Singapore Management University (SMU) recently announced
that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pestech Holding (S)
Pte Ltd (‘Pestech’) to apply artificial intelligence on rodent sensors data in
order to establish rodent behavioural patterns and predict different
territorial species within a shopping mall.
The two-year collaboration aims to create a
safer and healthier living environment for all, and to support Singapore’s
Smart Nation push.
The MOU was signed by Mr Tong Kien Seng,
Founder of Pestech, and Associate Professor Rajesh Balan, Director of LiveLabs
Urban Lifestyle Innovation Platform at the School of Information Systems in
SMU, on the sidelines of Clean Environ Summit Singapore 2018.
Under the MOU, both parties will develop
and test the artificial intelligence and analytics system using large real-time
rodent sensor datasets from Pestech. The Parties will research
using new methods, algorithms and technologies to discover fresh insights from
these large sensor datasets. Pestech will contribute its collected data of
rodent activity within malls, and where the rodents are most active in the
malls. It has rodent sensors in more than 10 malls around Singapore. Pestech's
infrared sensors are installed in the malls' ceilings above food and beverage
tenants and shared common ceiling space between tenants to detect the rats'
movements.
Mr Tong Kien Seng, Founder of Pestech said,
“This collaboration with SMU is part of our overall strategy of utilising
advanced technology to enhance our solution offerings. We aim to make our
proprietary RodentEye and Pestech the best rodent surveillance system and the
leading expert company respectively in solving any given rodent issue in Asia.
The end system capabilities should provide Pestech the ability of knowing the
in-depth information of each rodent problem in a mall / building more completely,
including proper cluster distribution, different territorial species and
activities pattern.”
LiveLabs' artificial intelligence
programming will analyse the data and provide more accurate details, such as
identifying the different rodent species, the number of rodent clusters, and
the unique behaviours of each species such as feeding and movement patterns.
"Instead of having to wait through the
night to catch the rodents, they can use the algorithm and the data provided by
our AI to predict the exact places and times that the rodents will likely be
at," a LiveLabs spokesman is reported
to have said.
The data will provide hourly and daily
trends of the rodents' locations and behavioural patterns, allowing LiveLabs to
suggest the most appropriate pest control methods.
Associate Professor Rajesh Balan, Director
of LiveLabs Urban Lifestyle Innovation Platform said, “We are excited to take
our experience in sensing and extracting actionable insights from human
behaviour to help business outcomes into a brand new domain of rodent control!
This partnership with Pestech presents an exciting opportunity to innovate in
this space and achieve our goal of improving our environment and overall
wellbeing.”
LiveLabs has been developing a variety of
advanced, mobile-centric analytics and customer engagement technologies for
indoor public spaces, such as malls, convention centres and office campuses.
LiveLabs is a city-scale research test-bed, supported by the government, that
is focused on mobile computing technologies. It provides test-beds for
large-scale consumer behavioural trials and social experiments on real people
in real environments, with a special focus on urban lifestyle services for
indoor public spaces.
Thus, Pestech shall contribute its
experience in the pest management business, as well as its expert knowledge and
skills in the areas of IoT sensors, wireless data acquisition, web-based rodent
activity Heatmap with sensor data analytics that serve the sector. LiveLabs
Urban Lifestyle Innovation Platform will contribute its capabilities and
resources in location-based solutions and data analytics.