Konica Minolta hosted their first-ever Business Innovation Centre (BIC) Open House yesterday. The event, which was held on premise, showcased the company’s latest research technologies and innovation ecosystems. It was attended by opinion leaders from A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research (I²R), the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) as well as the National University of Singapore (NUS).
In addition to demonstrating excellence in the BIC’s research technologies, Konica Minolta, Inc. took the opportunity to showcase their various prototypes and incubation projects, such as the cloud technology, the content management solution and the healthcare platforms.
The healthcare platforms that are currently being researched, will specifically meet the needs of an ageing society. These projects have been inspired by the rising cost of medical care, the shortage of medical personnel and an ageing population.
“We see great value in creating such healthcare-centric solutions, which will not only be beneficial to patients and their families but will help enhance the medical care and advice that health care workers can offer.” said Ms Rachel Goh, Director, Business Innovation Centre, Asia Pacific, Konica Minolta, Inc.
“It is important that new healthcare technologies and platforms are developed to meet the dynamics of our population. I2R is confident that our biomedical research can support the increasing demands of a rapidly ageing population” said Dr. Guan Cuntai, Head of Neural & Biomedical Technology Department, I²R, A*STAR.
One of the many pilot programmes being tested is a health screening chair. The chair takes the form of a portable mat, and is able to take a patient’s medical measurements, such as heart rate, breathing rate, blood oxygen level and pulse rate. This data is then wirelessly transmitted to an analytical engine on the cloud, which computes health information and possible medical recommendations.
Konica Minolta has expressed an extended vision of conducting trials, on alternative medical treatments such as Traditional Medicine (TM). The R&D centre in Japan is developing a tongue monitoring application on a mobile device, to assist in the determination of the well-being of individuals using Traditional Medicine principles. The data collected from this solution is digitised and stored as part of the patient’s personal medical database. This gives practitioners and health advisors the ability to provide appropriate advice and medical attention to their clients.
Konica Minolta also demonstrated another focus project, which was their geriatric e-health system. This innovation was specifically targeted at elderly individuals who were immobile. One of the technologies incorporated into this platform is a fall detection solution from I2R, which allows the user to call for help or enable emergency activation, should they have a fall. A formal trial of the geriatric e-health platform will be conducted next month with a major hospital in Singapore.
The BIC, which was officially opened earlier this year, is one of five proposed research facilities around the world. Developed by Konica Minolta, the BICs were built to accelerate and maximize the development of new innovation and technology, from all sources, including its own research centres, for the Asia Pacific region.
Konica Minolta aims to extend their research through their BIC facility, to enhance the operational efficiency for other business areas and services in the Asia Pacific Region.
