Press Reports on Aptronix & FIDE Products
Looking Homeward - Tiananmen exiles lead way into China's hi-tech future
by Far East Economic Review, March 11, 1999, by Bruce Gilley in San FranciscoThe 1989 Tiananmen Massacre in Beijing may be the best thing that's ever happened to China's hi-tech industry. After the crackdown, Washington granted more than 50,000 Chinese students the right to remain indefinitely. ......Today, they form the nucleus of a talented new generation of information technology entrepreneurs that is forging commercial links with China. ............
Zaptron was spun off from Aptronix, which its three mainland Chinese founders brought to Silicon Valley from Japan in 1989 rather than return to China in the wake of the Tiananmen killings. Under President Zhang Hongmin, Aptronix entered China in 1995 to develop home appliances with fuzzy-logic controls. That year, it opened a $20 million joint venture in Hainan province that manufactures products such as washing machines, water heaters, air-conditioners and refrigerators. That venture has since spawned a separate company in Beijing that concentrates solely on fuzzy-logic research.......
Zaptron Solves Moving-Map Data Fusion Probelm for GPS Navigation
EE Times, July 20, 1998
Las Vegas - The International Conference on Multisource-Multisensor Data Fusion-Fusion '98-shed a light on the blending of smart technologies with statistical analysis for applications ranging from dashboard-mounted moving maps to battlefield simulations in virtual reality....
NewsTool taps neural net and fuzzy methods -- Zaptron's Smart Technology Headed for Process-Control, Factory-automation Apps
EE Times, March 2, 1998Sunnyvale, Calif. - Zaptron Systems Inc. (spin-off of Aptronix) has crafted a smart technology-combining neural networks, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms-that the company will use in process control, factory automation and business-data analysis products. Its first product, DataX, due out later this quarter, is a shrink-wrapped neural network capable of learning a fuzzy model, with the help of genetic algorithms operating on historical databases...
Fuzzy Logic System Applied to Wafer-inspection Process -- Inspection Work Turns Fuzzy
by Colin Johnson, Senior Editor
-- Electrical Engineering Times, September 8, 1997 Issue
Santa Clara, Calif. - Aptronix Inc. is adapting its fuzzy inference-development environment for pattern recognition tasks to pressing problems such as fault detection in semiconductors and bomb detection within luggage at international airports....
Kit Employs Fuzzy Logic for Smart Web Searches
by Colin Johnson, Senior Editor
-- Electrical Engineering Times, March 31, 1997 Issue
Santa Clara, Calif. - Aptronix Inc. unveiled its fuzzy-logic-based Internet technology here along with its first application: an engine for generating fuzzy agents. The Fide (Fuzzy Inference Development Environment) Internet Kit enables engineers to employ fuzzy logic when building applications for the Internet.
"Manufacturing Embraces the Internet - Slowly," (Special Report)
by Rick Cook
-- Managing Automation, February 1997 Issue, page 32.
Thomas Magazine Group, NY. (212)695-0500
"Java Applets Look for Control - Aptronix System Uses a Graphical Interface to Design Fuzzy Rules for Smart Applets,"
by Colin Johnson, Senior Editor
-- Electrical Engineering Times, December 9, 1996 Issue, Page 56.
Santa Clara, Calif. - Fuzzy-logic pioneer Aptronix Inc. has refocused its engineering-software-development environment on what's called Java-based "smart applets" with the introduction of its Java Runtime Controller. With JRC, Aptronix said, engineers can manage fuzzy-control programs from Web pages that serve as the user interface for controlling complex industrial processes.
"Fuzzy Logic: A new challenge is threatening to dethrone traditional control techniques as the methods of choices."
by Byron Miller
-- Electronics Now, May 1996, page 58.
"Intelligent Dishwasher Outsmarts Dirt: Senors and fuzzy logic yiedl shorter, more efficient wash cycles"
by Andrea Baker, Associate Editor
-- Design News, April 10, 1995, Page 72
Motorola Uses Aptronix Fuzzy System
EE Times, March 19, 1992
Motorola planned to announce a major thrust into fuzzy logic at the IEEE's Intl. Conf. on Fuzzy Systems, March 8-12, 1992, San Diego. Announcements include a fuzzy-logic development system, created at Aptronix Inc. for producing fuzzy firmware for Motorola's current microcontrollers, plus plans for fuzzy hardware in response to customer demand.
Aptronix FIDE™ Goes to Market
Electrical Engineering Times, March 19, 1992
Motorola Inc. announced its official entry into the fuzzy-logic market. Its first product is the Fuzzy Inference Development Environment (FIDE) by Aptronix. FIDE allows engineers to design fuzzy systems using a top-down, graphical approach. ......
Neural Adapts to Fuzzy
Electrical Engineering Times, March 14, 1992
The chairman of Aptronix proposed a way to add the adaptivity of neural networks to fuzzy systems. At the March 1992 International Conference on Fuzzy Systems in San Diego, Pei-zhuang Wang, the company's chairman presented a paper ... that showed a method for adding neural-like adaptivity to fuzzy systems.
Aptronix Strategic Relationship With Motorola Announced
Electrical Engineering Times, Feb. 14, 1992
In February, Motorola's Microprocessor and Memory Technologies Group cemented the Motorola commitment to fuzzy logic by publicly announcing a strategic third-party software relationship with Aptronix Inc. Steve Marsh, director of strategic operations for Motorola's Microprocessor Group, predicted that half of the Motorola microcontroller chips shipped five years after that point would incorporate fuzzy logic in software or hardware form.
The strong alliance between Motorola and Aptronix stems from the support hat Aptronix's FIDE has for the microcontrollers of Motorola. The Motorola 68HC05 and 68HC11 microcontroller families are supported with assembly code generated by FIDE. This relationship will provide a faster and more economical approach than conventional technologies which results in an improved price/performance ratio. Aptronix President Wei Xu said that through the relationship with Motorola, his company hopes to bring to market many fuzzy-logic tools that would allow engineers to make their products more competitive.
Aptronix Born
Electrical Engineering Times, Feb. 14, 1991
"Apt Instruments changed its name to Aptronix Inc."
TVFI/M -- Apt (Aptronix now) Shows Truth Value Flow Inference/Module
Electrical Engineering Times, Sept. 14, 1990
FIDE™ (Fuzzy Inference Development Environment) Kit Developed
Electrical Engineering Times, Sept. 14, 1990
Three-Level Pendulum Demonstrated
Electrical Engineering Times, Sept. 14, 1990
"Apt Instruments (Aptronix now) demonstrated a software simulation of the world's first three-stage inverted pendulum. The inverted pendulum has long been a benchmark in traditional control theory....""Apt also gave a pragmatic demonstration of its fuzzy technologies with a truck-backer-upper suggestion from Bart Kosko's book Neural Networks and Fuzzy Systems (Prentice-Hall, 1991). In his book, Kosko recommends fuzzy logic as a natural solution for automatic navigation systems and suggests backing up a truck to a loading dock as a natural first step. Apt upped the ante, and realized Kosko's idea with a two-stage truck-and-trailer combo. The truck and trailer simulation can be initialized in any configuration, even jackknifed, and it still automatically backs up to the loading dock."