Posts by: Kyle Wong

Kyle Wong

Kyle Wong, Ph.D. and CFA, is an educator, hedge fund manager, columnist and entrepreneur. At Kaplan Financial he teaches CFA and other financial programs for the public and financial institutions. He is the Chief Operating Officer at Avant Capital Management (HK) Limited, which is one of the top ranked hedge fund companies in Asia. He has been contributing regularly to iMoney. He is one of the founders of MissFQ.com, a portal dedicated to FinTech.

Wearable Technologies Conference – Falling Asleep can be Fatal

October 21, 2016October 21, 2016

by Kyle Wong

In Wearable Technology Conference 2016.

Wearable Technologies Conference – Falling Asleep can be Fatal

According to Mr. Daniel Bongers, co-founder and current CTO of SmartCap Technologies, fatigue is a major causes of death on the roads and in construction industry. Many deaths are cause by the drivers or the operators of the heavy machines falling asleep. So it would be great for the employers to detect the fatigue level of their employees so that the really tired persons can be requested to take a break before they fall asleep.

The SmartCap technology is the perfect solution. It is a blue tooth device that sits inside any cap or hat. But monitoring the brain signal, it can give warnings when a certain fatigue level has been reached. The signal can be sent to the employer, the family members or even the user himself so appropriate action can be taken like taking a hot break.

The SmartCap is deigned to fit in any caps or hats. So it can work with many industries. Two hours recharge can make the device work for a whole week. The algorithm behind the SmartCap is extremely advanced to detect fatigue signals and produce early warnings. This is indeed a life saving technology.

Wearable Technologies Conference – Wearables and Product Design

October 21, 2016October 21, 2016

by Kyle Wong

In Wearable Technology Conference 2016.

Wearable Technologies Conference – Wearables and Product Design

Wearable Technology Conference is the premier conference in the field of wearables. Every year it is held in the US, Europe and Asia. This year Hong Kong has the privilege to host the Wearable Technology Conference 2016 Asia at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park. The event was filled not only with talks by experts but also with the demonstration of the latest gadgets. It is indeed a fun event.

One of the speakers is Paul Pugh, the founder and chief designer at Airline Design. Paul has worked with the some of the largest global companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Apple in product design. Airline Design, based in Tokyo, is focused on hardware/software integrated products including wearables for health, fitness and fashion. Before that he was the Vice President of Connected Fitness Products at Under Armour.

Paul’s talk is titled “The Body as Interface and Understanding What it is Telling You”. One of the major applications of wearable has been in sport. Wearables has been deployed to help athlete to detect their movements and improve their performance. Companies selling running shoes and athletic clothing have been analysing those data so their products can improve the performance of the users. Sensors are deployed in shoes and clothing to record athletes’ movement accurately. But Paul thinks it is only wearable 1.0. In 2.0, the data will be used in a real time basis to give immediate feedback to athletes to give better performance. That requires a better integration between sensors and softwares.

Another major application is in the area of health care. When we get off the planes and go through the customs, our body temperature is monitored by the airports. The idea is that our body broadcast important health information. If wearables can detect those signals in a non-intrusive manner, many fatal diseases like heart attack may be avoidable. Also wearable can be deployed to detect our sleeping pattern. After all many people suffer from sleep disorders. In fact, there is a product called Pavlok that give jolts to wake up the user.

There are also devices under development that can detect our emotions and stress level. Combined with artificial intelligence, the goal is to improve our quality of life. Many devices like Apple Watch and Fitbit are to be put on the body. To attract the consumers to use the products, the consumers have to like it. That’s how product design comes into picture. So a great challenge is to combine the utility and beauty so that the consumer is willing to use the devices and to benefit from them.

The Dawn of InsurTech in Asia

October 7, 2016October 13, 2016

by Kyle Wong

In Fintech O2O.

By Kyle Wong, Ph.D., FRM and CFA

When most people think of insurance, we think of a salesperson giving the sales presentation in a coffee shop. If the sale is closed, the customer is asked to do an old fashioned medical check-up. Then the customer is asked to complete a very long application form. The way insurance is sold has been pretty much the same for many centuries. Insurance is not associated with technology. However, according to Mr. John Brisco, the Chief Information Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Manulife Asia, things are going to change. The change will start in Asia.

In a talk titled “InsurTech: We didn’t start the fire”, John explains that less than 6% of Asian population has life insurance. To serve the remaining 94%, relying on agents will not be enough. Technology is able to bring insurance to many places that do not have enough agents. Technology can help customers to better understand insurance products.

Data analytics can help insurance understand their customers better. It will lead a better pricing. In Hong Kong, Manulife has launched Manulife Move, which provides their customer with either a Fitbit or Misfit. The wearable monitors the amount of exercise done by the customer. More exercise will be rewarded with a lower premium. This is an excellent application of the Internet of Things.

John commented that insurance companies tend to rank very low in costumer loyalty. Many costumers either don’t understand the products or have experienced bad service. InsurTech hopefully can provide better customer service and lead to higher customer satisfaction. InsurTech can significantly reduce the amount of paper work.

John also gave some advice to InsurTech start-ups. Don’t count the incumbents out. The major insurance companies are building innovation labs all over the world. So the incumbents are becoming start-ups too. Also many start-ups don’t understand the needs of the incumbents. While Manulife targets the high end Asian market, the start-ups are often providing mass market solution.

In InsurTech, a major advantage of Asian countries is that the regulations tend to less strict than those in the West. Some Asian countries, in particular China, is much more progressive in InsurTech. In China, customers can buy insurance on Wechat and Weixin. Also technology allows fully customized products such as insurance of any term. John is also very bullish on InsurTech development in Tel Aviv, where they are plenty of startups doing InsurTech, AI and Data Analytics. John thinks Hong Kong regulators should allows Hong Kong to catch up with the Asian rivals.

Applying Internet of Things to Health Science

June 11, 2016June 11, 2016

by Kyle Wong

In EmTech, Tech, Tech (more).

Applying Internet of Things to Health Science

I have the privilege to attend EmTech Hong Kong 2016 on June 7 and 8. The event is organised by MIT Technology Review and Koelnmesse. It covers some of the most important emerging technologies including robotics, blockchains, mobile technology and manufacturing 4.0. Many of the speakers are founders of start-ups who are eager to bring advanced technology to the mass market. What particularly excites me is that several speakers are from the health care industry. From them I see a convergence of internet of things and health care that will have significant impact on our quality of life.

A body is nothing but a giant machine, connected by neurones, controlled by electrical signals generated by the brain. Prof. Charles Sodini from MIT is researching technologies to monitor electrical signals from our brain, our heart and blood vessels. The major advantage is that the technologies are non-intrusive. By placing small sensors on our bodies, the hospital or medical centres can monitor our body functioning on a continuous and real time basis. Combined with the advance in data analytics, many fatal diseases can be prevented. Better cure can be invented. Currently we have wearables like Apple Watch and Fitbit. But their application is quite limited. Imagine a world that you body is monitored by medical professionals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Prevention is allays better than cure.

Sleeping disorder is a major problem to many people. However, the problems are often hard to detect as it requires a monitoring of a patient’s sleep pattern and it can only be done at a dedicated facility. Shazam Gollakota, co-founder of Jeeva Wireless, discusses using your mobile phone to monitor your sleep. By sending out a low frequency signal from your mobile phone, your phone can actually function as a motion sensor. Again, then the data can be sent directly to medical centre for diagnosis.

With an ageing population, there has been a big push to develop bionics/exoskeletions that can help seniors to walk and move better. Japan and Germany are leaders in this field. In japan, the technology is deemed essential as they face a declining population and the Government wants to extend the working age of their people as much as possible. In the US, exoskeleton development is heavily funded by the military with the goal of creating better soldiers. However, while exoskeleton is already here, it is quite expensive. Homayoon Kazerooni, Founder and CEO of suitX, has a passion to apply the technology to not only the seniors, but those workers involved in heavy lifting and to the disabled. While the technology is developed in the US, the manufacturing is done in Shanghai. By lowering the manufacturing cost, it is hoped that more people can enjoy the benefits. I am particularly impressed by Mr. Kazerooni because like me, he was an ex-academic. Mr. Kazeronni shows the successful transition from academic to business.

Technology is always disruptive. It strives to cut cost and improve efficiency. It cuts out the middle persons. Health care is certainly ready to be transformed by technology.