continue developing our smart-city model and share proven best practices with other cities looking to replicate such initiatives within their own communities,” he said.

The event offered new members an opportunity to experience a new working style and environment while also meeting with leading global investors and venture capitals (VCs).

The activities included one-on-one consultation sessions between VCs and startups , along with networking events that allowed startups and young tech entrepreneurs to learn and share with each other.

One of the networking events was “The After Funded Stories: What To Do Next After You Get Funded”, at which Pahrada Sapprasert, the director at 500 Startups VC that has invested with more than 60 startups, shared her experience as a VC and the criteria for startups to earn financial support from VCs.

Pahrada kicked off the conversation with Thai and international startup members of True Digital Park’s startup ecosystem. She said it doesn’t matter how long startups have been operating – it’s more important that the startups are ready. In other words, the startups that VCs seek have already launched their products and had some traction in the market. Based on Pahrada’s experience, startups that have received funding could have just launched their products three weeks earlier or have entered the market two years ago.

Startups are also required to propose a clear and feasible business plan when pitching to VCs. Unfortunately, many are “thinking too small”, Pahrada said. Some startups have such a small potential market that they will soon reach saturation point, while VCs are looking for startups with the ability to scale once they get funded.

“We want to invest in startups that have the potential to do well in the next five years. They have to convince us that they can capitalise from a sizeable market with the opportunity to do business in the long run,” Pahrada said.

Thai startups who want to be a unicorn or a multi-billion-dollar firm need to equip themselves with English-language skills as much as gaining technical knowledge from their startup friends and expats. They also need to grow their networks and collaborate with other members in the startup ecosystem, she said.

The service will be made available on GeTS’ open trade blockchain (OTB) platform starting on July 5, 2019, according to a release from the company.

Chong Kok Keong , the CEO of GeTS, said a Certificate of Origin is an important trade document for cross-border trade between countries, as it certifies the origin of the imported goods.

The blockchain-based eCOs on the GeTS OTB platform will facilitate a more open and transparent digital trade economy, promote trusted connections, help establish the provenance of goods, and serve as a source of authenticity to customs agencies and importers, he said. It will also help to mitigate fraud risks or potential alteration of content by providing an audit trail while facilitating a more secure exchange of trade documents.

Roland Ng, President of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCCI) said the Chamber actively helps enterprises in business development and transformation, enabling them to adapt swiftly to global changes. The partnership with GeTS will empower businesses to expand their global footprint with ease, enhance their productivity, and help their members to harness the business opportunities using a trusted, secure, borderless and seamless blockchain technology, he said.

With more than 30,000 certificates of origin being issued yearly, blockchain-based eCOs will enable trade documents to be exchanged securely on a neutral platform on OTB, improving the supply-chain efficiency. Highly compliant industries such as food, pharmaceuticals and automotive will benefit, especially when safety and health are key concerns. It allows traceability and provides transparency in the supply-chain in the event of fraud, recall or adulteration of the food, medication or goods shipped, according to the release.

“We continue to innovate and bring about critical digital transformation in the trade and logistics industry,” Eugene Wong, chainman of GeTS, said. “Blockchain will transform international trade, and the OTB platform is the perfect solution to bridge and create a neutral layer of trust among multiple stakeholders, allowing them to collaborate and to access trade documents securely.”

The result is an easy-to-use security shield specifically for Domoco customers who are building infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) environments.

Previously, customers of the Docomo Cloud Platform had to set up third-party security products manually. This new service simplifies the process and is part of plans to handle the extra security risks posed by fifth-generation (5G) internet.

Under the technical covers of this solution is Trend Micro’s Virtual Network Function Suite, tested rigorously last year in the Docomo 5G Open Cloud.

Security threats hidden in traffic of various services executed on the cloud are visualised, detected, and ultimately blocked by Trend Micro. This provides a secure 5G environment to users and protect against internet of things devices that don’t incorporate additional security.