President Tony Tan Keng Yam witnesses future living in a Panasonic smart home

TOKYO - Imagine a future where your home is programmed to sense viruses, monitor the indoor air quality, and have mirrors that can sense one's heart rate, blood pressure and even the degree of relaxation.

Such is the experience Japanese technology giant Panasonic imagines to be commonplace from the year 2020, and which President Tony Tan Keng Yam witnessed on Tuesday (Nov 29).

Dr Tan, who is on a state visit to Japan, spent an hour on Tuesday evening at the Panasonic Center at Tokyo's Ariake, where Panasonic's executive vice president Kazunori Takami introduced the company's latest innovations at the Wonder Life-Box exhibition.

Panasonic, which has a tagline A Better Life, A Better World, has also dreamt up a futuristic marketplace, equipped with interactive shop windows that can switch between transparent and image display modes, as well as smart lockers that can store mail or packages at controlled temperatures.

While at the Panasonic Center, Dr Tan and his wife Mrs Mary Tan also visited a special exhibition titled The Power Of Culture that will end this Sunday (Dec 4).

Here, Japan's traditional cultural elements - including classical kabuki costumes and kimono - are presented via sensors and interactive displays developed by Panasonic.

Dr Tan and his wife, Mrs Mary Tan, left a message at the end of the tour. It read: "Delighted to visit Panasonic Center again after 12 years. It was fascinating to see Panasonic's vision of how smart technology can be integrated into our daily lives."

Earlier Tuesday, Dr Tan got a glimpse of Japan's vaunted technology on a visit to the futuristic National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.

During his hour-long visit there, Dr Tan saw the museum's numerous exhibits - including a mock-up of the International Space Station's space habitation module - and interacted with an android robot.

The visits to the museum and to the Panasonic Center come as Singapore embarks on a quest to be a Smart Nation where a vast array of sensors can provide the Government with feedback used to shape policy and the day-to-day living of Singaporeans.