What started out as an aid for the elderly got turned into a potential money-spinner for the students involved.

Working on a system to track the elderly in case they get lost or fail to return home, the four final-year students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s Information Technology course devised an app that is loaded onto the elderly person’s mobile phone. The healthcare establishment or the caregiver can then keep tabs on the location of the elderly person at all times.

As an added precaution, a pre-determined area can also be set. This means that if the elderly person  wanders out of range, the caregiver will automatically be alerted via an SMS.  The app can even be used to locate the elderly person because the SMS will also provide a link to a map on the phone.

Even if the elderly person is able to call his caregiver, he may still be unaware of where he is. But with the TRACKER, the caregiver will instantly know his exact location.

The system has already been successfully tested in a pilot run with the help of Econ Healthcare, which runs a number of nursing homes and hospitals in Singapore.  The seven participants who volunteered to take part in the pilot run live in Bishan’s Golden Jasmine, the first block of HDB granny flats in Singapore.

Recognising the commercial potential of the TRACKER, which can simultaneously track a group of users, the students have set up a company called Towards IT Technology with $3,000 seed money from Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s EnterpriZe! Scheme.

Targeting food-delivery services, courier and logistics industries, the students are currently enhancing the system to track the location of the items in real time.

“We are in the process of writing an app that allows customers to literally see their pizzas or parcels moving towards them,” said Nicholas whose team is awaiting the outcome of their business proposals to various companies. 



Students involved

Nicholas Ooi , Eric Lee, Shou Yee, Thomas Tan
Year 3, Information Technology course
Ngee Ann Polytechnic