SINGAPORE: More “smart” thermal scanners for mass screening may soon be deployed across Singapore, helping to minimise congestion at popular venues while providing quick and accurate temperature readings.

This software also enables thermal scanners to screen up to 10 people at any one time and identify those who are not wearing masks, said the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) on Thursday (Sep 17).

To meet public demand for an affordable, accurate and effective automated temperature screening solution, GovTech said it has licensed the software for its SPOTON smart thermal scanner to four Singapore-based distributors.

READ: Digital venues and virtual booths: How hybrid MICE events can be piloted

The distributors will be tasked with commercialising and scaling the thermal scanning systems. The companies comprise three small- and medium-sized enterprises – ADERA Global, Scanmed Technology and SmartScan Machine – and a non-profit organisation, Extra.Ordinary People.

The SPOTON smart thermal scanner was first developed by GovTech’s Smart Nation Platform Solutions team in February. SPOTON’s deep learning-based software was integrated with low-cost off-the-shelf hardware to develop a cost-effective temperature screening solution, said GovTech.

The smart thermal scanner, which can work both indoors and outdoors, has an accuracy of between 0.3 and 0.5 degrees Celsius within a 1.5m to 2m range.

When an individual’s temperature exceeds a pre-defined threshold of 37.5 degrees Celsius, SPOTON will trigger an alarm and send an email alert to the venue operator. The person will be colour-coded as “red” on the SPOTON display and a snapshot will automatically be taken and saved.

The SPOTON scanner system is compact enough to be mounted on a tripod or laptop.

READ: STB will start accepting applications to hold business events for up to 250 people from Oct 1

GovTech first trialled SPOTON at NTUC Club’s Eat Box Event in February, which was attended by 32,000 people over two weekends.

Since April, GovTech has worked with government agencies to deploy 50 units of SPOTON at various locations including the Supreme Court, Ministry of Education headquarters, Our Tampines Hub, Changi Exhibition Centre community isolation facility, Housing Board branch offices and mosques.

Under the licensing agreement for the software, GovTech will provide the SPOTON version 1.0 software for free, and provide training and technical support to the four distributors.

The distributors will then purchase the necessary hardware according to GovTech’s specifications, hire their own staff members to assemble the thermal scanners and provide after-sales support to their customers. They are also allowed to set their own selling prices.

Extra.Ordinary People said it has committed to providing work to individuals from lower-income groups and those with special needs, and will train them to assemble SPOTON thermal scanners.

READ: TraceTogether tokens to be issued to Singapore residents; some SafeEntry points will require visitors to use TraceTogether to check in

Smart Nation Platform Solutions senior director, Lim Chinn Hwa said GovTech decided to license the SPOTON software to private and non-profit companies in order to commercialise and scale to meet existing urgent demand.

“In doing so, we also hope to grow the capabilities of our SMEs, foster a more vibrant local ICT industry and at the same time, strengthen public-private sector partnerships to collectively keep citizens safe from COVID-19.”

GovTech said it will also consider extending the SPOTON version 1.0 software licence to other companies interested in distributing the thermal scanners. Interested companies may email sensors@tech.gov.sg.

READ: Low community prevalence of COVID-19, 0.03% of people with acute respiratory infection test positive: Gan Kim Yong

Group CEO of Adera Global, Anthony Ong said that as Singapore slowly opens up, the demand from the market will be focused on mass detection.

Although there are some mass scanning devices already in use, Mr Ong said he anticipates that SPOTON will be “very highly sought after” due to its superior features.

GovTech said it is currently working on a second version of the SPOTON software that will include more advanced features such as pose recognition, heart rate and oxygen saturation measurements. This version is expected to be ready in the first quarter of next year.

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SINGAPORE: Rainfall patterns in Singapore have been unusual in recent months. Thundery showers have persisted since August.

On Aug 11, heavy rain led to accumulated water, 50mm deep, on Aljunied Road, and on Aug 14, flash flooding occurred at the junction of Craig Road and Tanjong Pagar Road.

Last weekend, pictures of Bukit Timah canal filled to the brim were shared widely on social media. 

But, as much as people may have been concerned, the chances of Bukit Timah canal water spilling over the road are almost non-existent.

READ: Climate change, floods and drought: Here’s how badly Singapore could be affected

While the occasional flash flood hasn’t caught us by surprise, many Singaporeans still remember those floods of Orchard Road in 2010 and 2011 to this date, when a month’s worth of rain fell in a few hours.

On Jun 16, 2010, two intense bouts of morning rain breached the Stamford Canal, leading to floods of up to 300mm along Singapore’s shopping belt. Older buildings such as Lucky Plaza, Liat Towers and Delfi Orchard saw their basements inundated with water.

The insurance claims that followed from business interruptions, property and vehicle damage were worth a hefty S$23 million.

And on Dec 23, 2011, 152mm of rain fell over three hours, partially submerging cars and low-lying shops.

During the past two weeks, rains have been quite heavy. The question arises whether Singapore is close to a once-in-a-hundred year storm, the likes of which drove millions from their homes in China this year. The answer is no.

READ: Commentary: China struggles with ‘once-in-a-century’ floods that may be new normal

In Northern Sumatra, where floods occur each monsoon season with some regularity, the Indonesian military and other disaster relief authorities face a tough test of evacuating residents quickly.

Singapore, in a different geographical location, is very unlikely to face the national flooding emergencies China or Indonesia go through regularly, arising from coastal flooding and rivers overflowing, but will still face a complex set of challenges, especially around inland flash flooding.

READ: Commentary: Kelantan’s epic struggles with great, yellow floods each monsoon

BUILDING UP TO TACKLE FLASH FLOODS

Managing urban floods has always been a difficult and complex process. Coupled with the unpredictability, extent and magnitude of climate change, it is an even more arduous task for a small city-state like Singapore.

Cities all around the world are familiar with this predicament, as increasing urbanisation with concrete structures and surfaces do not allow water to be absorbed in the ground quickly.

Drain infrastructure can channel rainwater away from prime downtown neighbourhoods into rivers and other low-lying areas, but the trade-offs should discourage reliance on engineering to resolve flooding.

READ: Commentary: Rising temperatures, fires and floods highlight importance of understanding weather extremes

Singapore in particular is severely land constrained, with unit land costs among the highest in the world.

As then Minister for Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli pointed out in February 2018, widening canals to carry floodwater out of the city indefinitely is not a feasible solution, because of high costs and the land it needs.

There is also the possibility that future intense rainfall events could exceed the design capacity of the upgraded drain, especially due to climate change.

Engineering can help tackle flooding but would require huge investments and strong public support.

Tokyo – a city facing somewhat similar constraints – opted to build the world’s largest underground reservoir where floodwater from extreme rainfalls and major typhoons can be diverted. The entire structure took 12 years to construct and cost US$2 billion (S$2.72 billion).

The assets and lives saved only during the extreme flood event of 2014, however, justified the enormous cost.

This flood protection system is likely to continue serving Tokyo well. According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, storms are increasing due to global warming. Rainfall measuring more than two inches an hour surged by 30 per cent from the past 30 years, and for rainfall over three inches an hour, 70 per cent.

Such occurrences are now observed in many parts of the world.

READ: Commentary: What Singapore can do to prepare for the next flood

LISTEN: Getting down to the big picture science of climate change

CITY PREPARED TO DEAL WITH A STORM TODAY

Since the 2010 to 2011 floods of Orchard Road area, PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, has done a remarkable job in managing floods.

Over the past decade, it has upgraded drainage design standards, ensuring they can handle higher rainfall intensities over much longer durations.

It has incorporated green infrastructure into its flood management strategy, like the Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters programme to integrate canals and reservoirs into community spaces, and the building of rooftop gardens.

It has also leveraged digital solutions – including the use of water sensors in drains and canals to detect high levels of water and new weather monitoring tools to forecast which street will see heavy rainfall, so PUB flood response teams can be deployed rapidly.

Like Tokyo, Singapore has developed an underground reservoir, though much smaller in scale. The 2km-long Stamford Diversion Canal was built in 2014 to divert stormwater into the Singapore River through underground tunnels.

In conjunction, the Stamford Detention Tank – an underwater storage facility the size of a football field – relieves drains in Holland Road during periods of heavy rain. These projects will prevent serious flooding in the Orchard Road area in the future.

Because of PUB’s advanced planning, flood-prone areas in Singapore have been reduced to less than 29 hectares by 2018, compared to about 79 hectares in 2008.

READ: Commentary: Let Singapore’s green spaces grow wild

BUT FLOOD FORECASTING MORE COMPLEX

Much as Singapore is better prepared to manage flash floods, can Singapore really say we are ready for the next big one?

Estimating a 100-year flood with any degree of reliability is a tall order. Assessing flood hazard requires information on their severity, frequency of occurrence, total area affected and duration.

Each one of these factors are difficult to predict. Combining all increases the degree of uncertainty significantly.

This challenge is even more complex as long-term rainfall records, necessary for any flood planning, are not available prior to independence.

READ: Commentary: How effectively can Singapore adapt to sea level rise?

Intense thunderstorms are complex systems, especially in Singapore’s warm and humid environment. Convections of air that influence thunderstorms are unpredictable and can change direction and frequency very quickly.

It is not uncommon to see heavy thunderstorms in one part of Singapore and no rain in areas in only 5km to 8km away. This patchiness complicates island-wide long-term flood management planning.

There is also growing evidence from all over the world that the challenge will be greater with climate change, as rainfall extremes increase.

A warming climate can make the situation worse and more complex, as a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, intensifying flash flood-producing storms.

What used to be a full month’s rain can fall in a mere few hours, overwhelming the drainage capacity of the area. A 100-year storm centred over the Marina Catchment, which has an area of 10,000 ha, means 130mm of rainfall may fall in an hour. This would fill up about 5,190 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

READ: Commentary: Jakarta, the fastest sinking city in the world faces the biggest flooding challenge

ADAPTING AND MITIGATING TO THE REALITY OF FLOODS

With climate change, a real alternative for the future will be for Singaporeans to learn to live with small flash floods for short periods.

For example, in cities like Dhaka, what is considered to be a major flood in Singapore is locally termed as waterlogging – a reference to rainwater overwhelming urban drainage systems.

Considered a perennial problem, people have learnt to adapt their lives to such temporary inconveniences in low-lying areas.

READ: Explainer: Why adapting to climate change matters

Globally, urban planners should strive towards coordinating water and urban planning more effectively. Urbanisation has led to an increase in stormwater runoff for which mitigation measures, such as permeable pavements and mangrove swamps, need to be contemplated but are considered in a handful of countries only.

Additionally, Singapore’s new S$5 billion Coastal and Flood Protection Fund helps prepare against a different kind of flooding – coastal flooding wrought by climate change. Aimed at protecting the city-state from sea-level rise more effectively, it strengthens Singapore’s overall resilience to floods from various sources of water.

In the final analysis, no matter what steps are taken, the odds of climate-change induced floods occurring in Singapore, or any other part of the world, will never reach zero.  

Thus, the only effective solution is to plan for a future in which people will have to live with changing conditions.

Prof Asit K Biswas, is Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Glasgow, UK. Dr Cecilia Tortajada is Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Water Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

SINGAPORE: A building collapses, leaving multiple casualties in cardiac arrest and in need of immediate medical attention.

Within minutes, drones carrying automated external defibrillators (AED) arrive at the scene, faster than any ambulance could ever get there.

This could soon become a reality after the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) said on Wednesday (Sep 16) that it is working with different Home Team departments to design and customise long-range, autonomous drones for specific needs and requirements.

These unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) can automatically launch and recover vertically, as well as fly beyond an operator’s visual line of sight (BVLOS). On the ground, the drone’s batteries can be automatically replaced.

The drones, co-developed with ST Engineering, can be used during security operations in areas which may be inaccessible or where situations are too risky for manual operations, HTX said.

They can fly about 8km in 30 minutes, covering a longer distance and larger area in a single mission, HTX added.

The Singapore Police Force had announced in May that it will use similar drones to patrol industrial estates. Unlike the BVLOS drones, however, those drones must fly within a pilot’s line of sight and cannot be programmed to fly routine operations.

READ: Police to use autonomous drones to patrol industrial estates

HTX said in a statement on Wednesday that BVLOS drones can be used as a first responder to provide a situational picture of an incident. This includes high-security events with large crowds, as well as during sustained and routine patrols.

“As videos from the UAVs can be streamed to the Police Operations Command Centre, the police can rapidly view and assess the situation before deciding on the appropriate resources to send to the ground,” it said.

The drones can also play a “critical role” in the detection of hazardous materials, monitoring of fire scenes and delivery of essential supplies like medical equipment, HTX stated.

“(This) can include AEDs during critical missions like building collapses to help achieve a shorter response time for life-threatening cardiac arrest cases,” it added.

“The ability to commission BVLOS flights will increase the efficiency of Home Team operations and empower frontline officers to focus on higher-order tasks.”

Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, who viewed a BVLOS UAV flight demonstration at Tuas View Fire Station on Wednesday, said the drone is a “very important additional capability”.

“It allows us to multiply the force without additional manpower and gives you a dimension which even manpower cannot give you,” he said.

“The use of technology is extremely important. Take SCDF for example, if you have a robot that can do firefighting, the benefits are pretty obvious. If you have robots which can fly and identify the areas that need to be dealt with, the benefits are obvious.”

READ: Singapore police roll out drone-equipped surveillance vehicles 

DRONE BOX CONCEPT

The BVLOS drone is operated using a Drone Box concept that can autonomously launch and recover it as well as change out deployed batteries, said Mr Cheng Wee Kiang, director of HTX’s Robotics, Automation and Unmanned Systems Centre of Expertise.

The box is a container on the ground that opens and closes automatically to launch and recover the drone, with robotic arms inside that change the equipment on the drone.

Operators tell the drone where to go and monitor footage from its cameras from a back end location.

“Within the Drone Box, there is also a batch of drone batteries that are being charged and ready to be installed,” he said.

“This feature allows for a quick turnaround during operations without the need for manual intervention.”

The drone also has an automatic payload swap feature that changes out the equipment it carries depending on the operation. The equipment includes cameras, hazardous material detectors or delivery mechanisms.

“The automated payload swap means that the payloads can be adapted to different missions and situations swiftly,” Mr Cheng said.

“Since the mundane and time-consuming tasks are taken care of by automation, it will tremendously improve the agility and efficiency of the Home Team’s operations.”

The police said they recently trialled the BVLOS UAV during an enforcement operation at an industrial estate in Tuas when it successfully led ground officers to a location where suspicious activities were taking place.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Benson Tong, a capability development officer at the Home Team UAV Team, said the drones introduced in May required pilots to be on the ground to maintain a line of sight.

“Whereas for BVLOS, our officers can operate the drone remotely elsewhere, therefore ensuring their safety,” he added.