Back in 2011, when I visited the Taipei International Flora Exposition, it was crazy. The lines were absolutely insane, and to see the highly popular Pavilion of Dreams I had to line up from 5am and sleep on site till the ticket distribution opened. Because of that, I missed out on some really great pavilions.
But, surprisingly, on my last visit to Taipei I found out that the Taipei government kept some of the most popular pavilions open even long after the expo closed down. So, I got to see some of those that I missed out on.
First up, the Angel Life pavilion dedicated to "Intelligent Automation" (AKA robots)…
The Expo website writes :
The Pavilion of Intelligent Automation has seven main theme areas, including the “Intelligent and Interactive Boutique Exhibition Area”, the “Robotic Holographic Stage Area”, the “Intelligent Living Experience Area”, the “Art and Interaction Area”, the “Robot Interactive 4D Experience Cinema”, the “Robot Show From Industry, Academia and Research Institutes”, and finally the “Intelligent Product Market Place”.
The “Robotic Holographic Stage Area”, which is Taiwan’s first large-sized holographic stage, vividly combines virtual and real robotic casts into a theater performance. The “Art and Interaction Area” combines image projections with ITRI’s localization technology, creating various interesting “missions” for the general public to play. This novel design demonstrates the differences in our daily lives by integrating intelligent automation products for assistance. Videos, special effects, and robots are integrated to show the academic results and industrial products in the interaction experience areas. The general public will become more informed about the robotic industry through this enjoyable experience in the Pavilion of Intelligent Automation.
Various service/entertaining robots developed by academia and domestic companies are to be showcased in the Pavilion of Intelligent Automation. These robots include ROBII entertaining robots by Compal Communications, the bio-sensing (e.g. blood pressure, blood glucose, electrocardiogram and body temperature) Babybot produced by Netown Corporation, the security robot by Shin Kong Security Company Ltd, combat robots manufactured by ShaYang Ye Industrial Co., UPITOR musical robots by CSTEK, robot cleaners by MATSUTEK and the intelligent TV by Tatung Co. The general public can have an idea about how these intelligent products can change our future lives.
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Want to see some videos?
An intro video with robots dancing around and a cute Taiwanese girl…
A demonstration of a dancing robot…
Introducing a smart home…
I went in with an organized tour given in Chinese, with all visitors being Taiwanese.
You can register your tag which identifies you across the exhibits and personalizes the experience for you…
As you can see, it’s all quite interactive and good fun. Not exactly top of the tech, I’ve actually seen things more impressive in NCKU, but it’s a nice glimpse into what life might be in the not-so-distant-future.