Helping society with the aid of ‘AI’

Tamil Murasu, சமூக நலனுக்காகச் செயற்கை நுண்ணறிவைப் பயன்படுத்தும் மாணவர்கள்

(Translation)

Among the many applications of artificial intelligence, helping people with physical and intellectual disabilities has emerged as an important one.

A team from Singapore Polytechnic has developed an application called “Mend” to help people who have difficulty communicating.

The application provides users with various choices so that they can select the responses they need. Through this, they can take part in conversations with others more easily.

“Through this, I learnt how, even as students, we can find creative ways to lend a hand to people who need help,” said 18-year-old Senthil Nathan, a second-year student in information technology.

This year, the “Dell InnovateFest” competition was held, and the “Mend” application won third prize in the polytechnic category.

“Dell InnovateFest” is an annual hackathon competition held among post-secondary educational institutions.

At the final round held on September 18, 52 students from ten polytechnics and autonomous universities presented their creations in teams. Law Minister Edwin Tong attended the event as the guest of honour.

The students’ creations were developed in collaboration with organisations including MINDS and SPD, in ways that support Singapore’s broader efforts for people with disabilities.

The students went to care centres, interacted with users, and tested the prototypes they had developed with actual users.

“We are living in a period of change. Artificial intelligence is developing rapidly. It is changing the way we work and the way organisations operate. Singapore does not have a large domestic market or natural resources. We have to face those challenges through talent and creativity. What is important is understanding what technology can do for us,” said Minister Tong.

The Singapore Polytechnic team developed the “Mend” application for people who have difficulty speaking, including those affected by stroke and cerebral palsy.

Through the “Mend” application, users can find out information about their surroundings from pictures and receive suitable conversational responses.

When the user chooses the response he or she wants, the application can play it aloud in the user’s own voice. Through this, they can participate in conversations more easily.

A user said that he had tried the application himself and that, through it, communicating with other people had become much easier.

“When we saw Saifullah using our product, it gave us confidence that we could use our knowledge to help society,” said Senthil Nathan.

A team from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) won second prize in the university category of the competition.

The “Bloom Up” application was created to help users in a MINDS Singapore programme for people with disabilities carry out everyday tasks on their own.

If users encounter difficulty with a task, they can take a picture of the tool or object they are using and upload it to the application. The application will then show them the appropriate guidance.

Through this, the team’s goal is for users gradually to learn to carry out everyday tasks independently.

“We wanted to create a way for them to be able to do tasks by themselves. Ultimately, our goal is that they should not even need to use our application,” said 21-year-old Gopinath Kavya, a third-year student in Computer Science and Design at the Singapore University of Technology and Design.