Vision Plus Determination Pays off

THE past nine years have been the most fulfilling and fruitful period for a young Chinese couple — Liu Chuang and Ye Yutong.

- SUN HAIHUA

From two strangers embarking on a new university life in 2011, they became friends, ventured into the business world together, and then got married. Now, parents of two children, Liu and Ye are still balancing well their various hats of responsibility in life. Their tech start-up focusing on facial recognition technology has survived the hit of the COVID-19 epidemic and grown more resilient as a result. Liu is about to finish his doctorate degree program at the Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU) in Xi’an, the capital city of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.

Starting from Pets’ Face Recognition

Back in 2014, Liu and Ye, who were juniors at NWPU, registered a company named “Glasssix.” It was so named because each of the three founders wore glasses and they felt the name had a touch of technology.

The business idea came from a competition they had taken part in. Liu’s competition team was working on a project about locating lost pets by utilizing a computer vision system to recognize their faces. One of the judges said to them, “Why don’t you try facial recognition?” These words inspired Liu and other founders of Glasssix so much that they decided facial recognition development and application would be their main line of business in the future.

Both Liu and Ye were ambitious even before they entered university. Liu told himself to extensively participate in campus activities, and Ye was determined to do something bigger than just retailing business on Taobao, a popular online shopping platform in China, which she had started when she was a high school student.

Two “restless” souls finally rendezvoused at a campus activity. “I was the only girl in the start-up, and everyone treated me like a boy,” Ye said. “Liu Chuang has been a good buddy of mine.”