Singapore Empowers Seniors with Lora-Based Emergency Alert System

Semtech Corporation has announced that iWOW Technology has used Semtech’s LoRa technology and LoRaWAN for its battery powered wireless emergency alert system deployed in 10,000 public housing flats for seniors in Singapore since 2019. About 800 seniors have received emergency medical care by using the system.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) forecasts, one in six people globally will be aged 60 years or more by 2030. By 2050, this segment of the population will reach 2.1 billion, with the number of persons aged 80 years or older expected to reach 426 million.

Part of Singapore’s Ministry of Health Age Well SG programme to create better living conditions for the country’s elderly, the emergency system will be extended to serve an additional 27,000 seniors housed in about 170 public rental housing blocks. A wall-mounted battery-powered red button is placed in various accessible locations in each flat. Pressing the button routes an emergency call to a 24-hour response center, while the associated app notifies the next of kin. The button is only activated in an emergency and otherwise does not use power or require that the resident have cellular service.

“Based on government programme requirements, these emergency devices had to be battery-powered, require minimal maintenance and consume little energy,” said JY Chen, the senior vice president at iWOW Technology. “The network infrastructure also had to be cost-effective for the dense housing blocks. Using LoRa and LoRaWAN was the clear choice, especially with its capacity to support other IoT applications in the future.”

Shahar Feldman, the senior director of product marketing at Semtech, said, “IoT and smart home technologies can play a vital role in helping people age in place. iWOW’s successful deployment over the past five years proves the effectiveness of this model to empower independent living for seniors and deliver round-the-clock emergency monitoring.”

Source: www.iot-now.com