With artificial intelligence (AI) spreading rapidly across various industries, worldwide revenue from AI-based systems is predicted to reach 47 billion US dollars in 2020, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Chroma ATE Inc., one of the world's leading suppliers of precision test and measurement instrumentation, automated test systems, intelligent manufacturing systems, and turnkey solutions, is aggressively taking part in AI by investing in Touch Cloud Inc. pioneered in AI solutions, as its largest corporate shareholder. Implementing AI into Chroma's core technologies will make their instrumentation and turnkey solutions smarter and a higher value to their customers.
Touch Cloud Inc. specializes in cloud computing architecture, machine learning, and deep learning using its unique algorithms to provide big data analysis and prediction. Its AI engine can satisfy an automated factory's demands for high-volume and high-dimensional numerical data analysis, as well as defect detection and automated classification by optical inspection. Touch Cloud is one of the few companies that can provide end-to-end solutions from cloud computing infrastructure to AI applications.
Chroma's investment in Touch Cloud is intended to apply AI technology in two areas. One is to make Chroma's test equipment smarter with predictive maintenance to anticipate equipment failure before it happens. The other is to integrate AI with Chroma's current Intelligent Manufacturing System to assist customers in IoT data analysis and prediction for manufacturing improvement. For instance, glass damage in the LCD manufacturing process could cause serious problems in productivity, quality, and reliability. Utilizing predictive AI to analyze the equipment parameter data during fabrication can raise warnings before a panel is damaged, thus improving the yield and equipment's downtime.
Chroma has more than 30 years of successful and practical experiences in the industry, and served global customers across the fields of ICT, semiconductor/IC, and clean technologies in electric vehicles, green batteries, solar and LED. Integrating AI technology from Touch Cloud, Chroma will soon help their customers in solving problems encountered during production with advanced AI algorithms and big data analysis resulting in a genuinely smarter factory.