Trends in ICT Involving Life-assist Technologies to Address Social Challenges

1.1 Advances in technology

However, this situation is rapidly changing with the explosive popularity of smartphones. Smartphones come pre-installed with the GPS (global positioning system) function, Wi-Fi^*1, Bluetooth^*2, and accelerometers, which provide a basic platform for sensor nodes. Moreover, they also function as a hub station that connects to various kinds of electrical equipment. For these reasons, smartphones are starting to be utilized as a platform for connecting wearable devices.

Before the widespread use of smartphones, all components of wearable devices such as the display, processor, wireless communication, and sensing unit, had to be unified in one package. This situation has abruptly changed, though. Now, they only have to have a sensing function and short-range wireless communication capability. Furthermore, there are growing expectations for the development of small sensor nodes that can be embedded in any object without the need for node maintenance. These small sensor nodes will be able to provide more efficient services for infrastructure maintenance, building maintenance, and logistics management. Concretely speaking, these are self-powered wireless sensor nodes that harvest minute amounts of energy from the environment.

Thus, we are seeing the start of huge data processing using cloud technology, which enables the extraction of useful information and returns it to society or users. This information is commonly known as big data. Another advance is that an infrastructure connecting all devices and sensors to the Internet—referred to as the Internet of things (IoT), M2M (machine to machine), or ambient intelligence—is becoming a reality.

1.2 Industrial revolutions

This technological progress has led to many approaches being explored in attempts to build a safe, secure, and healthy society by connecting the real world and cyberspace in a network. In recent history, there have been three industrial revolutions due to technological innovations. The primary industrial revolution in the second half of the 18th century occurred with the invention of the steam engine. The second one was a result of the remarkable improvement in productivity in the second half of the 19th century. The IT (information technology) revolution in the second half of the 20th century is also called the tertiary industrial revolution. A fourth industrial revolution is expected to occur in around 2030, when cyberspace unites with the real world to create something called a cyber-physical system. It is said that IoT will play an important role in the fourth industrial revolution. Therefore, data gathering is one of the initial tasks for approaches aimed at meeting social challenges.

A very important issue in business strategy is determining how to obtain information about people and things in the real world from the cyberspace of the Internet. Many technologies have been developed in attempts to meet this challenge. A device that contributes to resolving this issue is called a social device. If such social devices become widely used by people in homes, offices, and infrastructure, it is expected that these devices will help to solve social challenges and contribute to people living happy and fulfilling lives.

2.1 Healthcare devices

An image of the new user experience with healthcare devices consisting of wearable technologies is illustrated in Fig. 2. Wearable devices can be worn in various forms such as a watch, glasses, a necklace, or a shirt. The place where such healthcare devices are worn on the body and the implemented function are important. Everyday biomedical signals are simply individual big data (on one’s physical and/or mental condition, and current activity) that change continuously with the environment. Our technical aim is to extract and provide this valuable information without disrupting a person’s activities. Therefore, we are developing wearable devices that connect to mobile devices. Mobile computing devices such as smartphones are very convenient as platforms for carrying out data transfer to the cloud because they are equipped with a high-performance processor, a high-definition display, and large storage capacity. High-added-value information processed in the cloud using machine learning is fed back to the user. We are promoting the research of wearable healthcare devices in order to provide an epoch-making user experience that supports a healthy and comfortable life.

Fig. 2. User experience boosted by wearable devices.

2.2 Low-power wireless sensor nodes

Services using low-power wireless sensor nodes are illustrated in Fig. 3. We want to reduce the power consumption of our wireless sensor nodes to the point where one coin-type battery lasts for ten years, or there is no need of a battery at all owing to energy harvesting technology, such as with indoor light power generation. This will eliminate the need for node maintenance and make it possible to install large numbers of sensor nodes almost anywhere. With such technology, monitoring and telecontrol of appliances in homes will become possible by using sensing information. Furthermore, the ability to analyze the gathered data will lead to the creation of new businesses in areas such as childcare support, watching-over the elderly services, home medical care, infrastructure maintenance, and environmental monitoring.

Fig. 3. Various services based on ultralow-power wireless sensor nodes.

2.3 Terahertz-band ultrahigh-speed wireless communication and sensing system

Our ultrahigh-speed wireless communication and sensing technologies use millimeter waves and terahertz waves (Fig. 4). These waves are broadband waves that strongly interact with molecules; however, these frequency bands have not been investigated for industrial use because it is difficult for the state-of-the art devices to generate and detect terahertz waves. NTT has made it possible to construct millimeter-wave-band or terahertz-band wireless communications and sensing systems by developing ultrafast transistors and photodiodes. These systems are expected to be used for instantaneous download of large-capacity data at medical sites, nondestructive inspection of buildings, and remote monitoring of toxic gases at the scene of fires.

Fig. 4. Millimeter-wave and terahertz-band ultrahigh-speed wireless communication and sensing systems.