Tech Fair featured six start-ups that were expected to satisfy the curiosity of the creators. The common factor between the companies, which made a spectacular entrance like the Avengers, is that they are currently immersed in research and development of the technologies leading the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The start-up team consisted of those who could proudly introduce core technologies in front of the ZER01NE creators, who are specialized in the variation of the reality and the virtual, and the digital and the analogue. Start-ups quickly suggest solutions in unstable situations to secure customers and prove the hypotheses developed in the planning stage in order to create a new value, which makes them creators as well. If you are interested in open-minded developers, you need to take an especially good look at the following start-ups participated in the ZER01NE Tech Fair.
The first participant is GIANTDRONE, which started from producing aerial photography and is now developing multi-purpose drones based on hydrogen fuel cells. There are countless drone manufacturers; surprisingly few of them are equipped with fair drone technical skills. Targeting the drone market being expanded to wide areas including shipping, medical, advertisement, and entertainment, GIANTDRONE is focusing not on developing an event or shooting an image but on technology development to expand its business scope. As the drone market is expected to worth more than 11.5 billion dollars around the world by 2020, GIANTDRONE’s further moves could be worthy of attention.
Next up, MAXST and VTOUCH: MAXST builds up its own technology and service platform for designing the world of augmented reality, and VTOUCH develops the world’s first long-range touch technology by which one can operate devices or object in the distance with one’s eyes or hands. Mixing the technology of the two businesses appropriately, the scene in Iron Man where Robert Downey Jr. completes an arc reactor drawing by making a few gestures in the air might be soon realized in our everyday life.
Meanwhile, IMPRESSIVO and CK MATERIALS LAB study technology related to the sense of touch: IMPRESSIVO develops a flexible touch sensor that can be used in any area where touch operation is needed including smart fabric, smartwatch, and lighting. CK MATERIALS LAB invents haptic technology that enables one to deliver the same sense of touch to others. The company explains that the sense of a snail being rained on while moving can be formed into and sent as data, which makes us look forward even more to the digital technology that would elaborately actualize the subtle sense of the analogue.
The last start-up participant of Tech Fair is M.O.P, which manufactures resin-type composite material applicable to a photocuring 3D printing process based on the micro/nano processing technology. The company’s material can be used in medical bio devices as well as aerospace and national defense. M.O.P dreams of the innovation of the manufacturing ecosystem, where the 3D printer market, the so-called key of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, shifts from centering around producing ready-made goods to focusing on creating custom-made products, and from being company-centered to being individual-oriented.
The ZER01NE Tech Fair presented an opportunity to experience firsthand the major technologies of the future society including drone, augmented reality, long-range touch technology, touch sensor, and new material for 3D printers, suggesting an interpretation of such technologies from a new point of view. The creators at ZER01NE saw the aspects where they could cooperate with the start-ups and closely watched the technologies that could be applied to their works. Convergence between technology and art could be ignited by not the process of finding a common ground but from a field where the two areas are gathered together. From ZER01NE’s point of view, the common language that connects art and business is “technology”. After the passionate and synergic scene that reminded one of a pitching day, the fun and inspiration shared between creators and start-ups still lingers.
