Continuing to share my thoughts from attending VivaTech this past weekend.
In the Taiwan pavilion, I had a machine-made Ippudo ramen (€13, but because it was pre-prepared, it did not taste quite as good as freshly made ramen) and a machine-made Thai milk tea 🧋. The milk tea tasted good, though it was a little sweet, and the tapioca pearls were very soft and chewy. It cost around €6–7. According to the founder, machine-made milk tea and ramen are already very common in the United States and South Korea, and they now plan to enter the European market. I think the concept is very interesting and could certainly reduce operating costs. My only concern is that the machines might get smashed in France, and if there is no significant price advantage, French consumers would probably prefer milk tea freshly made by a person.
At the Samsung pavilion, I saw an experience that used AI technology to analyze the scalp. The line was extremely long, but I had already tried the same service at the Hong Kong pavilion a year ago, when there was no line at all. So even with similar products or services, a grander presentation and more attractive appearance really can affect sales. The same pavilion also featured a service that photographed pets to detect illnesses. Although their demo was very abstract, I think it is bound to become hugely popular in the future—the pet economy, after all.
VR devices are still very bulky. The Meta and Ray-Ban glasses can take photos and videos and play music, but they still feel rather unnecessary.
The AWS pavilion showcased a cloud service that converts between landscape and portrait formats in real time. It should be very useful for the streaming industry, as it can serve both desktop and mobile users at the same time.
While walking around that day, I also ran into one of my former teachers from EPITA. I did not expect him to be the one who recognized me. I must have left a very deep impression on him back then as I struggled so much with switching careers into tech that I nearly dropped out. He was the head of the year, and I spoke with him once when I wanted to drop out and once when I wanted to switch from cyber security to data science, so I suppose he was also my mentor.
He said that he and another teacher had founded a tech training start-up together, so he had been invited to give a talk. Paris really is not that big—you run into someone you know every so often. When I attended last year, I also ran into a classmate from EPITA.