On the morning of October 18, 2019, the 6th “Light of the Internet” Expo of the World Internet Conference (WIC) was commenced in Wuzhen.

The 6th Light of the Internet Expo, an important part of the “1+3” architecture of WIC – “sub-forums + release of leading scientific and technological achievements + expo + Direct to Wuzhen global internet competition,” was kicked off two days prior to the 6th WIC and lasted until October 22.

A new venue, the Light of the Internet Expo Center, was put into use for the Light of the Internet Expo this year. The new venue is located east of the Wuzhen Internet International Convention & Exhibition Center, the permanent site of the WIC, and outside the Xizha tourist attraction. The event was attended by over 100 enterprises from 38 countries and regions such as Russia, Germany, the US, France, and Japan, including globally renowned companies like Kaspersky Lab, SAP (Germany), BMW, and Eutelsat.

A brand release area and an innovation release area have been set up at the 2nd floor of No. 6 pavilion and 2nd floor of No. 2 pavilion of the Wuzhen Internet International Convention & Exhibition Center. Nearly 130 companies and institutions from China and elsewhere were invited there to release new products and technologies in the form of “quality product releases and specialized speeches.”

The expo created an experience area for applications surrounding frontier technologies such as 5G, AI, and VR, letting visitors experience the changes brought by Internet technology for themselves.

Next, let’s go and see what was displayed at the expo.

Experience a rain shower with a simple wave

How does the shower in your bathroom feel like? Alibaba DAMO Academy presents the Refinity human-computer interaction system. With Refinity, you just need to wave your hand to feel, touch and even smell the rain without the need for any wearable devices.

In the future, this type of immersive experience may become a new way for consumers to select products. More products and application scenarios may be added to bring consumers a magical experience.

Automatic identification for waste classification

At the exhibition, we saw an intelligent garbage sorting cabinet which can detect the shape, texture and density of garbage inside the bag through an internal image projection device. Using other related equipment, it measures the humidity of the garbage, automatically identifies it, and divide it into two categories: kitchen and non-kitchen waste.

The classification robot developed by Shenzhen WDiT Co., Ltd. is also called an intelligent cabinet. Using “Internet of Things + Recycling,” it is placed in communities or other public areas. Users can find nearby intelligent cabinets through its app, and open them by scanning the QR code.

AI screening system to help ophthalmologists

The “Tencent Screening” AI screening system can assist ophthalmologists in diagnosis of fundus diseases , greatly reducing their workload.

The eye is the only organ through which the state of blood vessels is visible. By observing fundus blood vessels, doctors can not only diagnose eye diseases, but can also see signs of diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

In the absence of specialist ophthalmologists at the grass-roots level, technicians can use the machine for routine inspections and share the images to the cloud, sending the information directly to the patient’s home.

Robot guide: Ask me anything, because I know everything

This year's “Light of the Internet” Expo uses a new venue for the first time, with a total area of 20,000 square meters. Will you get lost? Absolutely not!

Upon entering the venue, we saw a small robotic leopard replacing manual expo guides. It could not only answer questions such as the weather in Wuzhen, or background on 5G, but could also take you to where you want to go. We asked the leopard to take us to the nearest bathroom. It requested that we follow him and also asked passers-by to give way. After a few turns, we successfully found the bathroom on the outer wall of the expo.

Ultra-immersive digital experience: just open your mouth to order food while driving

The ultra-immersive digital experience jointly developed by the BMW Beijing R&D Center and Design Works allows consumers to see a huge amount of information on the car’s front windshield. This includes not just information on the surrounding environment, but also a variety of other information like restaurant menus. Moreover, you can also interact directly with the places you see, i.e. by ordering meals.

"Be touched" by the beauty of Chinese culture

In the State Administration of Cultural Heritage exhibition area, the “Internet + Chinese Civilization” exhibition used digital technologies such as an interactive somatosensory display system and interactive ground-screen interpretation system to bring together the essence of seven museums’ cultural relics, and give new meaning to the beauty of Chinese culture from multiple angles and directions. It included real scenes, relevant knowledge, and other elements.

Experiencing the virtual reality of Digital Kingdom

Digital Kingdom is a foreign-invested company controlled by CITIC Group. The wearables it designed and manufactured by Digital Kingdom present the audience with a world they cannot see, and allow them to do things they cannot do in daily life. Sitting on a moving seat, and donning a glasses helmet weighing over 300 grams, your reporter fell into the “rabbit hole,” embarking upon a rainforest adventure like Alice in Wonderland. With the help of virtual reality technology, my 720-degree horizon suddenly became enormous, and I could see clearly beetles’ eyes, the fluff of cobwebs, and even cells in insects’ capillaries.

China Mobile 5G+ remote driving

On the streets of Wuzhen, there is a car that is moving, but nobody is driving it. It is completely controlled by the staff at the Expo. We saw this demonstration onsite. This remote driving technology is based on 5G applications; the driver said that it is the low latency of 5G which makes this synchronization possible.

Epson’s remote guidance smart glasses program

The feed from smart glasses can be transmitted to a special terminal at any time. Specialists can analyze the situation of the wearer remotely and provide real-time guidance through voice, text, and images. This device has been used in medical and logistics fields.

Executive Editor: Ke Ye

Translation: Ke Ye, Wenjin Chen