This post is also available in: 日本語 (Japanese)
Elderly Monitoring Support System Uses Robots, IoT Devices
~Effort to Reduce the Burden of Nursing Care Work in the Era of Birthrate Decline and an Aging Population~
Electronic device developer and manufacturing company RTC, Inc. (of Kamisawa, Kawachi, Tochigi Prefecture) and development partner Seikatsu Kakumei, Inc. (of Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, under CEO Yuukou Miyazawa) have, in response to the increasingly aging society and growing shortage of resources for nursing care providers, developed an RTC smartphone and floor sensor-based monitoring platform utilizing robots and wearable watches (IoT) with expanded cooperation functions.
Robot and wearable watch (IoT) coordinating monitor support system
About our Monitoring Support Platform’s Robot and Wearable Watch Coordination
In this age, as we welcome an elderly society, high quality nursing care facilities that can ensure the safety of their users are increasingly required, yet the lack of caregiver resources is becoming serious. RTC’s support monitoring system was developed with five types of ease in mind: user safety, family security, user friendliness, low cost, and stable market supply.
Diagram: Support monitoring system for nursing care facilities
This image depicts the use of RTC company’s monitoring support device. Two body motion detecting sensor panels are placed under the mattress, checking the user’s condition and sending alerts via wifi module to smartphones and computers. No changes to the room are needed, and the lack of camera protects user privacy. Previously, this system was limited to connection with only smartphones and computers.
For this latest effort, experienced and insightful in the development of communication robots and IoT, Seikatsu Kakumei is collaborating to further improve the quality of nursing care. In addition to the conventional computers and smartphones, the monitoring sensors’ signals can now be sent to communication robots and smart watches to alert caregivers. Caregivers are alerted not only by their PCs and smartphones, but also by recreational use communication robots and smart watches the caregivers wear which now inform when residents leave, eliminating the need for oversight. A communication robot (Robophone) installed in the room can tentatively suppress a resident who is trying to leave their bed, and so on.
In recent years, facilities have used various communication robots for rehabilitation and recreational purposes, but when they are not in use for such purposes, they are frequently left unused. So, we aim to add functional utility value to robots and improve the quality of nursing care by using them to regularly check on the conditions of the aforementioned users.
Technological Characteristics
In this system, not only the flourishing Pepper is used, but also other technologies such as the newly attention gathering Robophone and Google’s Android Wear 2.0 developed February 2017 in Silicon Valley can be used in advanced ways. Multiple robots combine with IoT to provide one platform offering new solutions to real world problems.
National Technology General Exhibition – Technology Meeting
Date and Time: February 15-17, 2017, 10 AM to 5 PM
Venue: Tokyo Big Sight
3-11-1 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Trade Booth: 6Y-14
Official site: http://www.nanotechexpo.jp/main/
Company Overview:
Company Name: RTC, Incorporated
Location: Kamikawa, Kawachi, Tochigi Prefecture
Representative: CEO Senaka Sakurai
Subject of Business: (1) Medical care, nursing care welfare, industrial machinery, automobile, ship, defense, communication, security, and other electronic applications to various fields
Planning, development, design, prototyping, and manufacturing of internal parts
(2) Software solution service, product debugging service provision
(3) Engineering specific worker dispatching
URL: http://www.rtc-corp.co.jp/
Company Name: Seikatsu Kakumei, Incorporated
Location: Chuo, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture
Representative: CEO Yuukou Miyazawa
Subject of Business: Seikatsu Kakumei is a software company which advocates “contributing to improving human life through robotics” and “creating people who won’t lose to the evolution of artificial intelligence robots”. By introducing unique software systems and imparting amplified wisdom to robots, we solve the business problems of every industry.
