TAINAN, Taiwan and TAIPEI, Taiwan, Dec. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Himax Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: HIMX) (“Himax” or “Company”), a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, today announced a collaboration with Wentai Technology, a leading lighting manufacturing company which offers cutting edge technology of industry 4.0 smart manufacturing, smart lighting, and AI digital power, to exhibit an innovative smart office solution featuring occupancy management enabled by Himax WiseEye™ smart image sensing solution (“WiseEye”) at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The smart office solution incorporates Himax WiseEye total solution, including ultralow power WE1 AI processor, HM0360 always-on CMOS image sensor and proprietary occupancy management AI algorithm. The occupancy management AI conducts people presence detection, people counting and location in an office with ultralow power consumption, transmitting only byte-sized metadata output to larger back-end systems or cloud servers for further statistical analysis. With no large-scale raw image transmission, the smart office solution can operate in a low-bandwidth network environment with reduced energy consumption while providing increased security and privacy protection.
At CES, Himax and Wentai will provide a live showcase of the smart office solution. The demonstration will provide an illustration of people entering an office, the occupancy management AI device immediately detecting their presence and automatically activating the lightings, air conditioners, and/or smart office facilities in the workspace accordingly. Based on the number of people and their location in the office, the device can justify the quantity or brightness of lights, as well as the room temperature and fan direction of the air conditioner. When the device detects an empty office, it will automatically turn off office facilities to save energy. The AI device, equipped with an always-on, low-frame rate (about 3 – 5 FPS) and low-lux (about 1 lux) camera along with the ultralow power occupancy AI sensing, enables the realization of an around-the-clock smart battery-powered office AIoT gadget. In a darkroom scenario, the AI solution offers supplementary features in voice command recognition and/or IR fill light patch to assist sensing operations. When compared to a conventional infrared light sensor, the occupancy management device incorporating always-on ultralow power WiseEye technology delivers more accurate human occupancy detection, which can effectively filter out false alarms and avoid mis-operation. The WE1 processor also supports all necessary house-keeping tasks of the system, eliminating the extra cost for a MCU for the same purpose.
“As concern for the environment increases globally, the prioritization of energy savings is rapidly growing resulting in expanding demand for intelligent office management technology. Himax’s WiseEye total solution featuring ultralow power and easy-to-design characteristics, coupled with our leading lighting and office management technology provides a smart office solution that can work in a low bandwidth environment. We believe our smart office solution outperforms others currently available in the marketplace and is more aligned with enterprise ESG frameworks, establishing a win-win partnership for Himax and Wentai,” said Steven Wang, VP, Sales & Technical Chief at Wentai.
“We are excited to work alongside Wentai as yet another demonstration of the flexibility of our WiseEye solution which allows for the development of a variety of AI use cases by leveraging ultralow power consumption and superb computing efficiency. We look forward to a fruitful collaboration towards the advancement of smart AI office applications and improved corporate sustainability practices,” said Mark Chen, Vice president of WiseEye Smart Image Sensing business at Himax.
Himax invites all interested parties to stop by our exhibition booth at the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel (3400 Paradise Road, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA) Suite 1230 to experience the Company’s compelling smart office solution in sustainability improvement. To schedule a meeting or booth tour, please contact Himax at: hx_CES@himax.com.tw or sallylee@a-wentai.com.
About Wentai Technology Corp.
Wentai Technology provides one-stop service from product design, manufacturing and logistics for clients. In the face of the global climate change crisis, we are committed to product development and technological innovation, providing efficient energy-saving solutions to contribute to global efforts on environmental sustainability. We prospect to extend our business with prospective technologies, such as Industry 4.0 Smart Manufacturing, wireless IoT connectivity of Smart Lighting, energy saving AI Digital Power. We strive to help our customers enhance competitiveness and increase value. Together we create a win-win situation and drive us toward a bright future.
About Himax Technologies, Inc.
Himax Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIMX) is a fabless semiconductor solution provider dedicated to display imaging processing technologies. Himax is a worldwide market leader in display driver ICs and timing controllers used in TVs, laptops, monitors, mobile phones, tablets, automotive, digital cameras, car navigation, virtual reality (VR) devices and many other consumer electronics devices. Additionally, Himax designs and provides controllers for touch sensor displays, in-cell Touch and Display Driver Integration (TDDI) single-chip solutions, AMOLED ICs, LED driver ICs, power management ICs and LCoS micro-displays for augmented reality (AR) devices and heads-up displays (HUD) for automotive. The Company also offers CMOS image sensors, wafer level optics for AR devices, 3D sensing and ultralow power WiseEye™ smart image sensing, which are used in a wide variety of applications such as mobile phone, tablet, laptop, TV, PC camera, automobile, security, medical device, home appliance, AIoT, etc. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan, Himax currently employs around 2,100 people from three Taiwan-based offices in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taipei and country offices in China, Korea, Japan, German, and the US. Himax has 2,980 patents granted and 417 patents pending approval worldwide as of September 30, 2022. Himax has retained its position as the leading display imaging processing semiconductor solution provider to consumer electronics brands worldwide.
