
Since 2020, more than 200 seniors living alone have been recruited for a long-term study on the use of smart sensor technology to detect early signs of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The longitudinal study, called Sensors In-home for Elder Wellbeing, is jointly led by Associate Professor Iris Rawtaer, Head and Senior Consultant at the Department of Psychiatry and Director of Research at Sengkang General Hospital, and SMU Lee Kong Chian Professor of Computer Science Tan Ah Hwee. Prof Tan said that for the second phase of the study, the team developed an advanced machine learning-based artificial intelligence model to handle irrelevant or missing sensor data due to hardware failure, for instance. He added that there is one data engineer and two data analysts at SMU looking at the data. Looking ahead, Prof Tan is considering collaborating with a commercial partner to explore the viability of scaling the solution, especially in terms of ongoing maintenance and daily monitoring.
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