#TencentInnovates to Support Senior Citizens, Keep Birds from Crashing, Reduce Carbon, and Enhance Video Calls

2024.03.18
We’re constantly working to creatively apply our tech know-how to make life, work, and society better. In the third installment of our #TencentInnovates series, we highlight seven developments in elder care, wildlife conservation, and communication.

Smart Devices Take Lifting to New Heights

We’re living longer due to advances in medicine and healthier lifestyles. With aging, however, comes inevitable challenges. Time can bring frailty and mobility challenges, and many need assistance to get around. 

To address this, Tencent’s Elderly Care Technology Lab has developed the transfer aid, an assistive lifting device that improves on traditional techniques using a two-stage lift design. It allows caregivers to safely transfer a person with limited mobility between wheelchair, toilet, and bed, reducing the risk of injury and falls for everyone.

Medical Imaging Data Improves Accuracy in Diagnosis

From X-rays and ultrasounds to MRIs, medical imaging is crucial. Access to that data allows researchers to understand disease, but in the past, the lack of large-scale databases hindered study.

AIMIS, an AI-driven medical imaging platform developed by Tencent, tackles the issue by making it easy for doctors, scientists, researchers and other relevant stakeholders to share and access data. The platform includes over 20 AI engines to aid disease research, from diabetic retinopathy to liver cancer. 

The platform has also enabled the development of AI-assisted diagnostic products for pneumonia, glaucoma, and colon cancer in clinical settings, leading to better outcomes for patients.

A Special Film Reduces Crash Fatalities in Birds

The ability of birds to accurately migrate enormous distances each year is one of nature’s marvels. Yet urbanization gets in the way, pretty literally, with skyscrapers and bright lights interfering with flight. In the U.S., buildings kill roughly a billion birds annually.

To prevent bird injury and deaths, we’ve installed a special film on the exterior of our global headquarters in Shenzhen. It’s already having a positive impact. We have also created a toolkit that promotes bird-friendly architecture and design—it’s free online.

Funding Accelerates Carbon Reduction

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) shows promise as a potential tool to help combat climate change. To facilitate research and development in the emerging technology, we’ve launched CarbonX.  

The program provides funding to support the most promising CCUS proposals and speed up carbon reduction initiatives. In its initial phase, nearly $70,000 will be allocated to each of the top 30 projects, with nearly $1.4 million given to the project considered the best by our panel of industry experts.

Realistic Digital Humans Read the News and Answer Your Questions

Say hello to a new generation of lifelike digital humans! They’re transforming the way businesses can operate, from news broadcast and sports commentary to customer service and tourism information. The Tencent Cloud AI Digital Human can be fully tailored to specific needs and function 24/7.

Three major upgrades enhance the user experience further, including the ability to quickly generate a realistic, interactive digital avatar with a modest data set. Simply feed it a short voice video clip and the avatar will be speaking and interacting with you like a real person in no time.

3D Meetings Without the Funky Glasses

Viewing 3D images and film usually requires special eyewear or equipment. That has changed with the development of a pioneering, real-time, two-way 3D video conference function using Tencent Meeting. Users can now immerse in a vivid 3D experience using standard consumer hardware and networks—and no special glasses—making remote meetings more engaging, efficient and productive. 

A Reliable AI Platform Opens to the Public

Hunyuan, our proprietary large-scale AI model for industry, was released in late 2023. With over 100 billion parameters, AI errors are reduced by up to 50 percent compared with mainstream open source models.

Now Hunyuan is officially available to the public, with major advances in code capability. Especially effective for generating Chinese content and logical reasoning, the platform is reliable for a wide range of tasks, complex business solutions and everyday personal interactions alike.