The tactile AI solution provider "TacSense Technology" has recently completed the B round of financing, with a cumulative financing of over 100 million yuan. This round of financing was led by Chuangdongfang, and the old shareholders Yuandu and Beijing Yuanhui also participated in this round of financing. Wang Xiaochuan, the former president of Sogou, also participated in this round of financing as a personal investor. Funds from this round of financing will be used for team expansion, assembly and test production lines, market expansion and supplementary working capital.
　　The main business model of "TacSense Technology" is a tactile empowerment solution for the industrial, human-computer interaction and medical device industries based on its self-developed flexible pressure sensor, so that smart devices in these industries have the ability to sense external pressure, And from the analysis and mining of pressure data to further provide user-side use value. Founder and chairman Wang Xiaoyang mentioned: "TacSense Technology pioneered the world's fourth-generation flexible ionization tactile sensing technology (FITS). "Simply put, the most direct effect of this technology is to transform the surface of the object in the most sensitive and interference-free way, so that it can sense external pressure. In terms of the specific preparation process, substrates such as plastic and paper are passed through ionized electrons. After the material is soaked or coated, a pressure sensing layer is formed, and then a contact surface is formed with the conductive material layer; the change of the external force is sensed by the change of the contact surface area between the two layers of materials.

　　With the continuous penetration of the Internet of Things, tactile sensing technology is also evolving. Previously, pressure sensors included resistive, capacitive and piezoelectric types. Compared with these traditional pressure sensors, the FITS sensor of "TacSense Technology" not only can achieve fully transparent materials, but also has a higher signal-to-noise ratio and a wider range of Pressure measurement interval and shorter response time. In addition, the sensor is thinner and can measure pressure distribution in tight spaces.
　　Figure 1. Comparison of different pressure sensing technology paths
　　Previously, almost all pressure sensors on the market came from foreign companies. The pressure sensors of “TacSense Technology” can reduce the cost of use by up to 90%, thus providing a haptic solution that is suitable for more cost-sensitive scenarios. Wang Xiaoyang said, "TacSense Technology wants to achieve localized supply. In addition to the price advantage, the continuous iteration of performance is ahead, and it is also better than foreign products in terms of the localization of the solution." While cost-effective domestic substitution, it also makes the product "better to use" close to the user.

　　FITS technology was first proposed by Pan Tingrui, the co-founder of "TacSense Technology" in 2009. It can increase the sensitivity of capacitive sensors at that time by more than 1,000 times and the mechanical response speed by more than 20 times. However, there is still a huge gap between scientific research and industrialization. For example, the industrialized mass production of sensors requires long-term process polishing and industrialized equipment development and operation management.
　　In 2017, under the arrangement of Sogou founder Wang Xiaochuan, Pan Tingrui's middle school classmate, Pan Tingrui met with Dr. Wang Xiaoyang, an investor/professional manager who is also a Tsinghua alumnus. Pan Tingrui, Wang Xiaochuan and Wang Xiaoyang are classmates of Chengdu No. 7 Middle School. See you again, facing the Internet of Things industry with a long chain, how to start from the bottom and raw materials to generate sustainable value for users is a new direction that the three of them want to explore together. This meeting also became an opportunity for the birth of "TacSense Deep Technology".

　　In 2018, "TacSense Technology" was jointly established by the founding team and Shenzhen Advanced Institute, and was supported by the Guangdong Pearl River Project Entrepreneurship Project. In a rental house in Xili, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, the two founders became roommates again.
　　After 4 years of development, the current pressure sensing solutions of "TacSense Technology" have been widely used in the two fields of industrial inspection and human-computer interaction. At present, it has broken through a single million-level large customer in both fields. Orders and repeated purchases by head customers have been realized. "Users' haptic solutions for TacSense have evolved from the initial technical verification to a certain degree of dependence on test data and judgment results."

　　Taking the industrial field as an example, an important application is the detection of lithium battery production process. For example, formation is a key link in the production of lithium batteries, which must be carried out in a pressure-controlled environment, which directly affects battery life, energy density, and safety.
　　Figure 2. Formation multi-channel pressure detection
　　The tactile AI solution of "TacSense Technology" can provide real-time pressure distribution data for this link. These data can not only help the detection end to remove unqualified batteries, but also feedback the data to the pressure machine in real time to realize online adjustment and improve Yield of battery fabrication. In the past year, the solution of "TacSense Technology" has formed a penetration rate of nearly 50% among domestic head battery manufacturers, and brought in tens of millions of revenue.
　　In other industrial application fields, such as 3C assembly, LCD panel bonding detection, semiconductor grinding and cutting process and other different scenarios, the pressure distribution measurement system of "TacSense Technology" can realize pressure distribution detection in different fields and different links, feedback With the adjustment, it has been successfully introduced into the Apple supply chain (Foxconn, BOE, etc.) and domestic manufacturers (such as Huawei, OPPO, etc.).
　　The representative application in the field of human-computer interaction is the pressure sensitivity of TWS earphones in consumer electronics. This market broke out at the end of 2019. Considering that it is more in line with consumers' usage habits and reduces the false touch rate, Apple continues to use pressure sensitivity instead of the human-computer interaction solution. Touch, thus educating a large number of consumers to "pinch" to achieve the intended interaction with the headset from the pressure dimension. Following this, domestic brand manufacturers, including white-brand headphones, are also competing to make changes and iterate products in this direction.
　　Figure 3. For Apple AirPods, the picture comes from the Internet
　　In this scene, the pressure sensor of "TacSense Technology" is tailored to the size of 2mm*2mm and welded on the circuit board like an ordinary chip, so that it can sense consumers' clicks, double-clicks, double-clicks, etc. Long press, swipe touch operation. At present, "TacSense Technology" has achieved millions of shipments per project in this segment, and has entered Xiaomi's supply chain system. In addition, as a new business growth point, "TacSense Technology" has begun to pre-research other human-computer interaction fields such as notebook touchpads and smart phone 3D touch enabling solutions.
　　Further, the data value of haptic technology in existing landing scenarios is still deepening. The positioning of "TacSense Technology" is tactile AI empowerment. In other words, it is to add tactile data to the scene, and this provides "TacSense Technology" in specific vertical industries through a large amount of data accumulation, to be a data value empowerment company. company that helps customers iterate on their products and services in a way that AI learns. "For example, the data correlation research of the battery expansion force dimension during charging can make fast charging more intelligent and balance the contradiction between safety and charging efficiency."
　　Figure 4. Integrated solution of battery BMS pressure monitoring
　　In the field of new energy, the goal of "TacSense Technology" is to monitor the force dimension data of the whole life cycle of the battery, and to be the "tactile skin" of the "smart battery". "TacSense Technology" hopes to extend the current stress test scenario on the battery production side to the battery user side. The pressure sensor is implanted inside the battery cell, and the real-time internal pressure data under the operating state is obtained through the BMS, so as to judge whether the current battery is at risk and solve the safety anxiety of battery use.
　　In terms of team, founder and CEO Wang Xiaoyang graduated from the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree. He is a doctor of industrial engineering from the National University of Singapore. He has more than 10 years of experience in cross-border mergers and acquisitions and investment and production management of high-tech enterprises;
　　Co-founder Pan Tingrui is the chief scientist. He holds a bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University, a master's degree and a doctorate degree from the University of Minnesota. He has presided over 20+ major R&D projects of US national and multinational companies, and has published 100+ high-level papers in top international core journals. .
　　Facing the vast world of recreating tactile intelligence in the future IOT field, the two founders also expressed their thirst for talents; "TacSense Technology" hopes to share the historical opportunities of tactile AI empowerment with curious and responsible entrepreneurial partners , to share the exploration of the trinity entrepreneurial model from component production to solve the problem of "stuck neck" (original factory), to intelligent intelligent manufacturing to provide system solutions "overtaking in corners" (solution provider), to "empowerment" (operation) of data value services .
　　Investor's point of view
　　Xie Yujuan, a partner of Chuangdongfang:
　　This investment fund is the Red Brick Orient Fund, which is mainly managed by the investment team of Chuangdong University of Science and Technology. Initiated, the first fund to focus on investing in the market-oriented operation of alumni companies of the University of Science and Technology of China. From the perspective of project investment and post-investment services, the investment of Chuangdong Red Brick Fund can not only give play to the market-oriented leading investment effect of well-known investment institutions, but also integrate ecological resources such as scientific research, technology, and industry of the University of Science and Technology of China, and at the same time, it can cooperate with Anhui Province. The regional industrial resource advantages of provincial and municipal LPs in new energy vehicles, display semiconductors, etc. Dr. Xiaoyang Wang is my Ph.D. brother from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, National University of Singapore, and he was co-taught by Professor Xie Min (graduated from the 78th class of the Chinese University of Science and Technology) who was a professor at the National University of Singapore; Professor Pan Tingrui is a top-level flexible ion sensor. The scientist, after returning from the United States, is currently working at the Suzhou Research Institute of the University of Science and Technology of China. Our team has continued to pay attention to the development of TacSense Technology since the project incubation. This long-term project tracking and service has deepened the mutual trust between the investor and the team. As an aspect of the five senses of the human body, pressure will inevitably usher in a new development in the new era of the Internet of Everything and Human-Computer Interaction. As a leader in ionic flexible pressure sensors, TacSense is currently used in various application directions such as consumer electronics, new energy, display, and medical care. We are also in the stage of rapid product volume expansion. We believe that as the lead investor this time, we can cooperate with the new and old shareholders to integrate resources with TacSense Technology in all aspects of the value chain to help the rapid development of the company.
　　Sogou founder Wang Xiaochuan:
　　Wang Xiaoyang and Pan Tingrui and I are both classmates of Chengdu No. 7 Middle School and alumni of Tsinghua University. We have very deep feelings and trust. And their partners are also very complementary. Professor Pan has top scientific research breakthroughs, and Dr. Wang has rich experience in operation and management. The model of [TacSense Technology] represents the most advanced entrepreneurial direction at present, and it is born at the right time. I am now focusing on the field of life and health, and TacSense-deep sensors may also make a big difference in this field.