Oki 2014 Annual Report Download - page 19

17
Annual Report 2014
OKI developed a human-detecting sensor technology
capable of distinguishing between large movements
such as walking about a room to minute movements like
breathing. Last year, the Company commercialized this
technology to launch a personal monitoring system and
is continuing to advance development of this technology
to extract higher valuable information from the sys-
tem’s sensor signals. In the future, the system could,
for example, help practitioners identify health risks from
changes in a person’s activities and internal stress from
data on minute changes. We hope that it will contribute
to supporting healthy and independent living and accord-
ingly leading to a safer and more secure society.
The graph shows sensor-collected data on a person’s
movements in the house in autumn and winter, which are
color-coded for the degree of movement. People’s activ-
ity levels differ depending on the season, therefore, the
data indicates a trend for inertia on cold mornings when
temperatures are declining. We believe that extracting
data in this way could have important health implications.
OKI developed highly energy effi cient wireless multi-hop
technology for wireless networks effectively collecting a
vast range of sensor data. The technology will enable
all of a network’s wireless sensor-incorporated devices,
including repeaters (router devices) to work on intermit-
tent operation (sleep function), creating the potential
for a whole network to be battery powered. In conven-
tional sensor networks, such as ZigBee networks, only
the wireless sensors in the network terminals have
sleep capability, and it was necessary for the intermedi-
ate routers to have a power supply. Our development
makes it possible for a network’s routers to also operate
on batteries, thereby enabling wireless sensor networks
to extend over broader ranges. The extended range
creates application potential in areas where supplying
power is diffi cult, such as on bridges and in tunnels, to
be used for social infrastructure maintenance and man-
agement and for building and factory monitoring.
Making wireless devices sleep when they are not sending communication signals is an effective
way to save energy. Since, in data-relaying multi-hop communications, controlling the timing that
a device sleeps is a key technology because the devices must be able to receive the relay data
at any time.
We are advancing the technology to improve energy effi ciency by lengthening the sleep peri-
ods while also having the ability to relay data with low-latency networking.
Comment
from the
Technical
Engineer
We are working hard every day to broaden R&D into new territories for the next phase of advanc-
ing the technology. While honing OKI’s strength in sensing technology, we are also deepening
collaborations with experts in other fi elds and seeking new ways to interpret the data. These
activities require constant testing and retesting of the technology, and this repetition is the founda-
tion for OKI’s strength in R&D.
Comment
from the
Technical
Engineer
Supposed applications
Conventional
wireless
multi-hop system
Energy efficient
wireless
multi-hop system
Energy
management
system
Wireless
multi-hop system
Need of power supply Router
Sleep
router
Sleep router with intermittent operation (sleep function) capability
Monitoring
for buildings
and factories
Nov 9
0:00 8:00 Noon 20:00
Dec 1
Dec 24
horizontal axis: 10 minutes in each square
vertical axis: one day in each square
color: empty resting active
Topics1 Ultra-sensitive Human-detecting Sensor Technology
Capable of Detecting Minute Movements, including Human Breathing
Topics2 Highly energy effi cient wireless multi-hop technology
enables battery-powered router devices