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In Singapore, robots are now leading workouts for the elderly

Singapore government enlists robots to keep elderly healthy
Singapore government enlists robots to keep elderly healthy

RoboCoach in action at an exercise class this weekend (Photo supplied by IDA)

Singapore’s government this weekend unveiled a “robo coach” – a robot that will help senior citizens exercise and stay healthy.

“Enhanced with sensors, RoboCoach offers personalized exercise routines that are more enjoyable for the seniors,” said Dr. Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information, in a speech about using technology to shake up healthcare. “At the same time, it is able to ensure that seniors perform the exercise routines correctly so as to get maximum benefit from their workouts.”

“The first RoboCoach has been deployed to the Lions Befrienders Senior Activity Centre. More will be deployed to other Senior Activity Centres soon,” the minister added. A total of 25 venues will get the robots. He was among a group of elderly people who attended the first exercise class fronted by RoboCoach.

Part of Singapore’s ‘Smart Nation’ program

The unveiling came during the Silver IT Fest, an annual seminar held by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), a government body that aims to grow the country’s tech and startup industries.

The robot is a part of Singapore’s Smart Nation scheme to apply the newest technology to virtually every aspect of the country’s operations. It covers everything from always-on public web connectivity across the country to more pressing issues like population density and healthcare. The IDA made it clear that elderly people would not be excluded from the Smart Nation program, and the unveiling of the robot seems to be the first physical proof of this.

Aside from the robot, the minister gave details of a Smart Eldercare scheme that’s been running for a year and includes things like remote patient monitoring, which allows people with health conditions such as hypertension or diabetes to check their vital signs while at home and have the results transmitted wirelessly to healthcare providers. 800 patients are now making use of this across the country.

The IDA gave no indication who manufactures the RoboCoach or how much each costs – or whether it would’ve been cheaper and more beneficial to elderly people to hire a human to do that job. After all, having a nice chat and a cup of tea with someone can be as beneficial to a senior citizen as a gentle workout session. We’ve contacted the IDA for further details on the robot. (Update: An IDA spokesperson says that the robots are made by a team at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, as was spotted earlier by a reader in the comments section. They were first unveiled in January. “Interactions with volunteers who are present are just as important and on-going,” added the spokesperson in response to this article.)

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