Along with two other Chinese guests, I was coming down from the 27th floor when the lift stopped on the 18th floor. The doors opened and a small service robot entered. Shaped like R2D2 of Star Wars fame, but without the arms or swivelling head, the robot greeted me with a cheerful: “Zaoshang hao!” or “Good morning!”. The lift stopped on the 15th floor and the robot glided out to attend to whatever task it had been assigned.
This was no gimmick designed to entertain visitors. The robot service was not advertised. It was simply an unremarked part of the hotel’s operating functions. It was undertaking a task assigned within a robot universe rather than in response to a human command, such as bringing breakfast to room 1808.
The robot’s only weakness was that it did not recognise the need for English in this mixed Chinese and foreign group in the lift.
This encounter came after an earlier demonstration of innovation in what might be called the human-robot interaction sphere. Southern Chinese cities, like many Southeast Asian cities, are plagued by motor scooters. They scuttle along footpaths and between cars, precariously balancing multiple children and packages. There is an inherent instability.
Mobile phone maker Xiaomi is infamous for its move into electric cars. Less well-known is its development of the Ninebot electric motorbike scooter, which is built around mechanical innovation linked to communication command. Not to be confused with motorised skateboard scooters, this is equipped with autonomous driving technology. The scooter is self-driving and has rock-steady self-balancing features too.
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With remote sensing, it knows when you are nearby and unlocks itself, ready to ride.
With a quick voice command, you can step off the scooter and it will find its own parking spot. Summon it back with your phone when you are ready to ride again.
I also took the opportunity to look at the new Huawei Mate 70. As you would expect from this high-end innovator, the phone is sleek, the camera brilliant and the folding screen absolutely seamless. However, its most intriguing feature is the grab-and-transfer function.
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Without touching the screen, the user can grab a photo or document from the open screen simply by using a hand gesture. The “grabbed” item can then be carried and dropped onto another phone simply by opening your hand over it. It’s an interesting function, although its day-to-day usefulness does not fall into the must-have category. More important is that it is an example of the high level of innovation that is spreading across Chinese consumer products.
Payment by palm or face scans, electric scooters by Xiaomi and service robots that straddle the boundaries of assistance and artificial intelligence (AI). These set new standards that are not just incremental advances on what went before. They are advances that take a quantum leap in the interaction between humans and machines.
Restrictions from tariff walls and sanctions have accelerated Chinese tech development, propelling it to technical leadership in many fields. You can stay at home and wait for the future to come to Singapore, or you can get advance warning of industry changes by just visiting China and observing.
Technical outlook of Shanghai market
The fall in the Shanghai Index is welcome because it will help confirm the validity of the uptrend line. A continued fall towards 3,315, followed by a rebound, will create the third anchor point for the uptrend line. This is shown as potential point D on the chart. This would be a bullish development.
The market is falling, but the long-term Guppy Multiple Moving Average (GMMA) shows little evidence of compression. This indicates that investors remain strong buyers. They are buying on the dip and adding to positions.
If the long-term GMMA develops compression, it indicates that investors are joining the selling. This is evidence of a developing trend reversal. However, this relationship in the GMMA is not currently developing.
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This wide separation in the long-term GMMA also suggests that retreating from the resistance near 3,435 will find support from the long-term GMMA and the projected uptrend line.
Resistance near 3,435 is weak because the index has popped above this level twice in recent months. A breakout above the 3,435 resistance level has an initial upside target near the previous high of 3,675. The peak high acts as a psychological resistance level. The weekly chart shows longer-term resistance near 3,700 to 3,720. The breakout has a high probability of consolidating in this resistance area. A breakout above this level has a longer-term target near 4,600.
This is a strong trend continuation pattern of behaviour so traders are treating any pullbacks as temporary. Continued wide separation in the long-term GMMA confirms investors are of the same opinion and using the pullbacks to add to long-term positions.
Daryl Guppy is an international financial technical analysis expert. He has provided weekly Shanghai Index analysis for mainland Chinese media for two decades. Guppy appears regularly on CNBC Asia and is known as “The Chart Man”. He is a former national board member of the Australia-China Business Council
