Tainan City government and AI Labs signed a smart city MOU at noon on February 22 at Anping Old Fort with Former Premier William Lai present as witness to the ceremony. Tainan City Mayor Huang Wei-che expressed that he aims to make Tainan the first smart city in the world that leverages UAV aerial photography and AI technology. This will not only let the world see the capabilities and achievements of Taiwan's industries, but also set a brand new milestone for the development of Taiwan's smart cities.
During his remarks, Mayor Huang first thanked the Former Premier for his strong support when he was serving as Tainan City Mayor and Premier. Huang then talked about the MOU signed with Former Primer Lai as witness . He pointed out that this MOU brings a breath of new life into Tainan, the old culture capitol. The 3D perspective aerial photographs produced by combining AI and UAV technologies are much better than the 2D street views offered by Google.
The Mayor explained that the project, which started with Anping District in Tainan City, will provide 3D aerial shots of the entire city and can be used in fields such as policing, agriculture, transportation, and tourism. He emphasized that this is only the beginning: as AI and UAV technology becomes more mature, these technologies can be applied to even more areas. It will not only help this historical city move forward, but also greatly improve the living quality of local residents.
Former Premier William Lai also expressed that he was delighted to witness this historical moment where Tainan City moves one step towards becoming a smart city. This collaboration was just a project proposal when he was Tainan City Mayor; but now, during Mayor Huang's term, it has finally become an ongoing comprehensive collaboration project. Lai also wished Dr. Du Yi-jing and his AI Labs great success, and hoped that this collaboration can move Tainan closer to the goal of becoming a smart city.
concordance to the central government's "Small Country Big Strategy" AI Development policies. Tainan City government participates in promotion projects rolled out by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Southern Taiwan Science Park Bureau by offering open spaces and city governance application opportunities. The projects integrate AI R&D capabilities from AI Labs, UAV R&D and manufacturing capabilities from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, NCKU; and customized high-performing computing storage resources at National Center for High-Performance Computing NARLabs to set up the "UAV AI Aerial Photography Image & Big Data Platform" . This Platform opens up endless possibilities by bridging aerial photography technologies and smart city applications.
Currently the Platform has a complete collection of street images from Anping District. Users can view panorama images of the area and identify different items via AI technology applications. In the future, Tainan City aims to become the first smart city that uses AI to realize digital governance by implementing the technology in image enhancing , data integration and analysis, and decision support.