.

Noppol Toochinda, ofo Thailand’s general manager, said ofo has broadened its business in Thailand, targeting mainly on expansion of shared bike service in leading universities nationwide, including Chiang Mai University. The company set up an activity at “CMU Bike Challenge 2017” event last November and offered a free bike trial. Ofo was known as a pioneer of bike sharing business in Chiang Mai and its service has been an overwhelming success that led to the latest business expansion.

“Chiang Mai is one of the top cities in Thailand and bikes are quite popular here. It’s known by both local people and international tourists, especially Chinese people who are familiar with ofo bike.

“Our new service launch in Chiang Mai will be officially ready for service in mid-January. First, we will start off in Nimmanhaemin area as one of the trendiest spots in Chiang Mai. This area is filled with boutique hotels, chic shops, cafés and restaurants. So, we collaborate with popular shops such as SomtamKrokNimman, Room No.7 and Cainito Homemade Restaurant to celebrate the firstbike sharing service in Chiang Mai andoffer our riders exclusive discounts, starting from mid-January on.” Noppol said.

The  launch of ofo in Chiang Mai marks another success for shared bikes service expansion in Thailand, which took only a few months to grow dramatically nationwide.

He added that over the last year in the US, “we’ve been trialling Shopping on Instagram – which makes it easy to purchase a product from within the app – and we’re excited to bring it to more countries in 2018.

“Video – here next year, but gone tomorrow: It’s predicted that by 2019 mobile devices will account for 72% of all online video viewing.

“Messaging will be a place for business: Alongside the shift to mobile, we’ve seen people shift their preferred method of communication toward messaging .We predict that this will continue to grow in 2018 and that will see even more business being done within messaging.”

The South Korean manufacturer used the 201 Consumer Electronics Show to debut its Nexo, a sport utility vehicle that uses voice commands, artificial intelligence and can be transformed into an autonomous car.

“We call this the next future utility vehicles,” said Hyundai vice president Ki-Sang Lee.

Hyundai said it plans to sell the Nexo in California later this year, in a bet on hydrogen even as many rivals turn to battery power.

The company said it resolved a number of issues in developing the Nexo, including starts in extreme cold weather and extending the range to nearly 600 kilometers (375 miles).

While a handful of companies have showcased fuel cell technology, obstacles include the lack of hydrogen stations and a low ratio of energy efficiency in producing fuel.

“We all understand that technological challenges and innovations are a never-ending process that will continue until we realize a mobile society of maximum convenience, zero accidents and no emissions,” vice chairman Woong-chul Yang.

To promote its efforts in self-driving technology, Hyundai has formed a partnership with Silicon Valley startup Aurora Innovation, headed by former Google car executive Chris Urmson, who appeared at the media event.

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USA-Las Vegas-Nevada – Las Vegas, Jan 9, 2018 (AFP) – 2018-01-09 T 01:29:34

The sources said that the Tokyo government plans to include ¥1 billion in the fiscal 2018 budget to cover relevant expenditures. In light of the global trend toward phasing out vehicles using gasoline — particularly in Europe and China, where the shift to next-generation vehicles (see below) such as EVs is accelerating — Tokyo hopes to lead efforts in Japan.

According to the International Energy Agency, cumulative sales of next-generation vehicles are estimated to reach as many as 20 million units in 2020. In July last year, both Britain and France announced they will end sales of gasoline and diesel cars by 2040.

In September last year, China, the world’s largest auto market, said it would impose fixed production quotas for next-generation vehicles on automakers, making it clear that a shift to EVs is part of its national strategy.

In Japan, cumulative sales of EVs and similar vehicles were about 150,000 in 2016. The diffusion rate of such vehicles in Japan is 0.59 percent, or less than half that of countries such as Britain and France. In Japan, 90 percent of EV owners live in detached houses. The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and Tokyo metropolitan government believe that installing charging devices at condominium complexes is the key to popularizing EVs.

In Tokyo, 130,000 condominium buildings accommodate 60 percent of the city’s population. The national government launched a measure to subsidize the cost of purchasing or installing charging devices in fiscal 2012. However, only 30 such devices in 16 locations have been built in Tokyo under the measure as of March 2017. One challenge to installing charging devices at condominiums is the cost that residents must bear. Another is that installing the device requires the consent of three-quarters of a condominium’s unit owners.

The sources said that the metropolitan government will subsidize the installation costs that remain after condominium residents receive national government subsidies. According to the Tokyo government, purchasing and installing a charging device costs about ¥1.5 million. Of the cost, the national government subsidizes about ¥1 million and the metropolitan government plans to subsidize the remainder.

The Tokyo government will also begin a program to dispatch experts such as certified condominium management consultants to condominiums’ homeowners associations to help facilitate smooth discussions on installing the devices.

Increasing charging devices outside of residential areas is also considered important. According to a council consisting mostly of automakers, a total of 7,332 fast charging devices were installed in locations such as shopping malls throughout Japan as of September last year. From fiscal 2018, the metropolitan government will install charging devices at facilities such as parks and hospitals that it runs.

Automakers are also accelerating the shift towards EVs. Honda Motor Co. has announced that sales of EVs will account for two-thirds of its total sales by 2030, while Nissan Motor Co. said that EVs will account for 30 percent of its total sales by 2022. In December last year, Toyota Motor Corp. announced a goal of EV sales of 5.5 million vehicles, or about half of its global sales, by around 2030.

The Tokyo government also plans to expand its subsidies for purchasing next-generation vehicles such as EVs and fuel-cell vehicles, in an effort to encourage purchases of such vehicles. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said in an interview, “We want to create an environment where people don’t have to purchase gasoline cars in the 2040s.”

■ Next-generation vehicles

These vehicles include electric vehicles (EVs) that run solely by electric motors, as well as plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHVs) that mostly run on electricity and carry batteries capable of being charged with outside electricity. They also include fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) that generate electricity using hydrogen as fuel.

JAXA plans to begin full-scale operations of the new radar as early as fiscal 2023 in cooperation with another radar system separately designed by the Defense Ministry, the sources said.

The agency currently uses a radar system deployed in Okayama Prefecture to monitor space debris that travels over Japan in low Earth orbit at an altitude of several hundred to 2,000 kilometers. However, the current system only covers debris that is 1.6 meters across or larger. It cannot track particles of about 10 centimeters, which comprise the majority of space debris.

JAXA is to build the new radar system adjacent to the existing one. The agency aims to achieve 200 times the detection capability of the current radar, by significantly increasing the output of electric waves cast onto space debris and utilizing a processing technology for special signals.

As a result, JAXA will be able to monitor about 10-centimeter-sized space objects in low orbit, where many Earth observation satellites and others travel, they said.

If data analysis suggests the possibility of collisions between space debris and JAXA’s about 10 satellites operating in low orbit, the agency will use the new system to change the satellites’ orbit from the ground by remote control.

The Defense Ministry is also preparing to install a radar system in Yamaguchi Prefecture to monitor space debris in stationary orbit at an altitude of about 36,000 kilometers. Satellites traveling in stationary orbit include communication and meteorological satellites that are important for activities of the Self-Defense Forces.

JAXA intends to create a system in fiscal 2023 to monitor space debris pieces by using two radars in cooperation with the ministry as well.

The number of pieces of space debris — including broken pieces of artificial satellites whose operations were terminated, and wreckage from rockets — has been increasing yearly with the progress of each country’s space development.

About 20,000 space debris particles that are larger than 10 centimeters are mainly in low orbit.

In 2009, a U.S. satellite collided with a defunct Russian satellite, which sent the U.S. satellite out of control. In 2011, space debris objects approached the International Space Station, forcing ISS astronauts to take shelter temporarily to a spacecraft returning to Earth.

The U.S. Defense Department constantly monitors space debris using radar systems installed in various parts of the world, providing information of this kind to Japan as well. There were five cases in fiscal 2016 in which JAXA changed the orbit of its satellites based on information provided by the United States, according to the agency.

In 2016, the government specified in the basic space policy its plan to step up monitoring space debris from the viewpoint of national security.

“It’s necessary to formulate a system to protect Japan’s important satellites without depending on the United States. Our planned new radar will become the first step for this purpose,” said Mayumi Matsuura, a project manager of JAXA.

The young Swedish firm is giving visitors the full treatment with a glamor gadget that resembles a tiny alien spacecraft this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Face masks, which typically involve coating one’s face with skin-loving lotions that work their magic while drying for 20 minutes or so, were among top search terms at Google last year.

Foreo, which was founded in 2013 and boasts nearly a half-billion dollars in annual revenue, decided sheet masks were due for a make-over with some help from technology.

“The sheet mask hasn’t changed since ancient Egyptian times,” Foreo spokeswoman Dawn Watt told AFP at a CES event.

“This is the world’s first smart mask.”

The puck-shaped device fits easily in the palm of a hand. Face mask ingredients are placed inside and activated by heating or cooling elements as the “UFO” glides about a face.

“When you are finished it is like you’ve had a full facial experience, but in only 90 seconds,” Watt said.

Foreo chief executive Paul Peros was adamant that he used UFO, which the company said was a play on ‘Your Future Obsession,’ each morning and evening.

“Of course my wife thinks my face is prettier,” Peros quipped when asked.

“Why else would I do it?”

UFO models will be priced at $179 and $279 when they are released to the mass market in April, but can be bought at discount online at Kickstarter.

Foreo also sells mask ingredients priced at $10 for a seven treatment packets.

Watt said the beauty industry is steadily merging with the tech world in a trend that is inevitable and “amazing.”

The Fisker EMotion, which made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is part of a comeback effort for Henrik Fisker, a former BMW and Aston Martin designer whose first venture was halted in 2013 after selling only a few thousand vehicles.

This time, Fisker is pulling out all the stops for the vehicle, designed with butterfly doors and a sleek sportscar look, semi-autonomous driving, and a range of some 400 miles (650 kilometers) on a single charge.

The car, which is still two years from deliveries, “is a new take on the future of a luxury sedan,” Fisker told AFP on the CES show floor.

Fisker said the features such as the extended driving range “will make even people sitting on the fence (about electric cars) look at it.”

The new effort nonetheless faces an uphill battle in an industry where Tesla is showing rapid growth and other rivals from major automakers to startups — including one other making a debut at the tech show — are producing new electric cars.

Fisker is also working on its own battery technology aimed at improving range and speeding the charging time.

He said he hopes to have a charging system that can enable an extra 125 miles in nine minutes.

The company is also working on a solid state battery that Fisker said could achieve a full charge in one minute.

Like Tesla, Fisker is also working on a more affordable vehicle that would be priced around $40,000 after the Emotion. And it has designed a self-driving shuttle bus called the Orbit that could also launch in the next few years.

Partnering with Fisker is California-based technology firm Quanergy, which is developing the LIDAR used for autonomous driving.

The Emotion uses five LIDAR sensors integrated into the body and “it’s the only LIDAR with no moving parts,” said Quanergy CEO Louay Eldada.

The launch by Fisker’s new company comes after a high-profile bankruptcy by Fisker Automotive.

Before launching his own venture and the ill-fated Fisker Karma, Fisker designed vehicles including the BMW Z8 and Aston Martin DB89.

Technology will not just help us communicate better and give us bolder and brighter screens. It is promising to end urban congestion, treat cancer and depression, and help us live fitter and more productive lives.

As tech industry players large and small converge for the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, an overriding theme is that gizmos, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and super-fast internet connections hold answers to many if not all ills — the new religion.

One of the world’s largest trade shows, CES is drawing an expected 170,000 people and 40,000 exhibitors from dozens of countries showing wares in robotics, digital health, artificial intelligence, sports and more.

New cars being shown, CES participants are being told, will help the environment and reduce congestion by making transportation “smarter” with autonomy and machine learning.

People are called on to envision a world without struggles to find parking or petrol stations, instead summon self-driving cars as desired to be taxied to destinations at any time of the day.

Inside cars, the range of online offerings could be worshipped while machines tend to the tedium of traffic, which would be smoother since vehicles would wirelessly “talk” to one another to optimize travel efficiency.

A new “intuitive and intelligent” car from Chinese startup Byton aims to tackle the billions of hours lost to traffic congestion around the world each year.

Those times lost “could be used for things which are so much more fulfilling,” Henrik Wenders, vice president of Byton, said Sunday at one of the first media events at the show.

– Digital doctoring –

Robin Raskin, who heads the CES segment called Living in Digital Times, said the advances in health and medicine in recent years has been breathtaking.

“There are new technologies to assess cancer and find out how a particular drug might respond,” she said.

Startups and major firms are using new apps and technologies to tackle diabetes and depression.

One startup on Sunday unveiled eye-tracking technology to help assess autism, concussions, Parkinsons disease and other ailments.

RightEye co-founder and chief executive Adam Gross heralded the technology as “a game-changer” for the health care and sports industries due to its unprecedented ability to quickly and accurately generate “amazing insights” about health, vision and performance.

In collaboration with doctors or trainers, the information could be used to guide therapies or exercise routines.

“The potential for this technology to change people’s lives around the world is incredible and really exciting,” Gross said.

Technology will automate and augment the treatment of disease in the years ahead, forecast Consumer Technology Association research manager Lesley Rohrbaugh.

“You can talk with a health care provider through an app, and get remote monitoring,” Rohrbaugh said while discussing consumer electronics industry trends at CES.

“You can visit your doctor without actually physically visiting them.”

Virtual reality is also being incorporated into therapy, being used to treat traumas, phobias and even dementia due to aging, according to Rohrbaugh.

– Cities smarten up –

And as the majority of the world’s population takes to living in urban areas, technology is powering “smart cities” where sensors, cameras, cloud computing and more work like house elves to manage recycling, trash disposal, traffic, pollution, road repairs and other needs.

“Smart cities are where society and technology come together,” Rohrbaugh said.

In the US smart cities focus on traffic, while in Europe the focuses tend to be on the environment and energy use, according to the research manager.

Inside homes, devices can make sure our water and air are clean, and we are sleeping well.

Technology is also being turned to keep us safe as we use technology.

Biometrics such as fingerprint, iris or face recognition is being built into smartphones, computers, padlocks as security features.

Meanwhile, robots are being designed to patrol oceans for fish poachers and watch after us, especially as we succumb to age.

The chief designer of China’s space labouratories has denied Western media reports that the nation’s Tiangong I space lab was “out of control” and will crash land, according to Science and Technology Daily.

Zhu Zongpeng, a senior scientist with the China Academy of Space Technology, which has built the Tiangong series, told the Beijing newspaper that Chinese scientists are constantly monitoring Tiangong I and will “make it fall back to the Earth” in the first half of this year.

Parts of the spacecraft will burn out during re-entry, while the rest will fall into a designated area of the ocean without endangering people and property on the ground, he said.

The latest announcement on Tiangong I, published on the China Manned Space Agency’s website, said the space lab operated in an orbit with an average altitude of 286.5 kilometres from Dec 17 to 24, noting it was “in stable condition without any abnormalities”.

Pang Zhihao, a researcher of human space activity at the academy, told the newspaper that China has rich experience in steering retired spacecraft back to Earth. He said most parts of Tiangong I will burn up as the spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere.

The 8.5-metric-ton Tiangong I, the country’s first space lab, was launched atop a Long March 2F carrier rocket at Jiuquan Satellite Launch centre in northwestern China in September 2011. With a designated life span of two years, the spacecraft was in service for four and a half years before its retirement was announced by the Chinese space authorities in March 2016.

During its operation, the space lab conducted six automatic and astronaut-controlled dockings with the nation’s Shenzhou VIII, Shenzhou IX and Shenzhou X spacecraft.

A number of Western media have been speculating since 2016 that Tiangong I is “out of control” and that there is possibility of it crashing onto land with “remaining toxic fuel”.

In a note sent in May by China’s permanent mission to the United Nations in Vienna to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Chinese space authorities said Tiangong I’s operational orbit is under constant and close surveillance.

“According to the calculations and analysis that have been carried out, most of the structural components of Tiangong I will be destroyed as they burn up during the course of re-entry,” it read. “The probability of endangering and causing damage to aviation and ground activities is very low.”

Krzanich took the unusual step of addressing the security issue as he delivered a keynote ahead of the opening of the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, an industry event expected to draw some 180,000 people from the sector.

As yet, Krzanich said, there is no information to suggest any loss of data from the so-called Meltdown and Spectre flaws and he added, “We are working tirelessly to make sure it stays that way.”

The Intel chief executive made his most high-profile public comments since the release of research highlighting vulnerabilities affecting the chips powering most modern PCs and many mobile devices.

“The collaboration of so many companies (to mitigate the threat) is truly remarkable,” Krzanich said.

“Security is job number one for Intel and our industry. The primary focus of our discussions (on this issue) is to keep our customers data safe.”

Researchers at Google showed how a hacker could exploit the flaw to get passwords, encryption codes and more, even though there have been no reports of any attacks using the vulnerability.

Some analysts have warned that the threat is unique because it is an issue affecting hardware used in many computing systems.

Krzanich said updates will be available for 90 percent of its products in the coming days and the for the rest by the end of January, and urged all computer users to update as quickly as possible.