Every Little Thing...

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Assistive Technology for disabled featured at Global Entrepolis forum

Okayz, very formal title.. but what the hell.. this is an article regarding my buddies's project - Shaikh Abdul Alyym, Mohamed Shuhaimi, Muhammad Khair... Congrats lah u guys...

SINGAPORE : For the first time, Assistive Technology, or technology that helps the disabled, has been given a showing at the Global Entrepolis business networking convention.

The Society for the Physically Disabled hopes this will promote the use of such devices by disabled people.

Grocery shopping at the supermarket may be an easy task for most of us but not so for the wheelchair-bound.

Three polytechnic students have come up with an idea that will make the shopping experience a much better one for them.

A contraption attached to Florence Tan's wheelchair will help make life easier for her.

Said Ms Tan, of the Society for the Physically Disabled, "Previously when I do my shopping in the supermarket, especially for groceries, I need to make a few trips because I have to leave the items and put it on my lap and so I leave it with the counter and come back and do another trip."

The device, if commercially manufactured, will cost less than S$100.

Temasek Polytechnic student Shaikh Abdul Alyym said, "We want to make it attached to the wheelchair when it's folded and also we would hope to commercialise it."

Another invention, an exoskeleton, may just help 35-year-old stroke victim Lee Boon Kian walk again.

With some funding, the team from Nanyang Technological University says it can make the robotic prototype smaller and better.

An estimated 10,000 Singaporeans are disabled by stroke each year, and with an ageing population, the Society for the Physically Disabled hopes such technology will be seen as necessities, and not just nice to have.

Said Dr Ow Chee Chung, the society's executive director, "A person with high blood pressure will require certain specific high blood pressure medication and it can be quite expensive if taken on a long-term basis. So if it's seen from that perspective then it can be seen as not just something that's nice to have. It's something essential; it's about quality of life." - CNA /ct

Copyright © 2005 MCN International Pte Ltd

Well, got this copy from : http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/170353/1/.html

Check it out... 3 cheers for the guys!!!!

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