In 2020, a quarter-century after publishing The Road Ahead, Bill Gates posted on his blog a review of this book. In this post, Gates mentioned how digital tools have developed as expected, to the extent that everything can be achieved in a small mobile device. However, he also admitted that some projections in the book were too optimistic, such as overestimating the development of smart voice assistants. Gates further predicted, although the significant effect and change of the above have not happened, they will come sooner or later.
While Gates has high expectations about the future development of the smart voice assistant system, Wistron actively studies smart voice assistants and constantly optimize the integration and R&D of software and platforms for smart homes. An overview of technology development shows that hardware-software integration is the key to extensive application and rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT), particularly software, because detection, receiving, computing, and output are interrelated steps requiring rigorous formulas designs to ensure smooth operation.
(1) Smart home: Besides the smart monitoring system developed and manufactured through the integration of such technologies as optics, acoustics, communication, detection, and edge computing, there is also the 3D immersive home theater created by combining the voice assistant system, acoustics, VR/AR, and AI. Wistron’s smart speaker products mark the first step in integrating smart home products and constructing the IoT platform.
(2) Smart transportation: In addition to the high-precision maps integrated on commission of the Ministry of the Interiors and the smart driving platform developed by Wistron’s software team, there are also the smart road junction solutions integrating 5G, the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), and edge servers and the smart roadside solution integrating virtual technology and detectors to detect vehicles and the back and sides of the road.
(3) Smart life: The smart modularized autonomous mobile robot (AMR) is equipped with various technologies and AMR applications flexibly integrated with various fields and the smart eyewear that eliminates spatial limits with AR/VR technology and 5G real-time communication.
Cross-field application as mainstream: Wistron’s software development
To bring new blood to R&D and boost the growth of interdisciplinary R&D, Wistron began to sponsor technology startups in 2014 together with Appworks. These startups included Umbo Computer Vision with its smart defense system, MoBagel with its automated machine learning platform, and Aniware with its pet health data analysis system. In 2021, Wistron further announced the activation of the corporate accelerator program to recruit more startups with preliminary product development experience in AI, IoT, cloud service, and information security.
Projection of future technology development from product progress in recent years: Cross-field application as the mainstream of future software development How to integrate IoT, VR/AR, and cloud computing technologies and information security in smaller and more elaborate detectors to lead the development of the AIoT ecosystem in the era of 5G emphasizing high efficiency and low latency is the development future of both the world and Wistron.
