A peek into Our smart future

Janet Lai, who’s in her 60s, visited Tech Saturday at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre with members of her Residents’ Committee group. “I always like to try new things,” she said. Mdm Lai was at the Silver workshed learning how to make decorative items using pipe cleaners and LED light sets.

She was just one of thousands of visitors of all ages who attended the event on April 25.

The tech carnival also offered visitors a glimpse of Singapore’s smart future, highlighting government and industry efforts to make technology accessible to all.

Local startups were at the carnival showcasing their products. Third Wave Power demonstrated its mPowerpad portable solar charger while Novelsys was also at the show to talk about Juice, a wireless charging network it hopes to introduce islandwide.

Said Novelsys founder Kenneth Lou: “We aim to launch Juice at the end of the year. So we’re trying to tie up with companies like Starbucks and The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. The idea is that when you’re having a drink at these places, you can charge your mobile device. Because everywhere you go — in a mall, airport, cafe or hotel — Juice will be there when you need it.”

Mr Lou added that he was “shocked” by the turnout at the show. “I initially thought that there’d be a few hundred or up to one thousand people, but it’s been crazy so far. I think people are generally quite interested in technology and how it fits into our lives.”

Mr Tong Ping Heng, managing director of Aeras Medical, was showcasing the firm’s smart medical monitoring devices.

“It’s very important for patients to be monitored and for doctors to know what happens to patients outside the hospital environment. When you can collate all these indices in one database, it gives doctors contextual information so they can make clinical decisions to help patients who are at home. This allows them to do preventive medicine — so patients don’t get worse before going to the hospital.

The Land Transport Authority also showcased apps like Beeline that may one day use crowd-sourced data to enable commuters to travel directly to their destination through a convenient bus service.

Visitors were also treated to a remote-controlled car drifting competition and drone races, while numerous worksheds and tinker spaces gave them the chance to experience cool technology, such as Arduino building kits (which let users create devices that use sensors to interact with their environment) and 3D printers.

While many of these devices and services are still in their infancy, initiatives like these help Singapore dream — and achieve — big, securing our future on the global stage. Produced by the TODAY Special Projects Team