The Most Useful Inventions Made in Singapore

Do you know that Singapore has invented multiple useful creations in the defense, healthcare and technology sector? However, many people are not aware of this.

In the defense sector, ST Electronics has helped to create an Infrared Fever Screening System (IFSS) which helps to identify fever - one of the earlier symptoms of diseases - especially at immigration borders. The IFSS uses non-invasive infrared imaging technology to scan for body temperature, which would be determined by the use of colors (green for normal temperature, red for fever). This passive approach is radiation free which makes it safe for pregnant women and children, therefore becoming the first defender against diseases from other countries.

In the healthcare sector, OSPICON has helped create and design smart mats to care for infants. For infants, healthy and abundant sleep is very important in ensuring that they are able rest well, grow and develop into a healthy baby, during the first few months of their lives. Many parents lose sleep themselves during these months as they worry about their newborns not being able to sleep properly. The OSPICON sleeping mat reduces their concerns by monitoring the baby's breathing pattern using fiber optic sensors to communicate the information - and any irregularities - via a smart app. Throughout the night, the mat also notes the child's breathing to create a sleep log. Seeing its success in infants, OSPICON is looking to create and design smart mats to care for elderlies as well.

In the technology sector, Buccaneer has helped to create a 3D printer. The 3D printers can be used for both industrial and home-based purposes and they have been hailed as the future of manufacturing. With 3D printing, craft makers as well as model builders, can literally create anything of any possible shape and size, from prototypes of finished products. The 3D printing machine can print everything from scratch. Even though you have no interest or talent in designing, don't worry! There are design blueprints available to download online.

Of the three Singaporean inventions, my personal favorite would be the 3D printing as it is very versatile and can be used for both entertainment and industrial purposes. They are mainly used to prototype products to evaluate and test out the product to ensure that the aspects of the product are purposeful and to find out which parts needs to be revised or discarded.

3D printing is also very wanted in the present world as many industrial sectors rely on 3D printing such as consumer goods, industrial goods, high tech, services as well as healthcare sectors. 3D printing also enables one to produce complicated yet functional shapes using less material as compared to using the traditional manufacturing methods.

Other examples would include the reconstruction of fossils in paleontology to replicate ancient artifacts in archaeology, reconstruct bones and body parts in forensic pathology and reconstruct heavily damaged evidence acquired from crime scene investigations. Companies use to spend thousands of dollars and wait for several weeks for a prototype before they could get it.

However, now companies can save up to 40% of the cost and the parts that are being developed, would take 20% faster than traditional methods. In other words, companies spend less money where their last minute changes can be made instantly on computer and the prototype can be printed on the spot, on the same day.

Companies are also looking into rapid manufacturing where they use 3D printers for short run / small batch custom manufacturing. This way, the printed objects are not prototypes but instead end-user products.

From this, I have learnt that even though Singapore is a small country, we are still capable of creating and designing our own products and making it useful, not only for Singapore but also for other countries.

Take the IFSS for example, Singapore has created it to prevent diseases from spreading at the root. Since the easiest way to transmit a disease, is through human, Singapore has created the IFSS to be placed at immigration borders to find out about the disease before the disease spreads to Singaporeans and its tourists. The IFSS is now widely used in other countries as well so that they can also track the people with fever down to prevent diseases from spreading within their respective countries.

If I were an inventor, I would create a product to help track down what goes in the food as people with allergies have an extremely hard time eating out since they do not know what exactly goes into their food. Therefore, I would like to create a product to help people with food allergies, to have a better experience when eating out.