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HKPC’s Intelligent Tunnel Inspection and Children Myopia Monitoring Innovations Recognised at Hong Kong Business Technology Excellence Awards 2022

(Hong Kong, 19 September 2022) The Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) has recently been recognised for its efforts to promote intelligent tunnel inspection and slow down children’s myopia progression at “Hong Kong Business Technology Excellence Awards 2022”, with “Edge-AI Powered Multi-Sensor Aerial Inspector for Tunnel Surface” and “MY-O-Analyzer (My-Optical-Analyzer)”, jointly developed with partners from different sectors, winners of “Emerging Technology – Industrial Construction” and “IoT – Healthcare” categories respectively.

Organised by Hong Kong Business, the only English-language business magazine dedicated to Hong Kong and China, the Hong Kong Business Technology Excellence Awards aims to honour technology companies who have pioneered ground-breaking IT products, and companies across different industries with the most innovative technology initiatives that made an impact to their business.

Mr Mohamed Butt, Executive Director of HKPC, said, “HKPC is delighted to continue to receive recognition from the local business community for R&D projects jointly developed with its partners to enhance work efficiency and quality of life. HKPC is committed to putting innovative ideas into practice and bringing long-term benefits to all walks of life and the community. These awards once again reaffirm the importance of collaboration among the Government, industry, academic and research sectors for the development of Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology hub. HKPC will continue to work with its partners to develop more innovative technology applications to enhance the competitiveness and productivity of the industry and contribute to a smarter and sustainable future.”

Co-developed with the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) of the HKSAR Government and Hyder-Meinhardt Joint Venture, “Edge-AI Powered Multi-Sensor Aerial Inspector for Tunnel Surface” is Hong Kong’s first tunnel inspection system based on drone and on-board AI processing technologies. It brings a digital upgrade to tunnel inspection, enabling professional engineers and inspectorate supervisors to conduct intelligent and safe tunnel lining inspection directly on-site. Without setting up substantive working platforms, the system helps save time significantly, reduce the space required for inspection, and enhance construction flexibility, safety and efficiency. Furthermore, the system automatically generates digital defect reports for digitalisation of the entire inspection process, facilitating future asset management This system was successfully developed and has been applied in the Trunk Road T2 and Cha Kwo Ling Tunnel project (Trunk Road T2 project) managed by CEDD. This project has previously been recognised by the “2022 Special Edition of the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions” and “2022 R&D 100 Awards”.

Mr Michael Leung, Project Manager of the East Development Office of the CEDD said, “CEDD always looks for initiatives to promote and apply innovative ideas and new technologies to enhance safety, productivity and sustainability in our construction projects. The development and application of the system realizes our commitment to improve works process and ensure safety of the industry. The successful use of this innovative solution in the Trunk Road T2 project has already laid a solid foundation for using AI and robotic technology in other tunnel projects. The dataset of tunnel defects collected by the system provides big data for the construction of AI detection model and serves as a good reference for future infrastructure projects. It is expected that the system would have tremendous potential for extended use in other projects having similar requirements and may inspire more similar innovations, thus benefiting the sustainable development of Hong Kong construction industry as a whole.”

Another of HKPC’s winning projects, “MY-O-Analyzer (My-Optical-Analyzer)”, is developed in collaboration with the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). By collecting data of the viewing habits of children and monitoring their myopia risk factors, it aims to provide a long-term, continuous, and personalised myopia monitoring solution for the ophthalmologists and market to help change children’s habits and slow down myopia progression. With multiple sensors on the smart eyewear’s temple parts, this innovation enables automated detection of children’s viewing habits such as reading distance, lightness and darkness of the environment, and head angle status, etc. Relevant data are collected and stored in an online cloud database by mobile device via Bluetooth Low Energy. It provides a highly efficient solution for parents and ophthalmologists to monitor children’s habits and myopia risk factors without spending a prolonged period of time of observation, allowing them to take immediate actions to address the problems. The first version of product prototype has been completed and will be commercialised in the near future. This innovation has been awarded at the “2022 Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions” and “TechConnect World Innovation Conference and Expo 2022”.

Dr Jason Yam, Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, CUHK, said, “Hong Kong has one of the highest prevalence of myopia in the world. Individuals with high myopia, i.e. more than 600 degrees, leads to irreversible and sight-threatening complications because of the excessive eyeball elongation. Unfortunately, during COVID-19 pandemic, the myopia incidence has a 2.5-fold increase. This is attributed to significant decrease in the outdoor time and increase in the screen time. MY-O-Analyzer, co-developed by CUHK and HKPC, monitors the outdoor time and near work, and reading posture. The data helps to predict myopia development and provide guidance and recommendation to the user on eye use. It helps to change student’s behaviour for healthy lifestyle modification.”

In its fourth year, the Hong Kong Business Technology Excellence Awards recognises outstanding companies that have made exceptional contributions in pursuit of technological innovation. The entries are reviewed based on inspiration behind the initiative, uniqueness & innovation, effectiveness, impact on the company and industry, as well as dynamism to changes and progressive opportunities by a panel of judges. For more details, please visit the Awards’ official website: https://hongkongbusiness.hk/event/hong-kong-business-technology-excellence-awards/.

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Edge-AI Powered Multi-Sensor Aerial Inspector for Tunnel SurfaceEdge-AI Powered Multi-Sensor Aerial Inspector for Tunnel Surface

MY-O-Analyzer (My-Optical-Analyzer)MY-O-Analyzer (My-Optical-Analyzer)