Chinese AI company Megvii, patented technology of detecting dog nose print

 

Companion animal (pet) registration system,

Since 2014, Korea has been implementing the companion animal registration system for the purpose of protecting animals, preventing loss and abandonment. It is compulsory to register within 30 days from the date the companion animal you are raising turns 2 months. When registered, the wireless identification device (microchip) is implanted into the animal's body. If you don’t want this, companion animals can be recognized by attaching an external wireless identification device or a registration identification tag.

🔺 animal.go.kr 
website of Animal Protection Management System

Low registration rate, why?

The number of domestic dogs is estimated to be about 6.62 million. According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in 2019, only about 2.09 million dogs were registered, showing a low registration rate of about 30%. Officials regard insufficient publicity about the system, crackdowns that are not actually implemented, and questions about the effectiveness of registration as reasons for the low registration rate. In particular, the main reason is that registration can be done by means of an external wireless identification device, identification tag, etc. other than the built-in microchip for reasons of effectiveness. If the external devices are not attached to the companion animal, there is no way to check the animal registration information, and even if it is lost, it is difficult to verify the owner's information, so there is a high possibility of loss or abandonment. However, most owners who choose an external identification device have doubts about safety, such as inflammation caused by the embedded microchip inside the body. Although each has its own strengths and weaknesses, in fact there has been no way to compensate for both.

🔺 animal.go.kr
website of Animal Protection Management System

Detection method using dog print,

Not long ago, Megvii, an artificial intelligence startup company in China, patented a biometrics technology that can identify dog ​​nose print and find a lost dog. Megvii, which possesses facial recognition technology that can find a specific person out of a large number of people in a few seconds, said that dogs can be recognized by faces with artificial intelligence like humans, and also be identified by print on their noses like human fingerprint. Dog nose print do not change shape with age, so it is known that in the past, in Canada, companion animals were registered as a method of copying dog nose print.

🔺 megvii.com

Megvii's patent of dog nose print detection,

Megvii’s patent is titled ‘Dog nose print feature point detection method, device, system and storage medium’'. According to the patent, the dog's nose feature points are registered as coordinates, and the animal can be identified through the distance deviation of the coordinates. Megvii said that the detection rate using this technology was 95% accurate. The app developed with the company's dog detection-related technologies, including this patent, revealed that the identification accuracy is 99%. Megvii, a facial recognition technology company, is known to continue research on how to identify dogs, and patents are also pending.

🔺 wipsglobal.com
<CN109858363, Megvii's patent 'Dog nose print feature detection method, device, system and storage medium' >

🔺 wipsglobal.com
drawings of CN109858363

How to distinguish nose print, can it be applied to Korea?,

The detection method using nose print is thought to be a very suitable method for pet owners who were reluctant to insert microchips into the body. It will also be very useful for those who have been bothered to invest time in registration. This is because you can simply register with the app through photos of dogs taken from various angles. Through this method, I wonder if it is possible to expect a higher registration rate than now. We look forward to the introduction of this technology in Korea as soon as possible to solve the problem of low registration rates.

AirDome shelter in Pohang, South Korea raising patent issue

 

Shock and solution of the Pohang earthquake in 2017,

On Nov. 15, 2017, a 5.4 earthquake occurred in Pohang, South Korea. After more than 30 aftershocks occurred, the residents of Pohang trembled with fear and anxiety. There were no deaths from the earthquake, but 92 injured, 1,797 victims, and 66.2 billion Korean won (about USD557 mil.) in property damage occurred. Residents who suffered the earthquake complained of anxiety and demanded countermeasures.

In August last year, Pohang City built an air dome disaster evacuation facility in Heunghae-eup, which has excellent living areas and access to alleviate citizens' anxiety. It was attracted by the fact that the first multi-purpose disaster evacuation facility in Korea, but it became an even more issue by constructing an airdome type that supports the building with air. The airdome has no falling objects such as pillars and subsidiary materials, so it is safe from earthquakes and shakes, and there are no problems with other natural disasters such as typhoons and heavy snow.

🔺 broadwellkorea.com

Raising an issue with airdome technology,

In August 2018, Pohang City decided to introduce technology from China's Broadwell, which had a new technology-patented method related to airdome. A contract for use of airdome related technology was signed with AboutTech and Lotus Engineering, which are domestic agencies for related technology, and construction started. In June this year, an internet news reported that the airdome-related technology applied to the disaster evacuation facility was the utility model, and can’t be a new technology-patented method. As a result of actual verification, the related technology was registered as a Chinese utility model, not a patent. As a result, there are suspicions increasing in the industry about the agreement between Broadwell and Pohang, which over-promoted the technology without holding a patent.

🔺 broadwellkorea.com

Technology registered as a Chinese utility model, what is the problem?

An utility model right is an intellectual property right one level lower than a patent, and is a right given when an existing invention is improved or supplemented rather than a new invention. In short, if a pencil first developed is the subject of a patent, hexagonal pencils or triangular pencils are the objects of utility model. Since the properties are similar to patents, the rights are not significantly different from patents. However, the definition of a patent and a utility model are different, and a patent can invent an object or a method or idea, but a utility model must be the substantial invention.

China's utility model rights are different from those of Korea.

In Korea, a utility model is granted through the method exam. and substantive exam., but in China, its right is granted only when the basic requirements for examination is passed. Therefore, in China, utility model is increasing because it can quickly acquire rights with little money. However, there are also side effects. Omitting the examination can quickly acquire rights, but also increases the uncertainty about the technology. Therefore, even if the rights were acquired in China, the technology cannot be accepted in other countries.

🔺 kipo.go.kr
the procedure of the current utility model application system in Korea

Airdome technology, too attractive to deny

Interest in airdome technology continues to increase. Recently, the number of earthquakes occurring in Korea is increasing, and the air purification function, which is the original function of airdomes, is attractive enough in Korea where the air is threatened by fine dust. Kyungju, in which had the largest earthquake recorded in Korea in 2016, also announced in February that it would install a soccer field using airdome technology. However, controversy is expected because the soccer field will also use the same technology as Pohang AirDome. I hope that the suspicions raised this time will be resolved quickly.

TikTok faced difficulties, patent infringement litigation and M&A

 

Social video platform TikTok, 

TikTok, a social video platform that allows you to share short videos, was first developed and released by Chinese company ByteDance in 2016. In 2017, it entered the global market in earnest by acquiring the social video platform Musical.ly. TikTok, which started to raise the profile based on the popularity of youths around the world, has grown into a huge platform with more than 1 billion users worldwide. Reuters, an information provider in the UK, valued TikTok at around $50 billion.

🔺 tiktok.com

TikTok facing a worldwide threat of exit, 

A crisis also came to TikTok, that had been on the up and up. The US government has argued that ByteDance, a developer of TikTok, could pose a threat to national security, such as securing personal information of US users or censoring some content. US Secretary of State Pompeo called the Chinese Communist Party a “evil empire,” and strongly criticized that personal data of TikTok users were falling into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. In addition, a security expert at the Swiss e-mail service ‘ProtonMail’ raised the suspicion by releasing a report stating that TikTok not only collects a large amount of personal information, but also cooperates with the CCP's cross-border surveillance and censorship activities.

ByteDance countered that they put a top priority on providing a safe app that protects the privacy of TikTok users, but the US government eventually banned the use of TikTok in their country. India, which had been in a border armed conflict with China, also had banned the use of TikTok ahead of the United States. Starting with the ban on the TikTok in India and the U.S., which are the first and second countries of using TikTok, seems that TikTok may be withdrawn from India, Australia and Japan. Last week TikTok was dropped the top ranking for Triller in the App store’s free download.

🔺 flickr.com ©Solen Feyissa

Patent infringement lawsuit, influencer left,

On July 29th, the Triller, who took the top positions from TikTok, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against TikTok and ByteDance. Triller claimed that TikTok's 'Green Screen Video' feature that synchronizes multiple videos, which was released in December of last year has infringed Triller’s patent, ‘Systems and methods for creating music videos synchronized with an audio track’ which was registered in 2017. In addition to the lawsuit, four influencers, including Josh Richard, who had more than 20 million followers on TikTok, said they are going to leave TikTok and move to the Triller. Also unfavorable situation for TikTok continues such as Facebook and Instagram promised financial support to popular creators to attract TikTok's influencers to the ‘Reels’ scheduled to be released next month.

🔺 wipsglobal.com
US patent 'Systems and methods for creating music videos synchronized with an audio track;

M&A possibility of TikTok,

President Trump banned using TikTok in the U.S. and warned that TikTok will be completely closed if the business is not sold by 9/15. Along with this, in relation to Microsoft’s negotiations to take over TikTok, Trump also said that he would approve that other US company takes over TikTok. In addition, he added that the brand itself is a great asset, unlike criticism of TikTok, and that the government should have a significant portion of the proceeds if it is acquired. Nevertheless, it is known that Google and Facebook, besides Microsoft, are showing considerable interest in acquiring TikTok. However, industry insiders predicted that Google and Facebook would have a lot of difficulties as they were identified as antitrust violations by the US government. It is believed that Microsoft has a de facto advantage in the acquisition.

🔺 flickr.com ©Christoph Scholz

If the acquisition is negated, TikTok will have to withdraw its business from the US market. We’re going to have to see what kind of decision ByteDance (TikTok’s mother company) will make on the acquisition by the US government's coercion.

 

Reusable Bubble Tea Straws

One Bubble Straw

Rollable, Openable, Reusable Bubble Tea Straw

🔺kickstarter.com (for above all photos)

Bubble tea is a beverage with jelly or pudding like tapioca pearls. Recently, black sugar bubble tea was very popular, and it also became popular in Korea.

Bubble tea, unlike other beverages, contains grains so must be consumed with a dedicated straw. In Korea, regulations on the use of disposable products have been strengthened to reduce environmental pollution, and paper is used instead of plastic straws. However, the problem of environmental pollution is not solved because paper is also made of wood. In addition, there is a problem that it is necessary to continuously produce disposable paper straws because moisture is touched with the straw so difficult to recycle.

One Bubble Straw was created to solve this problem. There is no problem with drinking bubble tea with 21cm in length and 1.3cm in diameter, and it can be washed and reused. It's elastic like rubber, so it doesn't break, and it's resistant to heat, so you can use it for hot drinks. It weighs only 8g, which makes it easily being carried in a dedicated straw pocket. In addition, One Bubble Straw is made of TPE (Thermo Plastic Elastomer) material that does not produce BPA (Bisphenol-A), an environmental hormone component, so there is no problem in stability.

It's a great idea product for those who like bubble tea.