Archive for the ‘Tech Focus’ Category
Friday, September 10th, 2021
IoT – or the Internet of Things – has been the buzzword for a while now and businesses are constantly on the lookout for ways to fast track their IoT adoptions and rollouts.
I spoke with Jitender Khurana to find out how a traditional lighting network can be harnessed to rapidly transform a dumb building into a smart IoT-enabled environment.
Jitender Khurana is the Country Head & Managing Director for Singapore and Emerging Markets at Signify. Photo: Signify.
I asked Jitender the key to Signify’s competitive advantage in helping its customers embrace IoT.
Three simple words: “Lighting is ubiquitous,” says Jitender, head honcho for Singapore and Emerging Markets at Signify.
“Lighting is ubiquitous,” says Jitender Khurana, head honcho for Singapore and Emerging Markets at Signify.
But how does that give Signify a leg up in helping businesses embrace IoT more quickly and easily?
Well, the most tedious aspect of rolling out an IoT implementation is typically the deployment of IoT sensors and the network connecting these sensors back to the IoT platform.
Laying the network for both power supply and data tends to be both costly and time-consuming.
For Signify – that network is simply the lighting network that forms the basic infrastructure of any building or facility.
As far as the world leader in lighting is concerned, “Where there’s light(ing), there can be an IoT sensor integrated into the luminaire”.
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Tags:Business IT, horticulture, interviews, IoT, opinion, Philips, Signify, Singapore, sustainability, UVC
Posted in Business IT, Enterprise IT, Internet of Things, Interview, Interview, IoT, Network, Opinion, Philips, Signify, Tech Focus, Technology | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, May 19th, 2021
Jo De Boeck notes the growing list of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications as they take up more and more of the resources on Earth to deliver anything from Amazon recommendations to deciphering a virus DNA.
In this guest blog, the EVP/CSO of imec shares his insights into how power-hungry AI can be and the need for an Energy label for AI.
Jo De Boeck is the Executive Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer of imec, an R&D and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, based in Belgium. Photo: imec.
AI has become more intelligent in recent years.
Fuelled by seemingly infinite computational power that is easily available on tap today, it now processes huge amounts of data to recognise patterns every day.
Yet, with each new “trick” that an AI can learn, whether this is differentiating a cat from a dog or getting a robotic arm to figure out a Rubik’s Cube, billions of calculations go into each task.
“We need to talk about an Energy Label for AI,” says Jo De Boeck, EVP & CSO, imec. Photo: imec.
That takes a lot of energy to power up, adding to an already fraught situation with global warming.
Compare this to the human brain.
It can effortlessly complete many of these cognitive feats that AI is accomplishing and celebrated for today, while requiring a small fraction of the energy.
So, while AI can be useful to help save energy by optimising its use, there is energy needed to train an AI model as well. This energy is not insubstantial.
Can this inspire us to develop more energy-efficient AI systems?
Will they bring a net positive in efforts to prevent or reverse permanent environmental damage?
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Tags:AI, imec, technology
Posted in AI, Opinion, Tech Focus, Technology | No Comments »
Friday, August 21st, 2020
The InfinityGlove contains ultra-sensitive microfibre sensors that can translate hand gestures into in-game commands, allowing users to play first-person shooters such as Battlefield V without the need for a traditional controller or a keyboard.
The InfinityGlove was developed by a team of NUS researchers led by Professor Lim Chwee Teck (left). With him are two members of the research team, Dr Yeo Joo Chuan (centre) and Dr Yu Longteng (right). Photo: National University of Singapore.
Simply flex your index finger to fire your weapon and rotate your wrist clockwise to move forward. Immersive controls have always been a pipedream in the world of gaming but is steadily becoming reality.
Editor’s Comments
This is an interesting and innovative project.
Currently each finger of the glove contains one microfibre sensor that can differentiate two states – straightened or curled – due to the difference in conductivity of the liquid metal within the fibre in the two states.
So the overall status of the glove should be readable as a five-digit binary.
Would be good to add one more to the wrist to include bending of the wrist.
And in the longer term, I can think of two ways of improving the resolution of the sensing.
One would be to implement multiple sensors per strand of microfibre.
Another would be to weave multiple microfibre strands to provide a matrix detection pattern for a snapshot of the state of each sensor.
That could probably come in useful as a grid sensor to monitor the distribution of stresses/deformation on a surface etc.
A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS), led by Professor Lim Chwee Teck, has developed a smart glove – called ‘InfinityGlove’ – that allows users to mimic a variety of in-game controls using simple hand gestures.
While the concept of controlling a game using your hands is not new, the main problems have always been weight and flexibility.
The current generation of smart glove type controllers available on the market are usually bulky and rigid as they rely on conventional sensors which put the hard in hardware.
The InfinityGlove overcomes existing problems with weight and flexibility by weaving ultra-thin, highly sensitive microfibre sensors into the material of the glove.
These sensors are not only lightweight and accurate, but also fulfil the role of wires thus reducing the need for additional wiring.
Currently the prototype weighs about 40 grams, and is flexible and comfortable.
More details below from the press release.
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Tags:gaming, healthtech, IoT, NUS, prototype, R&D, research, Singapore, Tech Focus, wearables
Posted in Accessories, Brief, Entertainment, Events, events, Gadgets, gadgets, Gaming, Gaming, Healthcare, Internet of Things, IoT, Medical, Mouse, Online, Opinion, Press Release, Robots, Tech Focus, Technology | 2 Comments »
Friday, May 22nd, 2020
Microsoft Build 2020 was the first time the annual developers’ event was held completely online, because of COVID-19. Here are some interesting snippets from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during his keynote address for the conference.
“Already, we’ve seen something like two years’ worth of digital transformation in just two months. And we’ve seen how critical digital technology is in the three phases of this crisis, from emergency response to the recovery phase to the reimagining the world going forward,” said Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO at Build 2020.
How has developers come together with those on the frontlines in the fight against COVID-19?
Here were some examples that Nadella highlighted.
- At Johns Hopkins University, epidemiologists and software developers created a canonical dashboard to track the spread of COVID-19.
- Adaptive Biotechnologies is using cloud compute and AI to decode the immune system’s response to the virus.
- In the United Kingdom, a cross-section of manufacturers adjusted their production lines to build ventilators for the NHS, using mixed reality to guide workers through the process.
- The NBA is using the power of the cloud and Xbox to engage fans and maintain the joy of the game.
What would developers need to be capable of going forward?
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Tags:Azure, Build, CEO, GitHub, Microsoft, Office, opinions, Teams, trends, Visual Studio, Windows
Posted in Brief, Business IT, Enterprise IT, Events, events, Interview, Interview, Microsoft, News, Opinion, Seminars, Software, Tech Focus, Windows, Windows 10 | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2020
Just as IoT is taking the tech world by storm, ingestible pills enable doctors and researchers to emplace micro sensors in our bodies to monitor sustained measurements for diagnosis or research.
In this guest blog, Nick Van Helleputte and Chris Van Hoof discuss how ingestible or electronic pills can revolutionise the way stomach ailments are diagnosed.
Mock-up of an ingestible pill with prototype transceiver. Image: Imec.
Speak about an electronic pill or a small ingestible machine that can be swallowed by patients to monitor their bodies – and what comes to mind is often swarms of nanobots.
The reality is a little different.
Today, breakthroughs in electronics are making it possible to imagine such ingestibles, which are small enough to be swallowed so they can stay inside a body to monitor, say, a person’s stomach condition over a period of time.
Editor’s Comments
These nifty gadgets open up a whole new frontier in medical diagnosis and research.
Think the Internet of Things (IoT) but applied to the interior of our bodies.
By emplacing sensors within our bodies, doctors and researchers don’t just get a one-off snapshot of the organ of interest.
The sensors can provide sustained monitoring of measurements over a period of time, enabling the identification of trends in the data, or triggering of alerts to flag out anomalies breaching threshold levels.
This means a doctor would be able to more accurately see the changes in a person’s digestive tract, for example, instead of having only a quick look by using a scope or collecting stool samples.
So, instead of a number of nanobots swimming inside a person, ingestibles are miniaturised versions of electronic devices that require low power and have reliable wireless communication to relay the signals that they are reading.
In February 2020, Belgium-based research outfit imec presented the world’s first fully integrated millimetre-scale wireless transceiver for ingestibles or electronic analytical devices that can be swallowed.
This breakthrough, presented at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2020 conference at San Francisco in February, means that in the future, ingestible devices could be easier to be manufactured and be more effective in staying in a stomach to monitor important signs of diseases, such as diabetes, Crohn’s Disease or coeliac.
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Tags:diagnosis, healthcare, imec, ingestibles, IoT, MedTech, research, sensors
Posted in Brief, Gadgets, gadgets, Healthcare, Internet of Things, IoT, Medical, Opinion, Tech Focus | No Comments »
Monday, April 27th, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is spurring the healthcare industry to turn to robots for help. Darrell Adams shares how cobots – collaborative robots – reduce the risk of healthcare workers by minimising in-person contact with patients who are isolated.
* Darrell Adams is the Head of Southeast Asia & Oceania at Universal Robots.
A UR5 cobot collaborating with a healthcare worker.
COVID-19, the global pandemic, took the world by surprise and suddenly the healthcare system has to confront one of the toughest challenges on a global scale.
Millions of Nurses Needed
The global healthcare system is cracking under the strain of this global pandemic.
Yet, a recent report shows that globally, we are in need of 6 million more nurses to achieve global health targets, even without a global pandemic.
This is an alarming number, and it is unlikely that over a short period of time, the demand can be met.
Healthcare workers are working round the clock and the intense workload at the frontline led to exhaustion in many, virus infection in others, and some sadly passed away in their line of duty.
Human Factors and Errors
In the study of human factors and fatigue, factors which contribute to human errors within the confines of human factors include sleep deprivation, shift schedules, repetitive tasks, physically demanding tasks, and of course, stress.
In the medical sector, besides the lack of nurses, the healthcare industry faces other challenges such as a high instance of human error due to a pressurising and non-automated environment, working on shifts, with a substantial amount of time dedicated to administrative tasks, which takes away precious time from patient care.
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Tags:byline, cobots, healthcare, robots, Tech Focus
Posted in Brief, Enterprise IT, Healthcare, Robots, Tech Focus | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 25th, 2020
Close to 65% of Singaporeans are open to the idea of adopting a digital-only bank, according to the Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study.
* All infographics in this story courtesy of Visa.
It comes as no surprise that if consumers were to adopt a digital bank – interest is highest for an existing issuer given the trust already associated with the issuer. Click on infographic to enlarge.
The Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study was conducted in October 2019 by ENGINE Insights with 511 Singaporeans aged 18-65 years of age.
3 in 4 Singaporeans are aware of the concept of Digital Banking – whilst nearly 2 in 3 would be curious of adopting a digital only bank. Click on infographic to enlarge.
This is part of a regional research project conducted in Southeast Asia on 5,000 consumers across seven markets in Southeast Asia.
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Tags:banking, Fintech, neobanks, payments, Singapore, Tech Focus, technology, Visa
Posted in Brief, Business IT, Figures, Fintech, Infographic, infographics, Press Release, Seminars, Study, Tech Focus, Visa | No Comments »
Friday, March 20th, 2020
Here are some tips from Google on digital wellbeing and how our devices can contribute to our daily happiness.
The first step toward digital wellbeing is often understanding more about how you interact with technology in the first place. Tools like the Digital Wellbeing Dashboard in Android 9 Pie and YouTube’s Time Watched offer ways to keep you more informed about your habits.
Despite being one of the wealthiest nations globally, research has shown that Singaporeans are amongst the unhappiest people in the world.
Disconnect when you need to. Take advantage of tools that help make it easier to take a break from your devices, and switch off at the end of each day.
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Tags:Android, Google, happiness, health, Pixel, tips
Posted in App, Apps, gadgets, Google, Holiday, Infographic, infographics, Internet, Opinion, smartphones, Tech Focus, Tips | No Comments »
Saturday, February 22nd, 2020
I just watched the Oscar-winning Parasite during the week with the family. It was entertaining as a comedy and thought-provoking as a satire. Great movie. Here’s some data on how people searched about the movie during Oscar season.
A refreshing treatment of the age-old dichotomy between the haves and the have-nots.
My family and I watched the movie over dinner time and thoroughly enjoyed the dark but refreshingly directed satire, including my teenage son, although he did express a desire to take a hiatus from the genre in the coming months.
A friend of mine thought Parasite was a sci-fi/horror movie about aliens hijacking human bodies and spreading like a zombie apocalypse.
But I told him the Oscars do not typically give the top award to that genre.
So here’s what Google shared about the interest that global viewers showed in the first non-English language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture – instead of just the traditional Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
As a Best Picture nominee in the week prior to the awards, Parasite was the third-most-searched nominee behind “1917” and “Jojo Rabbit”.
Incidentally, we’ve also watched Jojo Rabbit and found it an excellent movie. We’ll probably watch 1917 after my son’s hiatus.
What does winning the Oscars do for our career and business?
On Oscars day, Parasite searches jumped almost nine-fold to become top-searched.
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Tags:Academy, analytics, data, entertainment, Google, movies, Oscars, Parasite, Search, Tech Focus, trends
Posted in Big Data, Entertainment, Figures, Google, Infographic, Internet, Lists, Opinion, Reference, Shows, Study, Tech Focus, Wiki | No Comments »
Friday, January 3rd, 2020
Atish Gude, NetApp’s Chief Strategy Officer shares three predictions for 2020, putting the spotlight on 5G, Blockchain and infrastructure virtualisation solutions.
* This article is contributed by Atish Gude, based on his professional experience and personal opinions.
What does 2020 hold in store?
2019 was a year of rapid innovation – and disruption – for both the IT industry and the broader business community.
With the widespread adoption of hybrid multicloud as the de-facto architecture for enterprise customers, organisations everywhere are under tremendous pressure to modernise their infrastructure and deliver tangible business value around data-intensive applications and workloads.
Multiclouds & Virtualisation
As a result, organisations are shifting from on-premises to leverage public cloud services, building private clouds, and moving from disk to flash in data centers – sometimes concurrently.
These transformations open the door to enormous potential, but also introduce the unintended consequence of rising IT complexity.
We predict that a demand for simplicity and customisability will be the number-one factor driving IT purchasing decisions in 2020.
Data-driven transformations
Vendors will need to provide customers modern, flexible technologies with the choice of how to use and consumes these technologies to meet evolving business models.
As IT departments look to de-emphasise maintenance and hardware, reduce overhead, and adopt pay-as-you-go models, simplicity and choice will be key.
Achieving this simplicity will serve as the foundation for companies as they navigate the exciting technological trends we’ve identified below.
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Tags:5G, AI, Blockchain, IoT, NetApp, predictions, Tech Focus, trends, virtualisation
Posted in AI, Blockchain, Business IT, Cloud, Enterprise IT, infographics, Internet of Things, Interview, IoT, Opinion, Tech Focus, Technology | No Comments »
