TECH OFFERS

This technology offer is a smart sensor that can detect liquid or non-liquid substances (presence and the levels of liquids within a container or vessel by using a combination of capacitive and resistive sensing. These sticker-like and tape-like printed sensors can be installed on the targeted area and allow the user to detect leaks before they can cause damage. The smart sensors can be customised based on the client’s requirements.

After a skin injury or surgery, a scar may form as the wound heals. In this body's repair mechanism, the myofibroblast cells produce new collagens and they form an extracellular matrix (ECM) to repair a wound. Over time, most scars become flat and pale. However, in some abnormal cases, the body produces excessive collagens. The excessive ECM formation and deposition of these scar tissue will result in raised scars such as hypertrophic scar and keloid scar. These raised scars may leave lifelong marks on the skin. Although the raised scars are not dangerous or life-threatening, they create aesthetic concern, restrict physical movement and may also lead to itching, tenderness, pain or even depression and anxiety. The currently available scar removal products such as silicon patches and topical products may cause skin irritation, which has led researchers to look for safer and more effective solutions. The present technology is a series of phytonutrient-based remedial fluids, which can be used as a general topical agent or complemented with a nano sprayer for the management of raised scars. The product developed from this technology is a safe, non-invasive and convenient approach to suppress hypertrophic and keloid scars. The technology provider is looking for collaboration opportunities to co-develop skincare products incorporated with this series of plant-based remedial fluids for scar management, as well as other partnership mode including IP licensing. 

This technology offer is a software tool that can be used to assess the level of attentiveness of a user during online engagements, such as during an online meeting, or an online lesson. The software tool is run in the background when a user launches an online meeting platform. The software tool consists of a server software and a client software, and realises three functions, namely, user attentiveness measurement, background audio noise estimation, and automated video editing with video segment output. Multiple client software can be used with a single server software at the same time. The server software handles incoming data from the clients and displays their status on a web-based dashboard. After a meeting ends, the client software will automatically output a video clip showing segments where the user has the highest level of attentiveness. This video clip can be used for further downstream analytics by the user or by the meeting/lesson organiser. The software tool can be used together with online meeting platforms. The prototype source code is available for demonstration purposes.  

Thermoelectric technology enables direct energy conversion from heat into electricity and has attracted much attention as a renewable energy solution. However, conventional thermoelectric devices have complicated structures, restrictive shapes (planar only) and high temperature gradient requirements (ΔT>200oC), which makes them inefficient and difficult to scale-up for implementation. This technology offer is an innovative low temperature gradient, tubular thermoelectric generator which solves the above-mentioned problems by using a phenomenon called the transverse thermoelectric effect. This effect makes it possible to control heat flow and electric current independently in the materials, which gives the generator a higher efficiency at low temperature gradients. The thermoelectric generator has a simple tubular structure without complicated electric junctions seen in planar substrates, hence allowing it to be fitted easily onto pipes carrying exhaust heat.

In arid environments, water-holding sheets are required to contain sufficient water for agricultural growth. However, one downside to the use of such sheets is the lack of gaseous permeability that could hamper the growth of plants. This technology can resolve such issues by means of coated sand particles that repels water. Originally developed as a hydrophobic coating for silica-based materials in home appliances, this technology offer is a water-repellent material that has been adapted to thinly coat sand (i.e. silica) particles to address the problems for agricultural purposes in dry areas such as deserts. With this technology, water-repellent particles can be obtained and used to lay on the ground as a sand layer. Due to the difference in surface tension, water does not permeate through the sand layers and can accumulate above the sand layers, serving as an aquifer when used in arid conditions. This technology also allows air to permeate between the gaps of these water-repellent particles simultaneously, ensuring optimal conditions for plant growth. The water-repellent material can also be extended for use in desalination systems as the desalting layer, allowing vapored water to be collected while separating saltwater. It may also be used as a foundation layer in road or pavement construction to mitigate urban heat-island effect by increasing water-holding capacity.

Arsenic is a toxic metal that has long polluted water bodies, posing potential human and aquatic health concerns even when present in low concentrations. Prolonged consumption of arsenic-contaminated groundwater can cause cancer and other health diseases. In groundwater, arsenic is typically present in two forms – trivalent and pentavalent where the latter is less toxic and easier to remove through conventional processes such as coprecipitation, adsorption etc. Conversion of trivalent arsenic to pentavalent arsenic can be done with a photocatalyst i.e., when photocatalyst is irradiated by UV light, OH radicals are generated by which trivalent arsenic will be oxidized into pentavalent arsenic.This technology offer is a new structure of photocatalytic particle with improved activity and reusability which is especially useful to effectively treat trivalent arsenic polluted water. The photocatalyst particle of this technology offer consists of zeolite particles and titanium dioxide (TiO2) particles coated thereon. This structure enables the TiO2 particle to possess a larger surface-area to volume-ratio than conventional particulate TiO2. By applying the photocatalytic particles to polluted water treatment, it can enhance the efficiency of detoxification of trivalent arsenic. Furthermore, since the new photocatalyst particles are of micrometers size, the photocatalysts can be separated by sedimentation from the post-treated water and can be collected to be reused. Throughput of water treatment is thoroughly enhanced by this photocatalyst by 50 times in the case of arsenic pollutants and by 100 times in the case of persistent organic materials.

In recent times, more restaurant customers prefer to place their food orders on their own, using mobile apps, due to the convenience of doing so. Many restaurant owners also prefer this method of food ordering because it helps to reduce waiters’ workload and issues arising from customer orders, such as wrong food orders due to miscommunication between the customer and the waiter. Such a solution is also useful in achieving social distancing, as required by the Covid-19 situation. Restaurant owners, staff, and customers are experiencing the benefits that digitalisation is bringing to the traditional way of working in a restaurant, hence it is highly anticipated that they will accept more digital solutions in the near future. This technology offer is a menu personalisation system, which allows restaurant customers to generate a personalised menu that is formulated based on the customer's personal information and the restaurant’s available menu items and ingredients.

Restaurant search engines based on various user ratings are available on many websites or mobile applications. Most of these search engines rank the restaurants based on reviewers’ input, or by the user’s location or proximity to the restaurants.   This technology offer is a restaurant search engine that provides some additional filtering options compared to conventional restaurant search engines. For example, the filtering function allows the users to search for restaurants based on the ratings made by only native, local customers. With such finely-tuned filters, this technology offer helps users to efficiently search for restaurants and food, with very specific criteria.

Conventional diagnostic imaging of the skin involves the use of dermatoscopes. Dermatoscopes use skin surface microscopy to examine dermal and sub-dermal tissues to diagnose skin problems. However, these devices can be costly and provide a limited view of the immediate skin surface. This limitation meant that dermatoscopes have to be used in direct contact with the patient's skin. Because of this, they can only be used to image patients in the same physical location as the clinician conducting the examination. The overall result is that only a tiny portion of the global dermatology patient-base can be reached cost-effectively and efficiently. Telemedicine and telehealth network operations are rapidly developing ways to address patients broadly and at lower costs for them and their care providers. Yet, such tools neither deliver desmatoscope-like functionality nor improved it in way that it allows patients' skins to be examined and analysed during an online medical consultation with a general practitioner. In order to facilitate remote skin disease diagnosis, the use of software is required to acquire and share images in real-time and ideally, by the patients themselves. This software enables patients to take their medical sub-skin images with their mobile, tablet or laptop cameras, and securely share it with doctors. Crucially, dermatoscopy images can also be used with the technology to improve diagnostic accuracy. This technology is intended to position itself as a technology which when scaled-up, could allow for products that can enable optical biopsy and phototherapy.