Singapore has partnered with enterprises to develop 5G solutions across sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics.
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is collaborating with the National University Health System (NUHS), Republic Power, ST Engineering and DB Schenker as part of its S$30 million 5G Innovation Programme, launched in 2021 to accelerate the adoption and commercialisation of enterprise 5G solutions.
NUHS has leveraged 5G in mixed reality (MR) – based holomedicine in operating theatres. This technology makes use of holographic displays and images to enhance and augment healthcare delivery.
For this, IMDA has partnered with Microsoft, Singtel and apoQlar GmbH, a developer of a medical mixed-reality platform, to leverage advanced remote rendering capabilities on MR devices such as Microsoft’s HoloLens 2.
IMDA said the use of 5G-enabled holomedicine has helped surgeons to better visualise a patient’s organs in high-resolution 3D render without any disruption or lag.
“Doctors in NUHS have been using the technology to streamline the planning of surgical operations, improve patient education and safety, and create a more intuitive and immersive environment for surgical training and research,” it added.
Beyond the operating theatres, MR devices help to enhance other capabilities such as visualisation of the patient’s veins during blood collection procedures, advanced point-of-care ultrasound imaging, and patient education and counselling.
Currently, the NUHS indoor private 5G enterprise and MEC network has been deployed in 10 operating theatres since August, and three other inpatient wards this month.
NUHS assistant group chief technology officer, Dr Gao Yujia said the Holomedicine technology relies heavily on data and they have integrated MR devices with 5G to prevent challenges in bandwidth management.
“This alignment has been instrumental in significantly enhancing transmission speed and real-time data processing,” he added.
IMDA has also partnered with Republic Power to deploy 5G unmanned medical booths to provide off-site and remote health screening and video consultations for patients, reducing the overall travel time and cost.
Such unmanned medical booths can be easily deployed and used for other medical purposes such as health and infectious disease screening for travellers and foreign workers at airports and dormitories, the agency said.
Smart Factory
In the manufacturing, supply chain and logistics sectors, IMDA is joining hands with ST Engineering and DB Schenker to enhance warehouse and manufacturing operations, quality control and customer experience.
Together with home-grown Extended Reality company HiverLab, DB Schenker aims to develop a digital twin of its Red Lion warehouse in Singapore.
The digital twin will allow both the company’s internal stakeholders and consumers to visualise and inspect the status of warehouse assets through their mobile devices and PCs.
With this, DB Schenker aims to optimise its warehouse operations and reduce the turnaround time on customer queries such as storage space requests.
ST Engineering’s 5G-enabled, Industry 4.0 Smart Factory also looks to increase productivity and efficiency across precision manufacturing processes by automating manual work with advanced robotics and IoT solutions.
It is equipped with collaborative robots to select and transport components to the next location without human intervention – improving workplace efficiency and safety. It also uses video analytics to enhance the speed and accuracy of quality inspections and stock-taking.
IMDA said it will continue to work closely with enterprises to help relook, reshape and transform industries across Singapore.