CeBIT 2018, the World Largest IT Exhibition Opens in Germany
New York: CeBIT 2018, the world's top event for information and communication technology, kicked off in Hanover, Germany on Monday to showcase the cutting-edge technologies and products. This year's event focuses on the digitalization of business, government and society, with four aspects: digital economy, digital technology, digital talks and digital campus. More than 2,800 enterprises and organizations from about 70 countries and regions are attending the event. As part of digital innovation, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies maintained a major presence at this year's fair. Exhibitors such as the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence presented a learning system for synergy between humans and machines. Reinhard Karger, spokesman for the center, said the system will enable robots to produce individualized products. "Robots usually are not very flexible. But on the other side, they are universal tools, so they can be taught. And so bringing together humans and robots and teaching means that we will have a flexible production to produce individualized goods," said Karger. German railway company Deutsche Bahn displayed a series of digitalized railway transport services to offer more conveniences to passengers. "You reaching the train and a new railway platform, which shows where the train stops and where the doors are located and something like that. Then a new comfort check-in, so you can enter the train, you go on board and in your app you can check in for yourself. And there's no control during your journey on train," said Steffen Rutsch, spokesman for the Digitalization Department of Deutsche Bahn. German aircraft manufacturer Volocopter showcased its fully electric helicopter with 18 rotor wings. Passengers will only need to set their destinations and the helicopters will do the rest. The helicopter can fly at a speed up to 100 kilometers per hour for a max of 30 minutes. It is also equipped with parachutes and spare battery, according to Alexander Zosel, co-founder and chief innovation officer of Volocopter. "It can fly fully autonomous. So the best feature is that we can create a complete system of hundreds of these aircraft, connect them together and have it distributed mobility with small aircraft in cities," he said. Held each year on the Hanover fairground, CeBIT is considered a barometer of current trends and a measure of the state of the art in information technology. This year's fair will run till Friday, and an estimated 200,000 people are expected to visit.