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Inspiration During a field visit to Wellness Space @ Clementi Peaks, we spoke directly with local seniors and heard a recurring theme: many either did not own smartphones or found hunting through menus and typing messages far too frustrating. Almost two in five Singaporeans aged 62 and above report feeling lonely, with the number of seniors living alone climbing from ~58,000 in 2018 to about 79,000 in 2022. When seniors shared that they only engage with a phone if someone calls them directly, we were inspired to build Jiak Ba Beh—a voice-first companion designed around zero-friction interaction.
What it does Jiak Ba Beh keeps elderly users company, informed, and connected without overwhelming them:
"Hey Alpha" Wake Word: Allows seniors to start talking hands-free without ever unlocking the phone or tapping an icon.
Daily News Digest: Delivers one key story and three light, feel-good stories every morning in English, Chinese, Malay, or Tamil.
Conversational AI Companion: Engages in warm, natural voice chat while intelligently handling imperfect speech and dialects like Cantonese.
Smart Reminders & Mood Check-Ins: Delivers spoken medicine and check-in alarms while weaving gentle mood tracking into daily chat.
Caregiver Connection: Links accounts via a simple 6-digit code so family members can monitor check-ins without intrusive constant calling.
How we built it We engineered Jiak Ba Beh using a modern cross-platform stack optimized for low-latency background operation:
Frontend: Built with Flutter for cross-platform efficiency and paired with native Android features for low-level system integrations.
Backend & Cloud Services: Powered by Firebase Cloud Functions and Firestore for scheduled tasks, user data, and caregiver synchronization.
Voice & AI Pipeline: Leverages an always-on background listener for the "Hey Alpha" wake word, integrated with Cerebras low-latency inference for fast AI voice responses, and local Text-to-Speech (TTS) engines matching the user's selected language.
Monetization & Analytics: Integrated RevenueCat to handle freemium subscription tiers alongside non-intrusive AdMob ads.
Challenges we ran into Low-Latency AI Voice Responses: Combining Speech-to-Text (STT), Large Language Model inference, and Text-to-Speech (TTS) into a natural conversational loop created noticeable delays. We minimized response latency by switching to Cerebras high-speed inference.
Handling Imperfect Speech: Accents, mumbling, and unusual phrasing often trip up standard STT engines. We tuned our system prompt and transcription pipeline to focus on intent extraction rather than demanding strict transcript accuracy.
Battery-Efficient Always-On Listening: Keeping the background wake-word listener active while the screen was off threatened battery life. We optimized background execution so the listener operates efficiently and steps aside automatically during active phone calls.
Accomplishments that we're proud of Successfully launched a live build onto the Google Play Store.
Built a smooth voice-first interface that completely removes traditional app navigation barriers for elderly users.
Integrated multilingual and regional dialect support (including Cantonese) across both news digests and AI interactions.
Created a balanced freemium model using RevenueCat that keeps essential safety and companion features 100% free for seniors.
What we learned We gained deep technical and user-experience insights throughout development:
Accessibility Design: Designing for seniors requires stripping away conventional UI paradigms; voice-first interfaces are far more effective than simplified visual menus.
Edge Optimization: Operating real-time voice processing on mobile devices demands strict attention to memory usage, battery efficiency, and inference latency.
What's next for Jiak Ba Beh- AI Companion Broader Dialect & Language Support: Expanding voice models to cover more regional dialects like Hokkien and Teochew.
Caregiver Predictive Insights: Applying trend analysis on daily mood check-in data to alert caregivers to subtle behavioral shifts before they become health issues.
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