Thailand's IT developers have performed well at this year's Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance Awards

Database News - Wednesday December 19, 2007

A WIN FOR THAI INNOVATION

Thailand's IT developers have performed well at this year's Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance Awards

Story by DON SAMBANDARAKSA

Thailand has scooped three wins and three merits awards at this year's Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance Awards, coming second to hosts Singapore, which won three awards and four merits. This was despite fielding only 12 entrants to Singapore's 43 for APICTA's 15 categories.

Speaking at a press conference, Association of Thai ICT Industry (ATCI) president Jumrud Sawangsamud explained how Thailand's success over recent years at this event has put the country firmly on the map in terms of software development and innovation.

This is the seventh year that Thailand has been participating in the awards. In the first couple of years the association would select members to enter. Later, the Thailand ICT Awards was developed as a national feeder competition. Jumrud attributed the success of recent years to providing the competitors with guidance on marketing and other real world questions that are asked by the judges.

"The challenge is how we can build on these wins. If we cannot show a new generation how TICTA and APICTA wins can translate into business success, we might have a problem," he said.

Jumrud expressed his confidence that Thailand would have a strong chance of coming out on top at APICTA 2008 in Indonesia.

Winners

Langear Technology, a small startup currently in the Software Park Thailand incubator, won for its MR Studio immersive "Mixed Reality" solution in the Research and Development category.

Apinand Dabpetch demonstrated a headset with a camera and a set of cards with chemical names on them. The headset wearer would see 3D molecules floating on the card. Tapping different cards together would simulate chemical reactions and the resulting molecule would appear floating in the air. Tapping another information card against a molecule would bring up a piece of virtual paper with a description of the molecule.

Another example demonstrated was for a book with 3D images floating on each page.

Apinand said that he is working with the Institution for the Promotion of Teaching of Science and Technology and the National Innovation Agency to develop this technology into a tool to create new media to teach complex subjects such as chemistry. Another use could be brochures for showrooms or sales representatives.

Natt Piyapramote from Sarasit Phithayalai School won the Secondary Student Project award for his "Tanjai OCR: Input at the speed of thought."

Natt said that his software is a Thai language optical character recognition program which is designed for use with digital cameras rather than flatbed scanners. Pictures taken with cameras often have varying light conditions and are distorted at an angle which traditional OCR software cannot cope with. Natt claims around 80 to 90 percent accuracy - much higher than he got by feeding camera images to any of the commercially available OCRs he tested.

AIsoft's +IBE won the Tourism and Hospitality category by providing a solution to become an online travel agency with everything from fights, hotels, car rental, airport transfer and payment partners in many countries, all with a web services API that allows for easy extension and customisation.

"The important point is that we will not try and change the way they work. If they want a hard to understand, cryptic text-based interface, we will let them continue using that.

"Years ago, we tried to change things and it didn't work," AISoft's Kittikorn Kanlekha said on company's software flexibility.

The system is live in over 100 installations worldwide with major regional customers in Hong Kong, India, China and Australia.

Runners-up

True Corporation partnered with APICTA and TICTA veteran Cyber Planet Interactive to enter its Truelife converged application in the Media and Entertainment category. Users can take their own photograph as a template and create an avatar that goes beyond mere emoticons and act out what is being typed in chat. Truelife also features web-based television, VoIP and a softphone that can send SMS and MMS.

MSL Software won a merit for its open source Textile ERP Suit in the industrial applications category with a complete ERP solution and best practices for the middle tier of companies, which today are struggling with paperwork and compliance issues. This gives them everything from the design and purchase of raw materials all the way to point of sales solutions.

"The textile industry is Thailand's second largest export industry and employs over one million people. It is also a very important part of the economies of Cambodia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Just think what it can do for all these countries if we can strengthen the industry," enthused MSL Software's Apichai Sakulsureeyadej.

Chulalongkorn University won the Tertiary Student Project for the "Hum me a tune, here comes the song" application from Waiyawuth Euachongprasit. This program works by allowing a user to hum, or half sing a song without lyrics and identifying it against a database.

"This is not just for fun, but it can be integrated into Karaoke, music stores, music download sites or even music libraries in museums," he said.

In fact, some people were so impressed that he received a number of invitations study in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Bangkok Post