SINGAPORE - Current satellite technology such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) that can track the whereabouts of dementia patients or special needs individuals are often imprecise with a margin of error of up to 10m, meaning the person one is looking for could be on the opposite side of the road or in a different building.
The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is now trying to plug the distance gap with a competition dubbed the GNSS Innovation Challenge, which will be launched on Thursday (Feb 25).
Working together with private space-technology company Singapore Space and Technology Limited (SSTL), SLA wants tertiary students to develop a small enough device, worn on the wrist, that can more accurately pinpoint where the wearer is, with a margin of error of less than a metre.