How we design and build a smart city and nation | Cheong Koon Hean | TEDxSingapore

They are over 65 years old, from 450,000 to 900,000. In 1970 there were 13 people caring for a person over 65 years of age. In 2030, there will only be two people to care for a parent over 65 years of age. For dual-income families, this means that most of us will be away from home, leaving our parents alone. Well, these are two of my neighbors. They are Doris and her 78-year-old mother. And Doris has to go to work. She has to feed her family and take care of her mother. But she is always worried because one time her mother fell at home. That's why she gets very anxious when she is at work.

So we tested a pilot system called SEMAS (Intelligent Elderly Monitoring System) at her house. And what we did was go to her house and put findings all over the house. The function of these detectors is to monitor the movement of her mother. But she doesn't just watch, she learns her movement pattern in just a few weeks. For example, what time does she wake up? If the pattern changes randomly, or there is no movement in the house, what happens is that a signal is sent to Doris's phone while she is at work, where Doris calls home to confirm her mother's status, or to notify the neighbors knocking on the door. at her door.

I think that gives Doris a lot of peace of mind. So as the population ages, these solutions become very useful. Another application is (Telehealth). When you go to work and there is no one to take your mother to the hospital, maybe she doesn't need to go to the hospital. Maybe she could stay home and get physical therapy, with a nurse watching her to make sure she's doing well. And she can do it from her living room. In fact, you can monitor her heartbeat and her blood pressure. And so on, if she reciprocates. But of course, if she needed to go to the hospital, the nurse would tell her.

Another very useful application is the home energy control system. I think everyone knows him. It tells you how much energy your appliances consume. But

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systems can alert you when you reach a certain usage limit. It can even turn off your devices when you're not at home. Did you know it can do that? When you go to sleep and turn on the air conditioning, most of you like the cold. I don't know what grade is 18, 20 or 21? But it consumes a lot of energy. So what happens is that after sleeping soundly, the system can turn up the temperature of the air conditioning and you won't even notice.

This way you save energy. That's why I believe that all these applications can improve our lives. But of course, you have to choose the right techniques. And we have to make it very friendly. As for the

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senior monitoring system I showed them, Doris's mother found it easy to use. And of course we have to reinforce cybersecurity because we collect a lot of data. I believe that while cities are a huge challenge for us, if we find the right solutions, we can make Singapore a better country. Thank you all. (applause)