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

Over 65 years, from 450,000 to 900,000. In 1970 there were 13 people caring for a person over 65 years of age. By 2030, there will only be two people to care for a parent over the age of 65. And with dual-income families, that means most of us will be away from home, leaving our parents alone. Well, these are two of my neighbors. This is 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 her mom once fell at home. She then gets very anxious when she is at work.

So we tried an experimental system called SEMAS, the Intelligent Elderly Tracking System, at her home. And what we did was we went to her house and we put finds all over the house. And the function of these detectors is to monitor the movement of her mother. But she doesn't just watch, she learns her movement pattern over the course of a few weeks. For example, what time does she get 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 when she is at work, where Doris calls home to check on her mother or to warn the others. neighbors knocking on the door. at her door.

And 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's no one to take your mother to the hospital, she probably doesn't need to go to the hospital. She maybe she could stay home and get physical therapy from her, with a nurse watching over her and taking care of her to make sure she was doing well. And she can do it from her living room. In fact, heartbeat and pressure can be controlled. And so, if she corresponds.

But of course, if she needs to go to the hospital, the nurse will tell her. Another very useful application is the home energy control system. I think everyone knows it. It tells you how much energy your appliances consume. But

smart

systems can warn you when you reach a certain usage limit. She can even turn off her devices when she's not home. And do you know that she can do that? When you go to sleep and turn on the air conditioner, most of you like to cool down. I don't know what score is 18, 20 or 21. But it consumes a lot of energy.

So what happens is after you've fallen asleep, the system can turn up the air conditioning temperature and you won't even notice. So you save energy. So I think that all these applications can improve our lives. But of course we have to choose the right technologies. And we have to make it very kind. As for the

smart

senior tracking system I showed you, Doris's mom found it very easy to use. And of course we have to strengthen cyber security because we collect a lot of data. And I believe that while cities are a great challenge for us, if we find the right solutions, we can make Singapore a better home.

Thank you all. (applause)