UEC System Solutions Launches iSure Smart Care, an Inclusive Design to Protect the Elderly's Safety at Home

In the past, Hatch Boom reported on many IoT startup teams, which had similar backgrounds and designed their founding products to solve the pain points they had identified. As they venture into the market, most of the startups would suffer from insufficient available resources. However, the team of "UEC System Solutions" interviewed this time has a totally different story. As a well-informed team with rich experience, what different ideas will they generate when choosing the direction of development?

UEC System Solutions was established in November, 2018. The company entered the field of IoT after the advent of NB-IoT communication technology, which provides a dedicated low-cost communication band for IoT. This greatly reduced the communication cost of IoT services, and this the UEC System Solutions team chose to focus on NB-IoT to develop its main applications. The founding members of UEC all have extensive experience in ICT, with expertise across different fields. The company also received financial and tech support from UMEC Chair Ou Cheng-ming and Taiwanese IT pioneer Dr. D.Y. Yang, founder of Winbond Electronics Corp. For a new startup, this is a very solid lineup, and it also led to a different thinking from that of younger startup teams.

UEC's product development plans generally have two orientations. The first one is the high-value niche market to serve specific needs. For example, the team developed a cross-border air parcel tracker. Using the GPS signal received, the device can automatically switch between tracking mode and flight mode under the principle of electronic fencing, which can ensure that high-priced items are being properly treated during cross-border transportation and record the temperature and humidity conditions of the environment. However, due to COVID-19, many potential overseas projects were suspended because UEC could not go to the actual site to assist clients in testing and adjustment. However, this also gave UEC the time to think about developing its own products.

The other orientation for UEC is to develop scalable products, but the company doesn't just focus on market demands. When analyzing whether a plan is scalable, in addition to analyzing user needs, the team also pays attention to whether the usage threshold can reduce user learning costs, and whether the environment has complete infrastructure to facilitate scalability. According to UEC Chair Mr. Henry Pan, "Technology is making our life more and more convenient; however, in the process, certain groups of people are excluded because they are not familiar with how to operate new technology, so we seek to take in everyone in need via inclusive design and applications."

With such ideas in mind, UEC launched the iSure Smart Care system, a product that meets all the above conditions and uses AIoT active detection technology to care for the safety of the elderly at all times. The system operates by connecting electrical appliances through AI smart sockets, and analyzes the usage of home appliances by detecting current changes. In this way, the system can establish regular usage patterns of appliances on the AI cloud platform, and compare the patterns to infer whether the user is maintaining a normal routine, and sends alarm notifications when a potential abnormality is detected. What's more, the iSure AI smart socket has the function of detecting abnormal currents, so the system can proactively cut off power supply when appliances are overloaded or improperly used to reduce the possibility of accidents. Like other smart sockets, iSure can also manage the use of appliances by remotely switching the power on/off to realize smart home applications. However, for the elderly, monitoring the use of appliances is the most important thing since we need to ensure their safety at home. And this is precisely the main purpose of iSure: The elderly don't need to learn complicated operations, and there is no concern about privacy infringement. The iSure AI smart socket will work as appliances are plugged in, and it will silently protect the elderly's safety at home.

Former Taichung Deputy Mayor Ms. Lin Yi-ying, who has been engaged in long-term care services for more than 30 years, pointed out that if there's no flexibility in the application of technology, "human-centered" services cannot be developed. In this sense, iSure Smart Care implements a human-centered AI technology solution. Elders don't need to learn about system operations at all. They only need to maintain their original lifestyle, which can greatly increase acceptance and usage rates. Behind the seemingly simple product, there are actually complex software algorithms, so another challenge in developing iSure is to embed algorithms into the limited computing power of small devices, and to use edge computing to process collected data from the smart sockets. The collected data is sent to the cloud platform for model building and difference analysis. Due to such limitations, if the algorithm of the smart sockets is not well designed, the data sent to the cloud would not be accurate enough, and the iSure cloud platform wouldn't be able to establish a correct behavior model and identify abnormality.

Fortunately, this innovative design thinking attracted major manufacturers to join the project. Through the matchmaking service of the III's IoT Service Hub, MediaTek, AcSiP (module manufacturer), and Silicon Application Corp. (related agent) jointly invested resources and took advantage of the features of MT7933 to develop iSure, creating a new generation of smart socket with voice recognition function. "With MediaTek's significance in the industry, they wouldn't just want to make a smart socket with similar functions to other similar products," Chair Pan of UEC explains, "The focus was never to compete with regular startups, but to create a new standard in the industry." In other words, the iSure system got MediaTek on board mainly because it would create completely different application values on a seemingly identical product.

Currently, many organizations around the world have requested to eliminate made-in-China components and equipment due to information security concerns. To meet relevant regulations and improve stability, UEC chose to use domestic IC solutions, and received assistance from the three companies mentioned above, all of them cooperative manufacturers of the IoT Service Hub. With the support of domestic IC solution and resources from top manufacturers, UEC successfully completed development and trial production. In addition, to find more clients from home and abroad, these cooperative manufacturers also assisted UEC in linking to multiple purchase channels and exposing the product at important exhibitions.

With the hardware cost much higher than other competing products, if UEC adopts the business model of selling single products, the acceptance rate on the market may suffer. However, if iSure can be regarded as a tool for long-term service solutions, the cost ratio will decrease significantly. Therefore, UEC positions itself as a solution provider and provides services to end-users through service providers (e.g., long-term care institutions or labor dispatch companies). At present, a considerable proportion of home physiological data measurement equipment has been linked with Bluetooth. However, when measuring, users must first open the dedicated app and establish Bluetooth pairing to upload the data. To make it easier for all users, the iSure sockets all have a built-in communication protocol list for connecting to different Bluetooth devices, which can automatically capture the physiological data measured and upload it to the cloud. This measurement solution which can do without mobile apps allows users to quickly connect measurement equipment to iSure and upload data simultaneously, eliminating the trouble of recording data manually.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, among the elderly services provided by the government in 2022, telephone greetings and care visits are the two services with the highest growth rates. Under this development, UEC's iSure Smart Care system uses AI smart sockets and the AI big data platform to build a network at home that can ensure the elderly's safety at home by analyzing their daily routines and electricity use. In the future, UEC will continue to invest in the R&D of more functions in iSure, including field sound recognition, in order to maintain a competitive edge in similar applications and to actively expand overseas markets such as Japan and Hong Kong. With dedicated services and endeavors, the IoT Service Hub hopes that more high-quality MIT products and services can go global and thrive in the international market.