How do families stay connected to aging loved ones from afar? For Ding Yuguo, co-founder and CEO of Tsingray Technology, the question hits close to home. His company develops radar-based health monitoring systems that aim to make eldercare safer, smarter, and less intrusive—solutions born from his own experience with long-distance caregiving.
“Every morning at 9 a.m, I receive a sleep report for my parents,” Ding told attendees at an eldercare innovation forum in Chongqing. “It includes heart rate, breathing, and sleep quality data from the night before. I call it cloud-based filial piety,” he added.
Ding lives in Beijing. His parents are in Jiangsu. Like many middle-aged Chinese adults, he sees them infrequently. “Sometimes the data shows high heart rate and shallow sleep at 3 or 4 a.m,” he said. “I’ll call to ask if my father drank too much. He gets annoyed and threatens to turn off the system, but I think that’s the warmth of real life.”
The roots of Tsingray stretch back to 2019, when Ding and professor Li Gang of Tsinghua University launched the company. Their focus: millimeter-wave radar, a sensing technology that detects chest and heart micro-movements, enabling respiration and vital sign tracking without the need for wearables or cameras. The radar can scan through clothing and bedding, making it a fit for sleep monitoring. “It’s physical, not visual, so it doesn’t invade privacy,” Ding said. “It works silently in the background.”
The system’s precision has reached millimeter-level accuracy and was deployed in the Beijing Olympic Village in 2021 to track sleep and stress. Clinical comparisons have matched its performance to hospital-grade electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors. According to the company, Tsingray’s radar system was the first in China used for medical-grade vital sign monitoring.
What sets Tsingray apart from consumer sleep gadgets is its focus on clinical applications. Its devices are reportedly installed in more than 100 hospitals and over 600 eldercare facilities in China. The product suite includes in-hospital systems for monitoring sleep and cardiopulmonary function, home care tools for tracking chronic illness, and fall detection radars that can issue warnings based on posture before a fall occurs. The systems run continuously, requiring no contact or user input.
Tsingray’s model functions like a triumvirate. It begins with edge intelligence, using radar sensors in beds or rooms to capture real-time metrics such as breathing, heart rate, and movement. Next is cloud intelligence, where algorithms build baseline models from one to two weeks of data and flag any deviations. Finally, application intelligence pushes alerts and guidance to caregivers, facility staff, or family members. The aim is to create a digital health profile for each person—a kind of shadow caregiver attuned to changes that are otherwise imperceptible.
The company has reported more than 200 instances of early risk detection and at least 100 confirmed interventions, including alerts ahead of cardiac events, strokes, post-Covid-19 complications, and mental health crises.
In eldercare facilities, Tsingray’s system is being used to optimize nighttime operations. It can identify abnormal signs or bed exits automatically, eliminating the need for patients to press emergency buttons. Staff can then focus on high-risk individuals, cutting down on the number of routine checks. Daily reports surface individuals whose data deviates most from their baseline, helping staff use limited resources more efficiently.
Tsingray’s technology has been added to procurement catalogs published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and civil affairs departments in Beijing and Shanghai. This formal recognition has helped speed up adoption in public eldercare services.
Tsingray is now refining its predictive algorithms and broadening its footprint to include community clinics and rehabilitation centers. “The more people use it, the better it gets. And the better it gets, the more people will use it,” Ding said.
Ultimately, his vision is to build a data-powered eldercare ecosystem, one that safeguards both the safety and dignity of aging individuals, without sacrificing comfort or privacy.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Linker (alias) for 36Kr.