3 Local Technologies You Never Knew Existed

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Which countries come to mind when you hear “Innovation” and “Technology”? Is it Japan - for its humanoid entertainment robots or their video games? Or perhaps United States for the generations of smartphones or social networking services and tools that most of us can’t live without today? While these are indeed prominent symbols of modern technology, some technologies we interact with and impact us in our daily lives were developed right here in Singapore! Bet you didn’t know that! Here are three innovations developed at Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR):

Back when clothes-pressing literally used a slab of heated iron, smoothing out the creases in clothing was a laborious task, especially if the fabric is coarse or rough. Today, thanks to A*STAR’s work on the Sol-Gel process, ironing is much less of a pain! Sol-Gel is essentially a composition of versatile materials with physical properties that can be easily customised by altering its constitution.

We all know that silt in waterways and reservoirs can endanger aquatic life and affect water quality. Every year, 100,000 man-hours are expended on the manual monitoring of silt discharge at construction sites in Singapore. Assuming an average of 8-hour work/study days, that would translate to 62 days that could be used on something other than staring at sediments! Who wouldn’t want 62 extra days to sleep, travel, or perhaps watch more funny videos on YouTube? A*STAR researchers came up with the Silt Imagery Detection System (SIDS) that enables companies to monitor silt discharge from construction sites more efficiently!
SMRT buses have recently begun sporting ‘glowing’ advertisements fitted with A*STAR’s Printed Lighting Technology. This neat piece of science is actually an advanced large-scale printing technique where electricity-conductible ink is deposited into paper-thin films, producing flexible light-emitting sheets that are fully reusable and that hardly emit any heat!

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(Special thanks to Philips, PUB, HDB and China Rich Construction for assisting in the production of this episode)