NTT Group CSR > Ubiquitous Protection and Nursing Care

Ubiquitous Protection and Nursing Care NGN Field Trials(1)

Our NGN initiatives are based on the concepts of openness and collaboration. Here we introduce two examples of new styles of communication proposed by corporate field trial participants as solutions for some of the issues facing a society with an aging and shrinking population.

Keeping track of schoolchildren on their way to and from school, and providing parents/guardians with real-time images

This is a composite photograph of a parent viewing a screen showing her child passing a specific camera location.

We live in an age in which parents and guardians of schoolchildren are always grateful for help in protecting their children from crime.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is now conducting field tests on a system that uses RFID tags to help keep track of children on their way to and from school and provide parents and guardians with real-time images of the children's location via RFID tag readers and network cameras set up in strategic locations.
Earlier such systems used the Internet and accordingly lacked the level of security required to protect the privacy of the children. Matsushita's latest system, however, is able to use NGN's caller ID functionality to guard against spoofing and ensure that information and video images of children's whereabouts are viewable only when detected and only on the specific terminals of pre-registered parents or guardians.
NGN's QoS control functions moreover ensure that sufficient bandwidth is available for the real-time transmission of high quality video images that provide a clear picture of the child concerned.

The views of field trial participants

This is a photograph of Yosuke Tajika of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd

Confirming the reliability of NGN

The objective of this field trial is to test the reliability of our ubiquitous protection system in actually transmitting location information and video images to parents or other guardians. Thanks to this trial, I've been able to see for myself just how well NGN handles the secure transmission of high-quality data, and I'm convinced that it is an ideal network for this kind of monitoring system. I hope to make the most of this experience to make further improvements to the system and also develop other applications.

RFID tag: Radio Frequency Identification tags. Tags with embedded circuits for enabling imprinted information to be read by contactless authentication technology via wireless communications.

Secure remote monitoring of the health of people receiving nursing care

This is a photograph of a nursing care recipient using a videophone to communicate with a caregiver.

As Japan's population continues to age and shrink in size, more and more people see the provision of nursing care as an increasingly serious social issue. Hitachi, Ltd. is now field testing a new system that enables remotely located caregivers to monitor weight, blood pressure, and other health parameters while ensuring the privacy of those receiving care.
This system, which consists of a blood pressure gauge, weight scales, and a bed mat (known as Ai Mat) equipped with built-in sensors that monitor the subject's pulse, breathing, and body movements while sleeping, transmits all of this data automatically via NGN without the patient needing to do anything other than take routine measurements. Moreover, the NGN caller ID function can ensure that this information remains secure and unseen by unauthorized third parties.
The remote caregiver is able to monitor the subject's condition via NGN and respond to any changes in the patient's health via videophone, providing safe and secure nursing care.

The views of field trial participants

This is a photograph of Naoki Kinoshita of Hitachi Ltd.

Creating New Value

Participation in this field trial came only after extensive discussion as to how we were going to approach the provision of nursing care. We have established a strong working relation with our counterparts in NTT through discussing various aspects of nursing care provision. We hope that this testing of the connectivity of our service control platform with NGN will lead to the development and offering of new and valuable nursing, healthcare and other services that take full advantage of the attributes of NGN.