- Many parents have trouble putting their babies to sleep, and the strain this places on their daily lives is significant.
- ayenne" improves the baby's sleep environment with light and white noise similar to sunlight, and supports the formation of sleep rhythms.
- Crying sound analysis based on extensive research data to help you understand why your baby is crying.
Sleep is essential for people. Lack of sleep or poor quality of sleep can be a hindrance to daily life. The same is true for babies, mothers and fathers. The "ainenne" introduced here is an item filled with "what ifs" that supports babies' waking and sleeping with light and white noise similar to sunlight, and also informs them of the reasons why they are crying. We interviewed Mr. Tomoyuki Hattori (hereafter, honorifics omitted), representative of First Ascent Corporation, the developer of the product, about the appeal of ainenne, which won the Excellence Award in the "BabyTech® Award Japan 2021 Health Care Category," and how it was completed.
(We spoke to...)
First Ascent Inc. representative director (i.e. someone chosen by the board of directors from among the directors to actually represent the company)
Tomoyuki Hattori
Smart Bed Light" solves the problems associated with bedtime routines.
Editorial:First of all, can you tell us about the concept of "ainenne"?
Hattori:The concept is "a bed light-type sleep trainer that supports the formation of a baby's sleep rhythm. In child-rearing, many people face the problem of putting their babies to sleep. AINENNE is an item that aims to protect the health of the baby and the family by removing factors that interfere with the baby's sleep. The product is designed to help babies and their families sleep better by removing obstacles that can interfere with sleep.
Editorial:Can you tell us how it works?
Hattori:Based on the human mechanism that our body clock is reset when we are exposed to the morning sun, we shine light close to sunlight on babies at a fixed time in the morning to wake them up. Humans have an internal clock (circadian rhythm) with an approximate 24-hour cycle, and this clock is responsible for our daily life cycle of waking up in the morning, being active during the day, and going to bed at night.
However, that body clock generally has a cycle slightly longer than 24 hours, so if we live our lives according to our body clocks, our lives will be a little off every day. On the other hand, the body clock is reset by the morning sun, so we wake up at the same time every morning, receive the sun's rays to reset our body clock, engage in activities during the day, and go to bed at night.
Babies also begin to develop circadian rhythms after the age of two months, and if you can help them adjust to these rhythms, it will make it easier for them to sleep smoothly.
Editor: How do you regulate circadian rhythms in babies?
Hattori: It is important to do simple things like opening the curtains and getting some light when you wake up each morning, but many people seem to think, "Well, he's still sleeping, so let's leave him alone," and let him sleep as he is. It is tempting to think of it as an adjustment with naps, but it doesn't work, and many people may have trouble with this.
Editor: So it is important to get light in the morning?
Hattori: That's right. I often hear people say that they want their children to go to bed early, but if they wake up late and their naps tend to be delayed into the evening, they will not go to bed that early. So, in order, it is important to have the "wake up early, go to bed early" process, and it is important to be exposed to light to reset the body clock in the morning.
Editorial:With AINENNE, I can set the timer and brightness and then it will automatically wake me up! Can you tell us about the features that help put babies to sleep?
Hattori:The first is the "white noise" function. White noise is a mix of sounds of various frequencies, or "sir" sounds. The reason this is good for sleep is that it helps to drown out the sound of a door closing in a quiet environment. If you have this on, you can reduce the number of cases where your baby is woken up by the sound of the bedroom door closing.
The second is a "cry analysis algorithm" that analyzes emotions from babies' cries. This is based on the analysis of 300,000 babies' voices in 150 countries around the world, and the AI can tell from their cries whether the baby is "hungry" or "sleepy.
Editorial:That is a useful feature because I think many parents have trouble finding out why their baby is crying!
Hattori:Babies have a difficult cry, which is called "sleep crying," which is like sleep talking in adults, and at that time the baby is in a state of shallow sleep, but if you don't know this, you often have to go out of your way to wake the baby up to feed it.
Editorial:So that's how it happens. Certainly it would be appreciated by the baby and the parents if we could find out if he is crying or what is causing him to cry.
Hattori:It also has a color control for light that cuts out blue light, which is said to be harmful to sleep when exposed to it at night, so you can use it to read a picture book to your child, or adjust the brightness to change a diaper in the middle of the night, among other useful functions.
Editorial:It's an itch, and it's an item!
Developed over a two-year period to eliminate the pain of childcare
Editorial:Can you tell us about the development of AINENNE from here?
Hattori:It took about two years from the launch of the AINENNE concept to its sale. Crying sound analysis had been offered as a service in the form of an application for some time, but this development took about the same amount of time.
Editorial:Thank you very much. What made you decide to create these services?
Hattori:Our company conducts a variety of research related to childcare, and when we asked mothers and fathers what problems they had with childcare, we received many comments from them that they did not know why they were crying. This is where the crying analysis project began.
Likewise, there were many worries about childcare pains, such as "my child doesn't sleep well" and "I can't take time for myself," which led to the creation of "ainenne," an item that incorporates the essence of nen-ne training into a hardware product.
Editorial:Please tell us about some of the innovations and difficulties you encountered in creating AINENNE.
Hattori:We worked hard to create a friendly design and to determine how bright the light would be to support the baby's waking. When we commercialized the product, we had difficulty procuring semiconductors because of the Corona disaster.
Editorial:You started renting AINENNE in 2022, was there some sort of impetus for this one?
Hattori:We have received many requests from users to rent our products. We have been receiving a lot of requests from users who want to rent our products. We have started this project now that we have the operational aspects in place.
Editorial:What kind of feedback have you received from users?
Hattori:We have received positive feedback such as, "My baby sleeps more smoothly," "I have more time in my life," and "It's indispensable.
Editorial:By introducing AINENNE, we can see that the lives of our users are moving in the right direction.
Hattori:In fact, empirical experiments have shown that using AINENNE "regulates the baby's sleep rhythm," "reduces childcare stress," and "increases the baby's self-esteem toward childcare.
Comprehensive service, even more convenient in the future
Editorial:Thank you very much. From here, can you tell us about your future goals and business development?
Hattori:We have two major goals: The first is to create a service that reduces the amount of pain involved in childcare and make it pervasive throughout the world. The second is to improve the coordination between our existing services and provide a comprehensive service.
Editorial:The existing service is the BabyTech® Award Japan 2019 winning "Papa Raising a ChildIs it about "the"?
Hattori:Yes, that's right. Papatte Childcare" is an app for sharing childcare records with family members. It also allows you to keep a record of your child's growth and development, as well as changes in what your child can do.
Other features include the ability to check the child's life cycle at a glance and to see the baby's condition at a glance, which helps stimulate family communication so that a father who has been at work can say to a mother, "You had a hard day, didn't you?
Editorial:Thank you very much. Could you tell us about any social vision you would like to realize through the services you have described so far?
Hattori:I would like to lower the hurdles of childcare more, and I hope to make childcare fun and easier by helping people understand better about their babies, who cannot speak for themselves. Recently, there has been a lot of talk about men taking childcare leave, but while the number of people taking childcare leave is increasing, there are many cases of "just taking childcare leave" where the mother actually does very little to take care of the child. I believe that we can change this situation by using technology to make childcare participation more enjoyable and easier.
Editorial:I see. Thank you very much!
aineenne" Official Web Site
https://ainenne.com/
(ENDS)
Interviewing and writing:Misako Tateoka
From an IT company, she switched careers to the editing and publishing industry. Currently, I work as a freelance editor and writer, editing and writing in a wide range of fields such as travel, gourmet, and social.
What is important is "to convey valuable information to readers in an interesting and easy-to-understand manner.
He has been involved in the production of numerous magazines, including TRANSIT, FRaU, and Metro Minute.
BabyTech is always stimulated by all the services and products that I wish I had when I was a child! I am always inspired by the things I encounter at BabyTech. My hobbies are traveling, cooking, and aikido.
