Start of Demonstration Experiment for Care Monitoring System in Shinshiro City through Industry-Academia-Government-Citizen Collaboration

Four parties—Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya University, Shinshiro City, and Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.—will collaborate starting today to conduct a "Care Monitoring System Demonstration Experiment" (hereinafter referred to as "this demonstration experiment"). This demonstration experiment utilizes technology currently being developed by Nagoya Institute of Technology to verify whether it leads to a reduction in the burden on those involved in supporting the elderly.
Prior to this demonstration experiment, the three parties—Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya University, and Shinshiro City—concluded an agreement on the implementation of collaborative projects related to this demonstration experiment.
The technology used in this demonstration experiment is being developed by Nagoya Institute of Technology (Principal Investigator: Associate Professor Takanobu Otsuka) as part of the "Research and Development on Construction of Sustainable Data Collection and Communication Systems via Sharing of Heterogeneous Sub-GHz Band Communications" (hereinafter referred to as this R&D project). This R&D project has been selected as part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' "Fundamental Technologies for Sustainable Efficient Radio Wave Use R&D Project (FORWARD), Digital Infrastructure Construction Division (Application No. JPMI250620002)."
Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. is participating in this R&D project as a cooperating company, and in this demonstration experiment as well, it will utilize the electric power smart meter communication network to transmit various sensor information for monitoring.

As securing local personnel to provide monitoring and daily living support for the elderly living alone has become a growing challenge, there is an increasing need to address the shortage of caregivers and to alleviate the burden on those involved in supporting the elderly.
In this demonstration experiment, we will integrate information acquired from various IoT sensors installed in homes and grasp changes in the daily life activities of the elderly to verify whether it can be utilized for care monitoring support.
Specifically, information is acquired through motion sensors that detect the opening and closing of entrance doors, refrigerator doors, and bathroom doors, as well as movement to areas such as the bathroom and kitchen, and millimeter-wave radar sensors that detect sleeping states. This information is then aggregated into a log of the resident's daily life activities. The collected information is transmitted via a communication system currently under development at Nagoya Institute of Technology, establishing a system that allows caregivers and family members to remotely monitor the resident's condition.
In this demonstration experiment, we will establish a framework that allows both the "caregivers" and the "care recipients" involved in the monitoring activities to exchange opinions and provide feedback to the experiment's organizers, with the aim of improving the system and identifying user needs.

Through this demonstration experiment, the four parties will aim for:

• The creation of a local community where elderly living alone can continue to live with peace of mind
• Reducing the burden on caregivers who provide care monitoring
• The realization of sustainable community welfare services.

Roles in this Demonstration Experiment

Associate Professor Takanobu Otsuka and Assistant Professor Kosuke Shima, Department of Computer Science, Nagoya Institute of Technology
Overall project management, equipment and system development, implementation of demonstration experiments, and support for equipment installation and operation

Associate Professor Shintaro Oyama, Institutes of Innovation for Future Society, Nagoya University
Supervision based on professional expertise in the health and medical fields, and advice on health reports

Shinshiro City
Support for recruiting demonstration participants, organizing regional needs, evaluating demonstration results, and providing feedback from the perspective of solving regional issues

Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.
Technical support for communication infrastructure using power smart meter networks and for social implementation

Future Schedule

• Step 1 Demonstration (Starting today, July 27, 2026-): Approximately 5 demonstration participants
• Step 2 Demonstration (Starting around this fall): Approximately 10 demonstration participants
• Step 3 Demonstration (Starting next winter) : Approximately 10 demonstration participants