CES2021】Supports children's "falling asleep" and "waking up" with big data! AINENNE

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), one of the world's largest electronics trade shows held annually in Las Vegas, USA, has attracted a lot of attention over the past few years with the announcement of various "baby tech" related products (this year, due to the new Corona, the show will be held online from January 11 to January 14, 2021 (This year, due to the new Corona, the show will be held online from January 11 to 14, 2021). Prior to the exhibition's opening, products recognized as particularly remarkable innovations will be honored with "Innovation Awards" and posted on the official website. This time, "ainenne," a bed light-type sleep trainer developed by First Ascent Corporation, received the "CES 2021 Innovation Awards. babytech.jp editorial staff was honored to receive the award from Mr. Tomoyuki Hattori, CEO of First Ascent Corporation, and Mr. Tomoyuki Hattori, Executive Officer and CMO of First Ascent Corporation. (hereafter, honorifics omitted), CEO of First Ascent Inc. and Yudai Chiba, CMO and Executive Officer (hereafter, honorifics omitted), and asked them about the outline of "ainenne," how it was developed, and its future development.

(We spoke to...)

First Ascent Inc.
Tomoyuki Hattori, Representative Director and CEO

First Ascent Inc.
Yudai Chiba, Executive Officer, CMO

Scientific solution to one of the biggest problems of the child-rearing generation, "bedtime routine.

Editorial:Congratulations on receiving the "CES2021 Innovation Awards". Could you give us an overview of the award-winning "ainenne"?

Hattori: We have yet to produce a product of sufficient quality to be photographed for the media (......), so we will probably not be able to produce a product of the level of ...... until the end of January or the middle of February, so we are developing the product at a rush.

Appearance of "AINENNE" by CG image

The concept of "AINENNE" is a device that helps babies fall asleep. Humans are equipped with an "internal clock," which is a system of rhythms that follows an approximate one-day cycle. This cycle is generally a little longer than 24 hours, and if left unchecked, the waking and sleeping times will gradually shift. To prevent this from happening, we have a mechanism in which our body clock is reset by exposure to the morning sun. Taking a hint from this "resetting of the body clock by the morning sun," we came up with the idea of incorporating a function to wake up babies with LED light that imitates sunlight, and developed "AINENNE.

Editorial:So every morning, it resets your body clock and regulates your sleep rhythm.

Hattori:AINENNE" has buttons for registering the "start time of bedtime," "time of falling asleep," and "time of waking up," which can be used to easily collect sleep-related records. We have been researching a vast amount of "childcare big data" that we have accumulated and analyzed through our "Papatto Ikko" childcare recording application, so we can calculate "recommended wake-up time" based on this data and inform you of it. In addition, by detecting and analyzing the baby's cries after bedtime, we can determine how much the baby cries at night, so we can derive a "recommended wake-up time" by referring to such data.

Control unit of "AINENNE". Each function can be operated with a single button.

This is a "common child-rearing situation," but I think there are many families where parents wake up before the baby in the morning, and when it is time to wake the baby but the baby is still sleeping soundly, they decide to let the baby sleep a little longer (......). I think there are many families who make the decision to let the baby sleep a little longer. As I mentioned earlier, the human body clock is a little longer than 24 hours, and if this is done, the baby's wake-up and bedtime timing will shift backward more and more. Eventually, the baby's internal clock will be in a state where day and night are reversed, and even if the parents try their best to put the baby to sleep in the middle of the night, it will be daytime for the baby and he or she will have a hard time falling asleep. This phenomenon is called "free-running." In order to prevent this free-running, we recommend a wake-up time and aim to wake the baby up at that time by shining LED light on him or her.

Editorial:I understand that the reason children have difficulty falling asleep at night is due to their "internal clock," and that "AINENNE" records and analyzes various types of data to encourage them so that misalignments do not occur. Also, I have heard that "light-based alarm clocks" are very popular these days for their extremely high effectiveness in helping people get a good night's sleep.

A baby sleeping with "ainenne

Hattori:The concept of "AINENNE" is a "sleep trainer for babies," but it can also be used as a regular alarm clock after the baby grows up. Since exposure to light in the morning resets the body's internal clock, it is often used as light therapy by adults who have sleep disorders or other sleep concerns. In fact, Philips, a medical device manufacturer, sells an LED alarm clock for adults.

New features to better integrate into the "childcare setting" as well as "cry diagnostics

Editorial:The CryAnalyzer Auto, which was announced at last year's CES2020, simply analyzed the cry to determine what the baby wanted to complain about, but you have added far more advanced features from there.

Hattori:CryAnalyzer Auto" is used to automatically record "night crying," which is necessary for "ainenne" to calculate the recommended waking time, and "ainenne" also has a function to determine what the baby wants to complain about as soon as the button is pressed when the baby is crying. AINENNE is also equipped with a function that can immediately determine what the baby is crying for by pressing a button. The result of our consideration of more useful ways to use "cry analysis" was "AINENNE. The light installed in "AINENNE" can be used not only as a waking light, but also as a bed light before falling asleep. In this case, the light does not imitate sunlight for waking up, but instead emits a light with blue light cut off. This is because blue light is said to interfere with falling asleep. Since the frequency component and brightness of the light can be set, it is also possible to set the light to a bright white light for work.

Diagram of the function to analyze emotions from crying

Editorial:Indeed, there are often situations where a bed light is necessary, such as reading a picture book when putting a child to bed.

Chiba: In addition to the functions Hattori has described so far, "ainenne" also has a function to play "white noise," which is said to be effective when putting babies to sleep.

Hattori:All of these functions can be operated at the touch of a button. Each record is also linked to our childcare application and can be viewed on a smartphone.

It was imperative to get "Innovation Awards" for "Online Held."

Editorial: Can you tell us about the difficulties involved in exhibiting "ainenne" at CES?

Hattori:CES2021 is the first online-only event, and the organizers seem to be in a slump, so preparations are not going as smoothly as expected. I once got stuck in the process of registering an account for registering materials, and the problem was solved by contacting the secretariat.

Editorial:I understand that the CES2021 Innovation Awards were announced on the official website prior to the exhibition.

Hattori:Yes, I did. Because I looked around some online exhibitions in Japan, and I felt that "serendipitous encounters (chance encounters)" like those at in-person events can hardly be expected. ...... Therefore, I put a lot of effort into winning the "Innovation Awards" because I thought that the number of people who would come to see our products would be significantly different depending on whether or not we won the awards. That is why I am very happy that we were able to win this award as we had hoped.

Editorial:It is true that at an online exhibition, you are not likely to wander around the venue and happen to see a product at ...... as you would at an in-person event. There are no crowds of people at the booths, and people will not be attracted to the booths by that.

Hattori:When we exhibited "CryAnalyzer Auto" at CES2020, there were rumors among people looking around the venue and people who came to see the "Japanese exhibit area" happened to pay attention to us. We knew that we could not expect such a thing to happen at this online exhibition, and we had also heard from our acquaintances who had exhibited at online exhibitions overseas that they had received almost no inquiries. Therefore, we thought that we would not be able to do anything unless we first won the "Innovation Awards" and were listed in the "List of Award-winning Products" on the official website.

Editorial:What other products are in the "Smart Home" category for which AINENNE received the "Innovation Awards" this year?

Hattori:Last year, for example, there were "Sleep Tech" type products, etc. The list of products that received "Innovation Awards" is posted on the official CES website (Editor's note: see link at the bottom of this article), and among the many black products, the white "AINENNE" is quite a standout. I think the white "ainenne" stands out quite prominently among the many black products.

Editorial:If you don't get listed there, you won't even be recognized for exhibiting in the first place. ......

Hattori:Yes, we are very happy to be able to offer our services to you. Thanks to the "Innovation Awards" and the announcement on our official website, we have received several inquiries before the exhibition. It seems that "AINENNE" has already been featured as an article overseas (see link at the bottom of the article).

Editorial:Did you have any special proposal for the "Innovation Awards"?

Hattori:We were aware of what products have won "Innovation Awards" in the past when making our proposal. We also considered whether the "Health & Wellness" category or the "Smart Home" category would be best for our entry. However, when we exhibited the "CryAnalyzer Auto" at CES2020 last year, several participants told us that if we designed the product properly, we could win the "Innovation Awards," and they wanted me to do the design. I was somewhat confident that if I conveyed the appeal of the product properly, I would win an award.

Two distribution channels: "crowdfunding" and "retail stores.

Editorial: Finally, can you tell us about the future development of "ainenne"?

Hattori:First, we plan to launch the product through "crowdfunding" in Japan. We are working on this with the hope of starting around March 2021.

Editorial:So the participants of this crowdfunding campaign will be the first customers of "ainenne"? By the way, how much do you expect the price to be?

Hattori:As mentioned above, we are still in the process of calculating the final cost, so it will take some more time to determine the selling price. After crowdfunding, we are also considering selling the products in actual stores, so we think we need to take that into consideration.

Editorial:It would be wonderful if "Ai Nenne" could be sold at childcare goods stores such as Akachan Honpo, Nishimatsuya, and Baby's Brass, and if people could see and purchase the actual device at the stores!

Hattori:That's right. Other affinities include department stores, electronics retailers, and general merchandise stores, so we are looking forward to hearing from such people (laughs).

After the interview

This product, which was called "New CryAnalyzer Auto" in our previous coverage, will be unveiled at CES with a look and functionality that reporters never expected. With recent advances in research on sleep, "light-based alarm clocks" have become a trendy product of the year, so we expect it to continue to be used long after babyhood and beyond.　We can't wait for the day when we can buy this product through crowdfunding, which will start in March 2021!

AINENNE" official website
https://ainenne.com/

CES2021 Innovation Awards" search page
(The "Smart Home" category in which "ainenne" received an award can be selected from "Category")
https://www.ces.tech/Innovation-Awards/Honorees.aspx

ayenne" introduced on the official CES2021 website.
https://www.ces.tech/Innovation-Awards/Honorees/2021/Honorees/A/ainenne-Sleep-Trainer.aspx

Article on "ainenne" published in Spainhttps://gamamarron.blogspot.com/2020/12/ainenne-el-primer-entrenador-de-suenos.html