Acer zooms in on smart city solutions

Acer Computer Thailand, the local operating unit of the Taiwan-based computer maker, is looking into a new business: smart city solutions.

“We are bringing our technology — Internet of Things [IoT], cloud computing and artificial intelligence [AI] to provide integrated solutions for Thailand’s smart city initiatives,” said Alan Chiang, managing director of Thailand and Indochina.

A few years ago, Acer’s headquarters in Taiwan acquired strategic technologies to offer new business opportunities, helping boost growth. The company said it has mixed the capabilities of cloud and AI with its IoT-related products to create smart solutions.

Acer offers products and technology for smart cities, smart living, smart economies, smart mobility and smart government. These new businesses include virtual reality, virtual desktop infrastructure and high-performance computing, expected to generate 5-10% of revenue for the company this year.

“The government’s investment in a nationwide broadband network will lay down important digital infrastructure, allowing for new usage and applications that can increase domestic spending by at least 5-10 times,” said Mr Chiang.

Senior manager Nuttawan Tapawnoi said the flagship Acer solution in Thailand is smart mobility for intelligent transport systems. The parking system, for example, enables drivers to select the most convenient parking lot. In case there are multiple parking locations nearby, the system can make price comparisons through a mobile application and users can pay automatically via QR code.

Acer’s e-ticketing system can also provide billing and settlement across different public transportation agencies. Acer, in partnership with Excel Myanmar, recently won a bid to provide cashless fares on the Yangon bus system in Myanmar.

Regarding the smart economy, she said Acer provides an electronic shelf labelling system in supermarkets to automatically update product prices.

Acer also provides “Being Signage”, which can detect viewers’ gender and age, as well as analyse the time frame for the most effective advertising. This technology has already been implemented at 20,000 locations in Germany.

“We also see opportunities for wireless network device gateways and sensors for LoRa [Long Range, low-power wireless platform] technology for building IoT networks,” said Ms Nuttawan. This technology can be used for smart metering by governments, including automatically measuring electricity usage or employing smart trash for waste management.

Managing director Nitipat Praweenwongwuthi said the company will also provide “Brew Bot”, a robotic coffee maker that can recognise users’ preferences.