About Electric Cars

There are some electric cars that don’t travel so fast as to require a driver’s license on the streets of Guiyang. A friend of mine sells motor scooters and also has a line of electric cars. I had a chance to talk to Sarah about her little car products and made a short video about these surprising vehicles. The two  things I found most interesting  about these cars are the low price and the range of these “hybrid” vehicles.

Youku       About Electric Cars

Youtube    About Electric Cars

 

 

Thank You Video to the Medical Teams

I don’t know the origin of  this video, but it appears to be of American origin, based on the dialogue and the apparent native American accent.

Recently I witnessed a commotion in downtown Guiyang where there were a lot of honking horns and police were standing at attention, saluting.  There was a traffic procession. It turns out that the doctors from Guiyang who went to Wuhan to fight the virus were returning home after about one month on duty. They were being given an honorable welcome home from the local people.

2018 Big Data Expo of Guiyang

2017 Big Data Expo

The 2018 Bid Data Expo of Guiyang is now history. It closed Tuesday after four days of successful events and exhibitions. Details of the event, along with participants and exhibitors can be found at the Big Data Expo website: BIG DATA CENTRAL WEB SITE.

2018 Big Data Expo rocks according to Jack (aka_ John_ S._Porter)

2018 Big Data Expo rocks according to Jack.

There were many similarities to the 2017, but also a surprise. It was beyond even my wildest overactive imagination. I wasn’t shy about my disappointment in the 2017 Expo because it was so lacking in robotics, motion control, and automated vehicles. I consider this to be central to our future as humans . . .  see: 2017 Big Data Expo.
Though I was unsatisfied with the robotics, motion control and automated vehicle coverage in the 2017 Expo, I was MORE THAN SATISFIED with it’s prominence in 2018.  Artificial intelligence (AI) was everywhere in the Pixmoving presentation. The highlights were the coffee robot, the donkey car race, and the driverless car. The coffee robot demonstrated the fine detail, proving how far robotics and AI has come. The donkey car competition showed how difficult it is to drive a car, even in fairly predictable environments and situations.

The robot that serves the coffee was impressive, but it had no eyes. No wives or children moved  the coffee pot, or the cups. Nevertheless, this demonstration was very good. You can tell by the audience reaction. This display got everybody’s attention.

The Donkey Car is a car  that drives itself, but with very limited intelligence. It has a small on-board computer,  some rule based controls, and a camera. The camera helps the car stay between the white lines. It looks like a toy “remote control” car, but there is no (human) controller when the race begins.  All the decisions on direction and speed are made by the on-board computer. It is dumb, like a donkey.

The driverless car was also a big hit. There were so many people that wanted to ride around the circuit that I heard a man complain that he waited two hours to get on the car. The driverless car has a Lidar navigation sensor (on top) which is a newer product for machine vision. It uses lasers to judge objects and distances, many, many lasers to gather active data about the road. This car highlights several of the “drive by wire” products marketed by Pixmotion. Pixmotion is promoting open source coding for Automated Vehicles and has it’s own line of hardware that they are seeking to install, not only on cars, but many kinds of vehicles, from freight moving trucks to coffee serving robots on wheels.

Other Things at the Big Data Conference

The Exhibition Hall was open from the 26th to the 29th and there were also classes and presentations on the 25th. This conference was similar to prior conferences in that special tickets allowing more access were available.  One impressive presentation was about the use of Big Data to expedite the permitting process for businesses. Rather than using staff time and a complex permitting process for each department, more departments are being merged and application forms are being populated by the government’s Big Data database. This eliminates fees and long waiting periods while applications are processed.  If your registration with the government is in order, you get your permit — quickly. This kind of cost cutting and convenience to citizens is a big deal.

The exhibits seemed less expansive than in the past, with a bit of a push from a few vendors expanding presence. Of course Pixmoving was the biggest. Google and Facebook were also well represented, along with many of the other big names. Smart City software, mapping software, and health care were big. Of course virtual reality and the  “whole body” virtual world devices were present as well. Here are some sample photos.

It was fun  talking to vendors with various levels of English. It was fairly simple to stop and talk, especially with people that are working on their English skills. Alex Lau of Sefonsoft was very kind to me .  .  .AlexLau

 

 

 

 

Tuberculosis in China

Ray Mahoney, a friend of mine, was recently diagnosed with TB.  His story can be seen online TB In China and

at http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTI4NDE4NjU5Mg==.html?from=y1.7-2   and

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7q3ujwp7efzgip/TB_In_China.flv?dl=0 . Ray has about 20 years of experience as a foreigner in China, and I have about eight or ten. We have learned a lot that we didn’t know about what happens when medical attention is needed. We have learned about deportation when an infectious disease is present, and the quarantine policies. This video highlights the issues, and as I write, the issues for Ray remain unresolved.

Wine Expo Video — Alco-tourism

The Guizhou Wine Expo had a promotional video detailing the attractions of Guizhou.  I captured part of it on my cell phone camera.  Then I pulled out an old video from when I visited the Miao countryside.  The song of the Miao Women when they ask you to drink their sweet rice wine is really extraordinary, and in no way exaggerated by the promotional video.  I’ve added a couple clips . . .

 

 

“Happy” in Guiyang (Pharrell Williams song, from “Despicable Me 2”)

‘Happy’ in Guiyang 贵阳 -Hualin 贵阳华麟中学 Summer camp at Meijia 贵阳美加国际学校 Guiyang American-Canadian International School

“Happy” in Guiyang uploaded at “http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzU2NjI1ODAw.html”

Happy” is a 2013 song by American singer and producer Pharrell Williams from Despicable Me 2 .  The original video spawned many cover videos on YouTube in which people from different cities throughout the world dance to the song. Those videos are usually called “Pharrell Williams – Happy – We Are from [name of the city]”.  As of May 2014, more than 1,500 videos had been created.  From Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_(Pharrell_Williams_song)

for versions of this song uploaded on Chinese website Youku see: http://www.soku.com/search_video/q_Happy%20pharrell

Other “Happy” videos in China:

Beijing –http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjk5NjIwOTU2.html , http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjc5MTQ1ODky.html ,

Shanghai –http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjc5MTEzMjA0.html

Nanjing – http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzEwNzU3NDMy.html

Guangzhou (Jinan Univ.) – http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzMwMTE4MDU2.html , (Zhongshan Univ.)  http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjkzMDk0NjI4.html

Changsha – http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzI3MzA0OTMy.html

Wuxi – http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzQ5NDYzNDU2.html

Macao – http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjg4MzI3NzI0.html

Hong Kong – http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjg3NjkxMzUy.html