Spearheading social innovation in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, the School of InfoComm Technology has been making the news every year on their projects. Focusing on helping people with disabilities, various projects are taken up by research staff and students for non-governmental organizations to help them with their needs.
Mobile Assistance for the Elderly
Last year, final year students created a “Mobile Assistance for the Elderly” (MAE) as a final year project and attracted media to cover their innovation. Today, we are seeing various organizations adopting the technology and building up the technology on to meet their needs. This year, the project was again on showcase at the Polytechnic’s Open House. If you are interested in the project or may be one of the potential adopters f the project, you can come down to Ngee Ann Polytechnic School of InfoComm Technology’s innovation hub at Blk 27 #04-01 to find out more.
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| MAE |
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1173708/1/.html
Travel Assistance for the Visuall Impaired
Other than the popular MAE, many other project works which the students and staffs are working on are also showcased. One which caught our eye was a new iPhone Application called ” Travel Assistance for the Visually Impaired” (TAVI), which aims to help the visually impaired of our society to navigate around. While the current prototype is still at work and only focuses on navigation within the Polytechnic, the development team is planning to launch the full application in 2 months’ time.
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| TAVI |
Colour Guide
Colour Guide is another application developed by third year students from the polytechnic. According to one of the students, who is colour deficient, he make uses of the application everyday to help him determine different colours which he is unable to identify.
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| Colour Guide |
Colour Guide is an application which aims to help the colour deficient identify colours. By getting a live camera view from the application, the colour pinpointed by the application is then decoded and translated into readable colour. The application is now being further researched and developed on to include additional features like colour tweaking and correction for the colour blinds.
Colour Guide has also won Splash Awards 2012, a national application development competition hosted by the Singapore Computing Society and Microsoft Singapore.
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| Colour Guide identifies the red chair |
Hand Grip Physiotherapy System
Hand Grip Physiotherapy System is a new Windows application created to give stroke patients a better physiotherapy experience. With input from Thye Hua Kwan Hospital, the application was created by one of the research staff and students. Games are simulated to improve physiotherapy exercises, making these exercises more fun and engaging. Patients are usually told to exercise by squeezing a stress ball for their rehabilitation. This stress ball is now attached to a force sensor, which acts as a controller for a game in the PC. Now, patients can look forward to every physiotherapy session with the vast number of games that will be created soon. Think about playing “Mario” by just squeezing on a stress ball. That certainly sounds fun!
The Ngee Ann Polytechnic will also have their Open House on 7th and 8th this month. Interested participants, especially 2012 O’ Level graduates should come down to the polytechnic to see what each academic school have got installed for you, and to learn more about student life in the polytechnic.
