Putting ICT to use in easing worries about the future
Japan is currently facing a wide range of social issues related
to a declining population, the aging of society, emerging nursing
and healthcare needs, disparities in employment supply
and demand, environmental protection, energy conservation,
disasters and rising crime.
The NTT Group is striving to help create a safe, secure and
prosperous society through applying its expertise in ICT to address
these issues. These efforts also contribute to the achievement
of the ICT policies being pursued by the Japanese Government
to maintain the vitality of Japan's aging society.
;)
Pioneering efforts to find solutions to emerging nursing and healthcare needs
The NTT Group is working on various measures to address the
nursing and healthcare needs that come with a declining population
and aging society. We are, for example, developing and
supplying telemedicine solutions that use ICT-based health
monitoring and video diagnosis, and also technologies and system solutions for sharing data and information between diverse
healthcare systems. We have also launched services and pilot
projects in the field of remote monitoring of senior citizens
living on their own to help relieve anxiety by enabling relatives
to watch over them from a distance.
Neighborhood communication support services through collaboration with local communities
NTT WEST-MINAMIKYUSHU
NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories
NTT Service Integration Laboratories
NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories
Providing desired welfare services
In March 2003, the town of Kijo, located in a mountainous region
of Miyazaki Prefecture. laid some 100 kilometers of optical
fiber cables in an effort to bridge the digital divide in this
area. The following month, NTT WEST began providing Internet
access, local administration information services, and
health management services via broadband Internet. At the
same time, NTT WEST and Kijo's local government held intensive
discussions with residents aimed at further tailoring
these services to their specific needs. In response to community
requests, a neighborhood communication support service
was designed specifically for the purpose of helping elderly
people, with trials starting in March 2005.
The neighborhood communication support service provided
by NTT WEST and NTT Laboratories is built around a service
that connects Kijo's elderly people with their family, friends
or social workers and enables non-intrusive monitoring of
each other's presence at home. Additional features include
TV phone, handwritten message service, and disaster and emergency
notification services.
Yoshihiro Ito of Research Engineer, Communication Innovation Group, Environmental Information Systems Project, NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories
comments that, "It's an easy-to-use system and has
been well-received by elderly people. They are able to feel
connected with others by observing the cute fish icons swimming
around on the screen. All they have to do is touch a fish
to initiate communications with the person it represents. The
trial was initially planned to last for three months, but was extended
to six months in response to strong demand from residents."
Creating communication opportunities within local communities
;)
The trial service helped local residents to keep an eye on
neighbors who may need assistance, and contributed to a revitalized
sense of community. Welfare volunteers are grateful
for the system since it enables them to check frequently
on how people on their lists are doing. Some elderly people
have also told us that it made keeping in contact with others
enjoyable and provided them with an incentive to start learning
how to use computers.
Based on the results of the trial, Kijo is now moving towards
full deployment of the system. The NTT Group will continue
in such efforts to bring the information age to remote regions,
and to promote the use of ICT-based welfare services to overcome
the issues facing Japan's aging society.
"We visited the home of each user and asked what they
thought of the service. Some people told us that they kept
pressing the keys twice by habit, and others that the characters
were too small to read. We made use of such feedback
to resolve usability problems." (Yoshihiro Ito)
