Tourists (and the tourism industry) need a 

 the tourism industry in a endemic post-COVID world

During COVID-19, Singapore has been hit hard in the tourism sector, causing a significant 

Source: Statista. (2021, July 22). Tourism receipts Singapore 2011–2020. 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1098818/singapore-tourism-receipts/

 (equivalent to $4320/day-tour) for more knowledgeable or multilingual tour guides. For instance, 

Hello Singapore Tours charges S$640 for a tour around Singapore for 1-2 people, lasting 8 hours

Funding and income of the tourism industry are crucial in keeping Singapore afloat while developing at a competitive pace. Hence, my team and I set out to create a product to solve this problem with a 

As the post-pandemic world further transitions into the 4th industrial revolution, not only must we reimagine our interactions with others but also embrace changes to mould the next century of humankind. As COVID-19 becomes endemic, it is evident that a post-pandemic world, at least for the first few years, would not be the same as a pre-pandemic world. Adapting to these new normals would be key to an innovation’s impact and success.

GoTourLah—A personal virtual tour guide powered by AI

Our team’s solution, GoTourLah, aims to enhance tourism in Singapore by providing tourists with an immersive experience, boosting tourism in Singapore. Not only does these benefit tourists but they also allow tourism agencies to spend less on hiring tour guides. Compared to our prototype, which can be rented for an inexpensive $70/person. The cost reduction would attract more tourists to visit Singapore, thanks to the cheap, informative, at-your-own-pace, real-time audio output.

The solution consists of a physical clip-on/glasses, a mobile application, and the cloud backend. The clip-on for tourist would be composed of a mini camera and a microcontroller, which can be attached to any headwear, like glasses or a hat, and streams video captured to the cloud.

The following steps describe the process of the input to output

Camera on clip-on streams a live video feed to the Cloud

Cloud uses CV to process the video and identify the object the user is viewing

Cloud sends back audio data to be played to the tourist, such as “In front of you is the Merlion ...”

A key interactive feature is that the person can also ask questions via voice recognition and AI. mimicking real tour guides at a lower cost to both the agency and the customer. However, this requires training the ML model using images of the location and long descriptions. Possible developments include a companion app that assists in finding dining locations, location tracking and live announcements by the agency through the clip-on.

Conclusively, this innovation improves tourism by providing a novel experience, encouraging more visits to Singapore, while adhering to safe management practices. Being a better alternative compared to searching for information on mobile devices, users are not required to look at their screen, reducing the risks for an accident to occur, without disrupting the immersiveness and quality of the touring experience.

https://sites.google.com/sst.edu.sg/cp-coursework-gallery/2022/gotourlah

September 2021

Singapore Computer Society Splash Awards 2021