OTA to Launch "Preschool Bus Watching (Prevention of Leaving Children Behind) Service" this Winter, enabling both preschools and kindergartens and parents to track the location of their children.

- The following is content from the press release -

(Head office: Hakata-ku, Fukuoka City; President: Fumikazu Yamamoto; hereinafter "OTA"), which operates "OTA Town Security," a service platform for watching over children and the elderly using IoT technology, will release its "Bus to School Watching Service" (hereinafter "Service") this winter, utilizing the know-how it has accumulated through its service for watching over children. (Head Office: Hakata-ku, Fukuoka City; President: Fumikazu Yamamoto; hereinafter "ota"), which operates "ota Town Security," will release a "Bus Watching Service" (hereinafter "this service") this winter, utilizing the know-how it has cultivated through its child watchdog service. This service is easy to use and does not require daily operations, as the location of the bus is automatically recorded simply by carrying the monitoring terminal to the school.

Background of Development

Last month, a 3-year-old girl died of heat stroke after being left behind on a bus transporting children to and from kindergarten in Shizuoka Prefecture, and in July last year, a 5-year-old boy died after being left behind on a bus in Fukuoka Prefecture as well. In response to the accident, the Japanese government has taken the initiative in developing a manual to prevent recurrence of such incidents, but nursery schools and kindergartens are still too busy with their day-to-day operations amid a chronic shortage of staff to take the less burdensome measures to prevent recurrence. In order to prevent similar accidents from happening again in the future, we have developed a less burdensome service to watch over buses going to preschools and kindergartens, utilizing our expertise in BLE monitoring services for children that we have provided for some time.

■Summary of the Bus Watching Service for Preschool Buses

This service automatically records the location of children and allows nursery school and kindergarten staff and parents to check the location of their children by simply installing a monitoring terminal held by the child and a monitoring router in the school building, without any construction or equipment installation on the bus going to the school.

<Required equipment and installation/operation costs

Each preschooler will need one of the watchful waiting terminals.
At least one watchdog router is required for each daycare and kindergarten building, and in some environments, multiple routers are required.
Drivers of the buses to the school will be required to carry a smartphone with a dedicated app installed.
We assume an introduction cost of 100,000 yen and 10,000 yen per month for a nursery school or kindergarten with 30 students.

＜Dedicated application for parents

Features of this service

Not only the person in charge of the preschool, but also the parents can check the attendance of the children with the app.
The system automatically records the child's location, making it difficult for human error to occur.
The service requires only a "watchdog terminal" and a "watchdog router," making it easy to operate and inexpensive to install and operate.

About BLE Monitoring Service

Since 2015, we at OTA have been providing the OTA Town Security BLE Watch-over Service in order to realize a "Smart Watch-over City" where everyone, from children to the elderly, can live safely and securely. Our watch-over services utilize IoT technology to provide a system that can be used by both those who watch over people (guardians) and those who are watched over (children, the elderly, etc.) without any burden on them. This easy-to-use system has been well received, and we are currently providing the service to 21 municipalities, including Fukuoka City, in cooperation with local governments and local companies to watch over children and the elderly.

About otta, Inc.https://otta.co.jp/

Since its establishment in 2014, the company has expanded its services nationwide in partnership with major electric power companies. Since its establishment in 2014, the company has expanded its services nationwide in partnership with major electric power companies. Currently, the service is provided in 20 cities nationwide, including Fukuoka City, making it one of the largest IoT watch-over services in Japan.

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