TECH OFFERS

As rapid global warming accelerates, the need for increased sustainability efforts has become a critical societal challenge. While individual lifestyle changes can contribute, their impact remains limited without broader systemic shifts. This places significant pressure on industries, particularly the fashion & textiles sector, a major contributor to climate change responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonising this industry is therefore crucial to achieving a sustainable future. This technology enables textiles and fabrics to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from air. The patent-pending material functionalises textiles to capture CO2 present in air which is sequestered into a harmless mineral during the laundering process. The resultant mineral which is environmentally safe is then washed away, leaving the textile recharged to remove CO2 once more. With this technology, decarbonisation of the textiles industry can be achieved through the decentralised action of consumers utlising functionalised carbon removing products. The technology owner is interested in working with interested companies in the fashion industry value chain to test-bed this new material for carbon removing apparel and fabrics. The technology is formulated and provided in a liquid formulation, to be a drop-in process where it is embedded in textiles during the “finishing stage” (last step) of a textile mill. Some features of the carbon removing technology include: Continual recharging of functionalised textiles through normal laundering process Forms a stable and environmentally friendly mineral upon sequestration of CO2 by regular detergent Lasts at least 10 washing cycles Can be embedded with standard finishing equipment (particularly at the padding and stenting steps) Currently optimised for cellulose based textiles but proof of concept has demonstrated polyester, polyamide, wool and blends thereof This technology has been designed for textiles – both for apparel and functional fabrics. It can also be considered for non-woven materials as well as for other applications such as coatings. Facing immense pressure to reduce its environmental impact, the fashion and textiles industry, a major contributor to global warming, seeks sustainable solutions that don't disrupt its fast-paced production. With an addressable global market of US$227 billion for textiles, this innovative technology offers a solution to textile manufacturers to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint. This empowers consumers to become active participants in combating climate change, simply by choosing clothes made with this technology. Offers a proprietary, environmentally safe carbon removal solution for textile industry Continual usage of the functionalised textiles – textiles are rechargagle to remove CO2 multiple times Does not require the adoption of new machinery or processes for its implementation carbon dioxide removal, textile, additive, carbon removal, fabric, decarbonisation, fashion, clothing, materials, mineral, functionalisation, sustainable, sustainability, apparel Materials, Nano Materials, Chemicals, Inorganic, Additives, Sustainability, Low Carbon Economy

Paper packaging is a versatile material used for a wide range of products. Its widespread adoption is due to its renewable and relatively low-cost resource along with environmental benefits such as recyclability and biodegradability. While paper packaging offers several advantages, some drawbacks of the material include porosity and the lack of barrier properties against moisture, oil, and grease. To overcome these limitations, conventional coatings such as polyethylene (PE) or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been employed to impart the required barrier protection. However, during the paper recycling process, it is difficult to repulp the coated paper due to several factors and results in reduced recyclability of such packaging materials. The technology on offer is a water-based coating formulation that can be applied onto paper packaging surfaces to act as a barrier against grease, liquid water, and water vapour. The coating imparts barrier protection functionalities, improving the paper’s resistance to grease, liquid water, and water vapor significantly. Use of bio-sourced constituents in the coating also improves product sustainability. As the coating’s constituents are repulpable, recyclability of the paper packaging can be achieved. With increasing awareness of reducing packaging waste, the deployment of this technology will offer companies a recyclable paper packaging with notable barrier properties. The technology owner is seeking for R&D co-development, test bedding and IP out licensing opportunities of this technology with interested companies. The water-based barrier coating technology has the following features: Consists of bio-sourced constituents to improve product sustainability Enables repulping of coated paper, largely improving recyclability of such packaging materials Improved barrier to water vapour transmission (WVTR) - WVTR value as low as 100 g/m2.day (based on ASTM E96) Improved liquid water resistance - Cobb60 value as low as 10 g/m2 (based on TAPPI T441) Improved grease resistance - a KIT rating as high as 12 (based on TAPPI T559) Easily applied by standard coating equipment Potential applications include (but are not limited to): Paper-based food packaging Paper boards, bags, and shipping sacks Products requiring enhanced barrier paper packaging Improves paper-based product recyclability while improving barrier properties of the paper Utilisation of bio-sourced constituents in coating formulation increases product sustainability Offers an alternative to PE and PFAS coated paper that are difficult to repulp coating, barrier, packaging, paper, water-based, recycling, recyclable, pulp, sustainability, sustainable, circular economy Chemicals, Coatings & Paints, Foods, Packaging & Storage, Organic, Bio-based, Sustainability, Circular Economy

The Reconfigurable Workspace Soft Gripper (RWSG) is a bio-inspired, pneumatically actuated, shape morphing soft robotic gripper that is capable of rapid reconfigurability. It features passive retractable nails, bi-directional foldable petals, and a flexible palm to adapt to various grasping and manipulation tasks and requirements. The ability to rapidly reconfigure allows the RWSG to grasp a wide range of large, thin, hard, delicate, and deformable objects. These capabilities make the RWSG a uniquely advantageous tool for high mix low volume manipulation and packing scenarios such as food assembly, packaging of groceries, and packing of consumer electronics. The RWSG features retractable nails to help in precision grasping of small, thin, and high aspect ratio objects. An optimized bidirectional finger flap design allows its fingers to morph into scoop-like shapes to easily manipulate granular and semi liquid items such as grains, jelly, stews, curries or scrambled eggs. A multi-material palm design helps regulate the RWSG’s aperture to adapt for large or wide objects. The RWSG utilizes low, safe pressures (-80kPa to 60kPa) to switch between and operate the various grasping modes. High mix low volume manipulation tasks for consumer goods, logistics, and food industries can benefit from advanced robotics to meet evolving demands in productivity, safety, and sustainability. These sectors often require manipulation and grasping capabilities that cannot be achieved by conventional robotics using rigid grippers or end-effectors. The RWSG can provide reliable and safe robotic handling of a wider range of objects in these challenging scenarios using its adaptive capabilities. With the ability of handling a wider range of objects, RWSG automation setups can help reduce changeover times (less or no tool changes required), improve safety (humans are not required any longer for manipulation in hazardous environments), and even contribute towards sustainability (less overall resources required). The RWSG has a unique structure that allows robust and safe grasping of a wide range of large, thin, hard, delicate, granular, and deformable objects. Its structure is composed of food safe, hypoallergenic silicones that can tolerate both high and low temperatures. These unique features far surpass the capabilities of traditional rigid grippers and end-effectors. The RWSG can be seamlessly integrated with all major cooperative manipulators currently available in the market. Soft Robotics, End Effector, Robotics, 3D Printing Electronics, Actuators, Infocomm, Robotics & Automation

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and other product components come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and packaging configurations. During the manufacture of such products, a key challenge for automation is to effectively handle and manipulate such diverse products during production or logistical processes. Users planning to automate their production lines typically have to take into consideration the use of either multiple grippers for different product types, or incorporate an automated tool changer with added complexity and cost. To address this challenge, a Singapore start-up has developed a universal soft robotic gripper designed to manipulate a wider range of product sizes by incorporating a resizeable gripper base. Gripper adjustment is automatically carried out via an integrated computer vision system thus minimizing the need for human intervention during pick-and-place processes. The gripper's soft fingers also minimize damage to products during the gripping process. Vacuum Suction Gripper Incorporating extendable linkages in the gripper arms for resizeability, the gripping workspace remains adaptable to handle products of various sizes. The gripper arms may either take the form of fingers or suction cups configuration. With 5 vacuum cups embedded, the gripper is ideal to handle pouched products or carton boxes of various sizes. Gripper weight: 2 kg Gripping Width: 150 mm - 215 mm Load capacity: Up to 16 kg (under ideal condition when the gripper is in contact with smooth and flat surface) Gripping Mode: Vacuum suction  Operating Pressure: Clean, dry air up to -70 kPa Operating Temperature: Up to 100 °C Computer Vision System An integrated computer vision system provides the gripper with the ability to recognize the type, location, and orientation of the product to be picked, and commands the gripper to adjust the gripping space and pose to pick the product from the correct location. This process is fully automated without requiring human intervention. For increased utility, the computer vision system may also be configured to perform quality inspections of products being handled. The vacuum suction gripper can be used to palletize or depalletize carton boxes or pouched products (such as coffee powder, sugar packs, rice packs etc.) of various sizes up to 10kg. The computer vision system will be deployed if the working space is not in an organised condition (i.e., randomized locations and orientations of the products), such as when products are scattered in a tote bin, randomly positioned on a conveyor etc. The market value for FMCG robotic packing in the APAC market is estimated to be at USD 1.1 billion and the global market value is worth USD 7.8 billion. Sources: Cobots Transforming the Global Industrial Robotics Market—Opportunities Forecast (Frost & Sullivan) Passport, The Megabrands: The Top 100 FMCG Brands Worldwide (October, 2018) Technavio's library The reconfigurability of this gripper provides high adaptability to many applications, compared to conventional grippers with fixed gripper bases offering limited gripping ability for products of diverse shapes and sizes. Benchmarking tests have been conducted to compare the grippers with other commercially available grippers. The results showed that this universal gripper is able to provide a 22% increase in gripping efficiency. Moreover, compared to using multiple grippers and tool changers to handle different products, this one-fits-all gripper has the potential to help users save on operating costs by up to 36%. Manufacturing, Assembly, Automation & Robotics, Infocomm, Robotics & Automation

Bitumen is widely used as an essential binder for many applications due to its excellent adhesive properties, waterproofing, and high durability. However, the conventional application of bitumen involves on-site melting at high temperature exceeding 250°C, necessitating rapid pouring on the surface with additional torch-on, which poses complications and safety risks. Moreover, the on-site melting process releases harmful gases, including hydrogen sulphide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), endangering workers and nearby areas. To address these challenges, there is a need to develop a safer form of bitumen that does not compromise material performance. This technology transforms solid bitumen into a single-component liquid bituminous coating at room temperature via a simple and cost-effective formulation using solvents, fillers, and additives. The fillers used in the single-component liquid bituminous coating can be made from waste materials such as food waste. Such sustainable fillers could offer comparable material performance to conventional industrial fillers. This high-performance bituminous coating has excellent workability at room temperature, fast drying, and easy production without the need for heating. Thus, this technology eliminates the hazards associated with conventional application of bitumen, providing a safe and energy-saving alternative. One practical application of this technology is a roof waterproofing system that complies with Singapore standards SS133:2017 and/or SS374:1994 (2023). This technology is available for R&D collaboration, IP licensing, and test-bedding with industrial partners in the construction and infrastructure sectors.   Free of smoke and fumes Simple and energy-saving production (no heating required) Water-resistant, corrosion-resistant, and UV resistant Fast-drying and odourless after drying Easy application with excellent coverage Can be easily applied by brush, spray, squeegee, or trowel Compatible with various substrates and structures (dry or damp surfaces) Applicable to both horizontal and vertical surfaces without substantial runoff Option to incorporate sustainable fillers Complies with SS133:2017 and/or SS374:1994 (2023) standards The potential applications include: Primer and paints Waterproofing coating Sealants Adhesives Binder additive in various substrates, including cement, concrete, metal structures, and castings The technology offers the following unique features: Transform solid bitumen into a single-component liquid bituminous coating at room temperature via a simple and cost-effective formulation Option to incorporate sustainable fillers Simple, eco-friendly, and energy-saving process without heating Can be applied to different structural elements for waterproofing, damp proofing, and corrosion resistance Materials, Composites, Chemicals, Coatings & Paints, Organic

One-fifth of all local and imported food in Singapore and about 15% of all food globally is spoiled during the supply chain due to inadequate food transport facilities. To overcome this, the startup offers a patented technology in the form of a hardware device that emits a magnetic interference field. It can be used throughout the supply chain starting immediately after harvest and all the way to storage and display. In particular, this technology has great potential to be applied during the food transportation when the chance of spoilage is highest due to reasons such as overripening caused by supply chain delays. The startup is looking to collaborate with food logistics and storage companies, as well as retailers, to integrate their solution. This technology locks the water inside fresh food, minimises bacteria and mold growth, thus extending the food shelf life by at least 30%. Each small semi-circular device can cover a region of 24 inches in diameter and 15 inches in height. The device is completely passive and requires no energy or maintenance. The useful life of the device is 3 years and the energy field emission conforms to WHO safety guidelines. This technology can be applied to slow down food spoilage in: Cold chain containers Non-cold chain containers Food transport trucks Food storage baskets Refrigerators (Domestic and Commercial) Supermarket shelves It may also be applied during farming process to enhance plant growth and reduce water requirements.  The unique value proposition of this technology lies in the following areas: Extends food shelf life in fluctuating ambient conditions No energy or maintenance required  Effective and economical in reducing food waste by up to 40% food preservation, supply chain, food storage, fresh food Materials, Nano Materials, Foods, Packaging & Storage

Despite the increasing prevalence of obesity, all FDA-approved medications, which act indirectly on the central nervous system to suppress appetite or on the gastrointestinal tract to inhibit fat absorption, suffer from poor effectiveness and side effects. Most of these medications have been withdrawn from the market. Although liposuction performed in clinics can effectively remove targeted subcutaneous fat, it suffers from invasiveness, high costs, associated risks, induction of compensatory increase of visceral fat. Although thermal lipolysis induced by high-power laser energy is a non-invasive way to reduce subcutaneous fat, its effectiveness is limited and it often causes skin burning. Both liposuction and laser lipolysis cannot improve whole-body metabolism. The technology owner has developed a transdermal mild photothermal therapy directly acting on the root of evil, i.e. subcutaneous fat, to induce its ameliorating remodelling (browning, lipolysis, angiogenesis, and apoptosis), based on the injectable hydrogel encapsulated with photothermal agent. Browning refers to the conversion of energy-storage white fats into energy-burning brown fats. Further, combining with pharmaceutical therapy by codelivery of pharmacological agent leads to a strong therapeutic synergy. This method not only ensures high effectiveness and low side effects due to localized and targeted application but also remotely creates significant improvements in whole-body metabolism (e.g., reduction of visceral fat, relief of diabetic symptoms). In addition, this technology is applicable for cosmetic purposes, e.g., body contouring and reduction of double chin. The technology owner is seeking potential biotechnology companies, clinicians, and other partners to clinically translate and commercialize this technology. Possible modes of collaboration include R&D, process, and product development. Photothermal agents and pharmacological agents are encapsulated in biocompatible and biodegradable hydrogel which retains the therapeutics to ensure sustained effects. After being injected into subcutaneous fat depots (e.g., belly fat) using an insulin needle or an automated injection device with minimal pain, NIR irradiation at each injection site will be applied for only five minutes using a portable laser source, one to three times a day for several days without the need of another injection. This described procedure (injection + laser treatment) can be applied once or several times. Obvious mass reduction of the treated fat and other beneficial effects on the whole-body should be resulted. In contrast to laser lipolysis, this procedure shall be much more effective, pain free without causing skin burning, and profoundly beneficial. It can be conducted in clinics by professionals or be self-administered at home for long-term care. The primary application area of our technology is for treating obesity and associated metabolic diseases (e.g., type 2 diabetes). This technology can also be used for non-therapeutic or cosmetic purposes, including contouring, sculpting, or slimming one or more regions of the subject’s body for a desirable appearance. To be specific, this technology can locally remove stubborn fat below the chin, or in thigh, abdomen, thorax, flank, upper limb, upper body, lower limb, back, etc.   As highlighted by Mordor Intelligence, the anti-obesity drugs market was valued at about US$ 1,690 million in 2020, and it is expected to reach US$ 4,250 million in 2026, registering a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 15% over the forecast period, 2021-2026. And according to IMARC Group, the global body contouring market reached a value of US$ 7.3 billion in 2021, and is expected to reach US$ 11.1 billion by 2027, exhibiting at a CAGR of 6.9% during 2022-2027. This technology provides an unprecedented solution with high effectiveness and low risks. Non-invasive targeted treatment on subcutaneous fat Drastic reduction of subcutaneous fat and visceral fat Relief of obesity-associated metabolic diseases (e.g., diabetes) Low risks and low side-effects High effectiveness Self-administrable Obesity, Diabetes, Metabolic Diseases, Transdermal Therapy, Personal Care, Slimming Healthcare, Medical Devices, Pharmaceuticals & Therapeutics

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, collaborators for conducting clinical studies to evaluate effects of the current prototypes as well as other partnership mode including IP licensing.  Hypertrophic and keloid scars are two different fibroproliferative disorders of the dermal tissue upon skin injury. The activation and local proliferation of myofibroblasts in the dermal layer is considered prerequisite for excessive ECM formation, including the overproduction of collagens for filling up the wounds. The phytonutrient-based remedial fluids consist of small-molecule flavanol glycosides extracted from ferns. Experimental results showed that these plant-based fluids could significantly suppress the activation and proliferation of skin myofibroblasts in patients with hypertrophic scars or keloids. These small molecules could also largely reduce the deposition of ECM. As a result, the formation of raised scar can be prevented. The prototypes of the phytonutrient-based remedial fluids have been developed and are currently undergoing product testing. They are designed to reduce raised scars and improve skin conditions. Over 50 volunteers with various types of scars and different skin conditions have tried the prototypes in the initial trial. Overall, positive feedback were received, including notable improvement in scar appearance, alleviation of itchy feeling and prevention of excessive scar tissues. This phytonutrient-based formulation can be used in scar treatment in the form of skincare products such as a general topical agent or nano-mist. They could help shrink, soften and flatten the raised scars, especially for hypertrophic scars and keloids. In addition, this technology can also be used for therapeutic purposes, such as inhibiting the development of fibrosis.  Since many scar treatment gel sheets or creams contain silicone, this natural, non-toxic product provides another option for the people who are allergic to silicone. Customers can be benefited from these herbal-based products with their non-irritating, refreshing texture. Personal Care, Cosmetics & Hair, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals & Therapeutics

One use of AI, including deep learning, is in prediction tasks, such as image scene understanding and medical image diagnosis. As deep learning models are complex, heatmaps are often used to help explain the AI’s prediction by highlighting pixels that were salient to the prediction. While existing heatmaps are effective on clean images, real-world images are frequently degraded or ‘biased’-such as camera blur or colour distortion under low light. Images may also be deliberately blurred for privacy reasons. As the level of image clarity decreases, the performance of the heatmaps decreases. These heatmap explanations of degraded images therefore deviate from both reality and user expectations.  This novel technology-Debiased-CAM-describes a method of training a convolutional neural network (CNN) to produce accurate and relatable heatmaps for degraded images. By pinpointing relevant targets on the images that align with user expectations, Debiased-CAMs increase transparency and user trust in the AI’s predictions. Debiased-CAMs are effective in helping users identify relevant targets even on images affected by different clarity levels and multiple issues such as camera blur, poor lighting conditions and colour distortion. The AI’s prediction also becomes more accurate. As the model is trained using self-supervised learning, no additional data is needed to train it.  The training for Debiased-CAM is generalisable, and thus applicable to other types of degraded or corrupted data and other prediction tasks such as image captioning and human activity recognition. Used to train a convolutional neural network (CNN) to produce accurate and relatable heatmaps for degraded images. By pinpointing relevant targets on the images that align with user expectations, Debiased-CAMs increase transparency and user trust in the AI’s predictions. It also increases the ability of meeting regulatory standards to deploy CNN models in the following applications, where explainable AI is required. Healthcare, eg. Radiology Autonomous Vehicles   Produces accurate, robust and interpretable heatmaps for degraded images Works on images with multiple degradation levels and types such as blurring and improper white balance Agnostic to degradation level, so that enhancement can be applied even when the level is unknown Perceived by users to be more truthful and helpful as compared to current heatmaps distorted due to image degradation Method of training can be applied to other degradation types and prediction tasks Explainable AI Infocomm, Video/Image Analysis & Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence