The startup project Smart Bed developed by a group of students from the Da Nang-based Duy Tan University has bagged the third prize in the 2020 Viet Nam's National Startup Competition which was co-hosted by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), and the Business Forum Newspaper. With a non-touch sensor, a normal bed can become a smart one, helping measure health parameters, and especially give warnings against unusual phenomena that may occur during sleep.

The Smart Bed team participated in Viet Nam's National Startup Day for Students 2020 organised by the Ministry of Education and Training in December 2020

The product is the joint brainchild owned by five dedicated, talented students, namely Phan Van Thinh and Le Thi Thu Ngan from the Faculty of Business Administration, Nguyen Truong Nhat Tan majoring in the General Practitioner, and Le Nguyen Van Duong and Phan Trung Hieu from the Faculty of Electricity - Electronics.

Thu Ngan said, through research, the team found that an incomplete sleep can affect your overall health and make you prone to serious medical conditions, such as obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

With such a smart bed, the team, therefore, hopes to help users detect unusual symptoms to promptly prevent dangerous diseases, as well as create a habit of monitoring health parameters and enhance daily sleep quality.

The smart bed, contrary to conventional belief, is not equipped with many types of support devices but just a normal one highlighting with a non- touch sensor.

The smart bed is designed with such main features as automatically popping up/ folding the mosquito net depending on the user's sleep/wake state, and measuring and reporting health parameters, including heart rate, respiratory rate, body temperature and blood pressure.

Also, the bed can gather data about how the user is sleeping and offer tips on how to self-adjust for better sleep.

In particular, this product can give timely warnings against persistent abnormalities, and the symptoms of sleep apnea which can increase the risk of sudden cardiac death.

Additionally, the sensor is meticulously created to suit the climatic conditions, Vietnamese people’s habits and living standards. With this bed, users gradually raise awareness about personal health monitoring, thus improving the quality of life.

Till date, the group has completed the basic prototype product. It is expected that, in the next 6 to 12 months, focus will be on perfecting the product sample, conducting quality testing, complete legal documents, receiving customer feedback for final completion.

The Smart Bed has been also selected to compete in the forthcoming Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) 2021, the world's largest startup competition.

Late 2019, the Smart Bed won the second prize in a technology startup contest themed ‘Seeding Your Idea’ launched by VinTech City under the Vingroup, Viet Nam's largest private conglomerate, and the national Business Startup Support Centre.

Previously, this project had won second prize in a municipal-level contest to seek creative startup ideas co-organised by Da Nang Youth Union in coordination and the municipal Department of Science and Technology.

By PHONG LAN- Translated by A.T