European Media "TheParliament.com" Honored PLANET High Tech Rescue in Chile
Source: PLANET Technology
Date: 2011/02/01
PLANET participation in Chile Miner Rescue has been reported and honored by the media “theparliament.com.
The Brussels-based theparliament.com is an authoritative EU news website, which provides comprehensive real time news and analysis of the key issues and debates within the EU institutions.
Please see below the news clips.
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Webpage: http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/high-tech-rescue/
High Tech Rescue
Who can forget the scenes? Amid global acclaim and with just 48 hours' rations left, the 33 trapped Chilean miners were rescued two months ago from a collapsed mine. Most will now be familiar with the emotional scenes that followed but what is less well known is the technology that helped engineer their dramatic rescue. The miners wore a "bio-harness" designed for astronauts - which monitors their heart rate, breathing, temperature and oxygen consumption - and sunglasses to protect their eyes from the glare of the desert.
The Chilean-made 'Phoenix' capsule that hauled them to safety contributed largely to the rescue of the men who had been trapped more than 600 metres below the earth's surface for 69 days. But it was two pieces of Taiwanese-made electronic equipment - infrared internet cameras and 'media converters' – that also played a less heralded but significant part in their liberation. Manufactured and distributed by the Taipei-based Planet Technology company, the equipment is usually used by industrial companies for its waterproof and dust-repellent properties.
In order to aid the rescue, the cameras were lowered down tiny boreholes drilled into a collapsed mine to allow the miners to communicate with the outside world and their activity to be viewed through image sensors. This enabled the miners, plus mining officials and rescue workers above ground, to prepare for and plan details of the rescue.
Reflecting on the success of the operation, Lin Man-zu,of Planet Technology, said, "It was a task to enable the cameras and converters to work under a humid, hot and dark environment that was 624 metres underground. But we are delighted to have contributed to the release of the miners." He believes the contribution such high-tech equipment played in the rescue is illustrative of his country's rapid transition from concentrating on the mass production of common consumer items to focusing on product quality and innovation. The message is likely to resonate with the European commission, one of whose "EU2020" flagship policies - the so-called 'Innovation Union' - aims to promote innovative practices in the EU.
Man-zu believes the EU would do well to take a leaf out of Taiwan's concerted efforts in recent years to shed the "Made in Taiwan" image.
This is one of the reasons why interuniversity microelectronics centre (Imec), the world's largest nanoelectronics research institute based in Belgium, recently decided to set up an R&D centre in Taiwan, focusing on bio-electronics, information and communications technology and green electronics. The recently signed cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) agreement has prompted many foreign enterprises to shift their R&D to Taiwan, because they think the relationship between Taiwan and mainland China will be more peaceful and stable.
Renowned for its manufacturing prowess, Taiwan is also earning global respect for its information communication technology innovations.
E-books are another rising star in the digital content industry and also provide a ray of hope for the publishing industry which has struggled as more and more readers look for content online.