ISSN 0915-3160
平成二十五年四月十日発行（年四回一、四、七、十月の十日発行）通巻九十八号
No.
2
Vol. 25 April 2013
Spring
New Breeze
S pec i a l Feat u re
Progress in Implementing eHealth by Japanese Corporations
Poli c y
Support for Recovery and Reconstruction after the
Great East Japan Earthquake
New Breeze Vol. 25 No. 2 Spring
New Breeze
April 2013
C o n t e n t s
ISSN 0915-3160
Quarterly of the ITU Association of Japan
BN Gyoem Bldg., 1-17-11 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku,
Tokyo 160-0022 Japan
Tel: +81-3-5357-7610 Fax: +81-3-3356-8170
http://www.ituaj.jp/english/
Policy
1Support for Recovery and Reconstruction after the Great East Japan
Earthquake
—The role of the Tohoku Bureau of Telecommunications—
Special Feature:Progress in Implementing eHealth by Japanese
Corporations
2The e-Pathologist: Pathological Decision Support System
4
Editorial Committee
Chairman: Yoshiaki Tanaka
Members: Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications, Association of Radio Industries
and Businesses, Communication Line Products
Association of Japan, FUJITSU LIMITED,
Hitachi, Ltd., JAPAN BROADCASTING
CORPORATION, KDDI CORPORATION,
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION,
National Institute of Information and
Communications Technology, NEC Corporation,
NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE
CORPORATION, OKI Electric Industry Co.,
Ltd., Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd.,
SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp., Sony Corporation,
The Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association,
The Telecommunication Technology Committee,
and Toshiba Corporation
8
10
Ultra-sensitive Human-detecting Sensor Technology for Elderly
Care
—Detect Minute Movements at the Level of Human Breathing—
A New Hitachi ASP Business for the Healthcare Field
—HALSMA Diet—
Bluetooth Healthcare Stack Supporting Continua
Technology Trends
12
Increasing Accessibility to Broadcast Services
Digital Opportunities
16
JICA Training Program: Broadcasting Executive’s Seminar
Business Trends
18Transmission System Standard and Operational Guidelines for Area
Broadcasting
Publisher: Yasuo Suzuki
Editors:
6
Future Digital Health Care Connecting Individuals and Medical
Facilities
Yuzo Mori
Atsuko Ishii
Yasuyuki Matsuyama
Sector Member
21Telecommunications for Disasters and Pandemics
Letters to New Breeze
New Breeze welcomes readers’ opinions. Please send
comments with your name, address, and nationality
by e-mail, fax, or post to the editor.
E-mail address: [email protected]
Subscription forms are available on the
ITU-AJ website:
http://www.ituaj.jp/english/subscription_form.pdf
Report
22
24
Report on ITU Workshop on “eHealth Services in Low-resource
Settings: Requirements and ITU Role”
Report on the Fourth Meeting of ITU-T FG-DR&NRR in Tokyo
Subscription Fee:
Single issue:
¥1,500
Annual subscription (4 issues):
¥6,000
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this
publication are those of the authors and do not
necessarily represent those of the ITU
Association of Japan.
Copyright: © 2013 The ITU Association of Japan
About the ITU-AJ
The ITU Association of Japan (ITU-AJ) was founded on September 1, 1971, to
coordinate Japanese activities in the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors
with international activities. Today, the principle activities of the ITU-AJ are to
cooperate in various activities of international organizations such as the ITU and to
disseminate information about them. The Association also aims to help developing
countries by supporting technical assistance, as well as by taking part in general
international cooperation, mainly through the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT),
so as to contribute to the advance of the telecommunications and broadcasting
throughout the world.
Support for Recovery and Reconstruction after the
Great East Japan Earthquake
—The role of the Tohoku Bureau of Telecommunications—
Tohoku Bureau of Telecommunications
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
1. Damage caused by the earthquake
At 2:46 pm on March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake of
magnitude 9.0 struck off the coast of Sanriku. Reaching level 7
on the Japanese scale of seismic intensity, this earthquake caused a
huge 10-meter tsunami along the Tohoku coastline.
The destruction caused by this tsunami was particularly
severe. With regard to communication facilities, about 1.9 million
fixed lines were affected and as many as 29,000 mobile phone
base stations were put out of
action. This disrupted systems
including the local government's
Administrative Radio System
for Disaster Use, and in many
regions this resulted in residents
and government organizations
finding themselves completely
Scene of destruction Onagawa-cho, unable to share or gather
Miyagi Prefecture (3/25/2011)
information.
2. Support for emergency restoration in the
immediate aftermath
A f ter t he d isaster,
the Tohoku Bureau of
Telecommunications sent
staff to the affected area
to check on the state of
damage, and distributed
approximately 3,000 twoway radios and 13,000 radio
receivers.
VSAT antenna
Also, at public facilities FWA antenna
such as city halls, town halls and refuge shelters where all means
of communication had been cut off, we installed FWA (Fixed
Wireless Access) and VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal)
systems to allow people to share information and use the Internet.
We also contributed to the granting of licenses to temporary
FM radio stations set up by local authorities to provide affected
people with community notices and other information, and to
making it easier and quicker to obtain licenses for radio stations
used as a means of contact in disaster situations.
In addition, the Tohoku Bureau of Telecommunications sent
long-term delegates to local governments in the affected areas,
and actively supported their emergency measures such as the
introduction and installation of communication equipment and
the establishment and operation of temporary disaster-related
broadcasting stations.
reconstruction of the affected areas, including the provision of
healthcare, regional computerization and disaster prevention
measures, and we are supporting the efforts of local authorities in
resolving these issues effectively and efficiently through the use of
information and communication technology (ICT).
■ Figure 1: Supporting the reconstruction efforts of local
authorities
4. Building a reconstruction support system
The local authorities in regions hit by the disaster are trying to
promote the relocation of resident groups to areas where tsunamis
pose no danger, and the creation of new towns for the future. To
achieve this, it is essential that improvements are made to the
communication and broadcasting infrastructure.
For these improvements to be made speedily, the Tohoku
Bureau of Telecommunications established the Tohoku
Earthquake Disaster ICT Restoration Promotion Liaison Council,
which is calling on related institutions to participate in discussions
and exchanges of information aimed at reconstruction. This
council is working to support the improvement of broadband
communications (using optical fibers and the like), mobile
telephony, and terrestrial digital broadcasting.
Moreover, using Onagawa as a model of a town subjected
to widespread damage (even though it is a relatively small
municipality), we set up an investigative commission of experienced
scientists and other experts to support the computerized planning
decisions geared towards reconstruction. It is expected that the
results of this investigation will contribute to the computerization
of other similarly affected local authorities.
■ Figure 2:Tohoku Earthquake Disaster ICT Restoration
Promotion Liaison Council
3. Supporting recovery and reconstruction by
delivering ICT to affected local governments
Using auxiliary systems set up to restore telecommunication
facilities affected by the disaster, we are supporting the restoration
of facilities such as the Administrative Radio System for Disaster
Use, regional public networks, and CATV.
We are also tackling many issues aimed at restoration and
New Breeze Spring 2013
1
The e-Pathologist: Pathological Decision Support System
Medical Solutions Division
NEC Corporation
1.Introduction
Cancer has been the leading cause of death since 1981, and has
recently been the cause of approximately three out of ten deaths
among Japanese people. Although early detection and treatment
are absolutely essential, the shortage of pathologists ultimately
responsible for the cancer diagnosis in Japan (about 20% as many
pathologists per 100,000 population compared with the United
States). In addition, due to the recent development of testing
equipment and the spread of testing, the number of samples
requiring diagnosis by a pathologist has been steadily increasing,
and it is starting to be acknowledged that urgent action is needed
to train pathologists and ensure accurate diagnosis.
NEC has joined forces with pathology specialists performing
essential work in the diagnosis of cancer, and together we have
developed the “e-Pathologist” system which supports the work of
pathologists to provide patients with a prompt, accurate diagnosis.
To execute a prompt and accurate diagnosis, pathologists must
have a long and abundant experience in particular types of cancer.
By using the advanced image analysis technology of e-Pathologist,
it is possible to quantitatively analyze the characteristics of cancer
cells, which can help pathologists to do diagnosis.
2.The e-Pathologist: pathological decision
support system
e-Pathologist is a software that helps pathologists to obtain a
■ Figure 1: Overview of the e-Pathologist system
2
New Breeze Spring 2013
diagnosis with high-resolution whole slide image scanner which
converts pathology slides to digital images, and manage/analyze
these slide images. e-Pathologist is composed with pathology
image analysis system and data management system. When the
pathology image file is outputted from the scanner, the data
management system runs the analysis software which makes
digital image processing of the pathology image data, and records/
manages the results of this analysis. By providing analysis results
that are easy to understand, the system supports diagnosis and
testing by pathologists and laboratory technicians.
2.1 HE staining image analysis software
The Hematoxylin-Eosin (HE) staining image analysis
software (gastric biopsy, colorectal biopsy) uses a combination of
advanced image recognition and NEC's original machine learning
technology to extract suspected cancerous regions from pathology
slide images with high speed and precision. As shown in Figure 2,
at first the tissue section is recognized from the pathology image
data. Secondary, cancerous region is extracted. Then complex
tissue structures are analyzed in a low magnification image, and
the size and shape of features such as cell nuclei are analyzed
in a high magnification image. This image analysis method
makes it possible to measure the complex tissue structure and
morphological feature quantities such as the cell structure and
staining (nucleus structure, size, coloration, arrangement, etc.)
■ Figure 2: Method for image extraction of cancerous
areas using image recognition technology
■ Figure 4: Example of interstitial parts automatically
excluded
■ Figure 5: Example of the detection of positive and
negative cells (PgR testing of breast tissue)
■ Figure 3: Feature quantity extraction example (gastric
biopsy)
■ Figure 6: Example of PgR analysis results (breast)
(Figure 3). Next, using our machine learning technology, implicit
rules are constructed based on the relationships between these
feature data and annotation data resulting from professional
pathology diagnoses. By converting the professional experience
of pathologists into rules, it is possible to detect cancerous regions
with high precision. The analysis results are displayed with color
outlines around individual tissue images to show the possibility
they have cancerous regions.
2.2 Immunohistochemical staining image analysis software
Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining image analysis software
increases the efficiency of pathological diagnosis and supports
homogenization in the task of counting the cells to be measured
from IHC stained images. In this software, NEC's image analysis
technology is used to automatically extract all the regions having
characteristics that are suspected of being cancerous. Furthermore,
from these regions, interstitial parts which is not necessary in the
measurement region are automatically excluded (Figure 4). Then,
in the area to be measured, cells that are judged to be positive and
negative by IHC staining are extracted with high accuracy, and
the number of cells is counted (Figure 5).
By performing this sort of image analysis, it is possible to
calculate the positive rate in each region without recourse to
laborious and conventional methods such as manually drawing
these regions. Figure 6 shows the result of automatically extracted
regions that have characteristics of cancerous, and displaying the
positive rate in each region.
3. Future work
e-Pathologist was first released commercially as HE image
analysis software (gastric biopsy, colorectal biopsy) in 2010, and
is being used at leading clinical testing centers. Following on
from this, we will continue to collect cases and perform tests
while increasing the accuracy of the algorithms that detect diverse
feature data, and expanding the line-up of products including
our IHC staining image measurement software and the range of
organs that can be analyzed.
In the field of molecular biology, many recent studies have
produced useful results related to the early detection of cancer. In
the future, we hope to achieve very early quantitative pathological
diagnosis of cancer by integrating the findings of these studies
with conventional morphological information. Our next challenge
is to build a new support system based on e-Pathologist achieve
faster diagnosis and recurrence prediction of cancer.
New Breeze Spring 2013
3
Future Digital Health Care
Connecting Individuals and Medical Facilities
Ubiquitous Service Business Unit
Consumer Business Division
Alliance Promotion Department
Fujitsu Limited
1.Health service initiatives for individuals
Since 2003, Fujitsu has been developing mobile telephones
equipped with pedometers, able to count the number of steps
taken by the user. We have also introduced a series of features
besides the pedometer, such as estimating the amount of activity
from the speed and length of walking time, and analysis of
walking posture. We have continued to advance this technology,
focusing on smartphones, and are now also able to estimate the
user's sleeping state as well. These functions provide the ability,
using just a smartphone, to check the users' daytime activity as
well as their sleep state, which previously required specialized
instruments, and to measure their daily cycle in the form of a
Personal Health Record (PHR). The user can then share this
personal health information for reference by others such as medical
facilities.
However, this is not particularly unusual in the world of
smartphones, where countless applications are freely available.
To have our users really use our health management functions,
we need to go beyond simply providing the function. A typical
aspect that must be considered is power consumption. Since 2003,
we have considered this to be an important element of a mobile
phone pedometer function.
Generally, when a pedometer application is run on most
smartphones, it consumes more than half of the battery capacity
within half of a day. Then, just when the user wants to make a
phone call, the battery goes dead, and the original purpose of their
phone is lost. This could also result in business risk, if users are
prevented from being able to make an emergency call with their
phone, for example.
Now that smart phones are mainstream, battery life is an
important issue from the user's perspective, and it is a basic
element of scenarios using mobile phones and smartphones, even
before considering health management functions.
Fujitsu is involved in all aspects of our mobile phones, from
hardware to software, and we have found a solution to this issue at
a fundamental level. We call our technology the Human-Centric
Engine (HCE). The HCE realizes low power consumption in
the various sensors built into a mobile phone or smartphone,
with design and control at the hardware level. For example, we
have achieved battery life that is almost the same, whether the
pedometer function is turned on or not.
Fujitsu smartphones also use sensors for various functions
focusing on the actual user of the phone, such as sensing the
surrounding noise and adjusting the phone volume automatically,
or automatically preventing sleep mode even if the set time expires
when the phone is being held in the hand (Figure 1). The gyrosensor has many uses beyond switching between horizontal and
vertical screen orientations. HCE is the technology that is focused
on the "actual user" of the phone.
2. Using cloud services on smartphones
In the first place, placing health management functions on
smartphones has the advantages that people carry them all of the
time, and that they are able to communicate at any time.
Many smartphones are
often
held by the user while
■ Figure 1: Linking medical functions with smart devices of individuals
they are walking, with the
power on. Adding a pedometer
to the phone eliminates the
need to carry another device.
Smartphones also have the
advantage of a larger screen
and can show rates of increase
and graphs of walking over
periods of a month or a year.
This is difficult on ordinary
pedometers, due to screen size
and other issues.
Two m a i n for m s of
communication are used.
The first is Bluetooth, for
connecting to devices such as
4
New Breeze Spring 2013
scales (for weight) and sphygmomanometers (for blood pressure)
that support the Continua standard*. The Continua standard
is based on the IEEE 11073 standard for communication with
health and medical devices. Products supporting Continua are
made by manufacturers around the world and its market share is
expected to increase in the future.
By combining information from such health devices and
measurements of activity and sleep states, from a smartphone
as described above, a 24-hour, total PHR can be collected and
managed.
The other form of communication is connection to the
Internet through a 3G, 4G or other network, and uploading the
PHR data accumulated on the smartphone to the cloud. The
data on the cloud can be managed, analyzed per-user, and used
to provide content such as e-mails reviewing their activity, or a
virtual vacation based on how far they walked. Other services
could include automatic notification of the user's state of health to
specified e-mail addresses to share it with family. Of course, this
information would also be available from PCs or other devices
besides the user's smartphone. By accumulating data in the cloud,
medical facilities and others can also access the data easily.
Fujitsu began offering medical solutions in the 1970's, and
today medical and nursing solutions such as our electronic charts
solution continue to be used in many medical facilities, within
and outside Japan. This medical facility solution continues to
be developed today, reducing the costs of both initial system
installations and of system upgrades after introduction. We are
also enabling charts and other medical information to be shared
beyond the scope of the hospital, to regional private hospitals.
One advantage of sharing medical information is that it helps
to provide consistent treatment, even when a patient is forced
to move to a facility in another region, by enabling the doctor
to understand the sequence of tests, diagnoses, and prescribed
treatments till that time.
The system also enables imaging data from CTs, MRIs and
■ Figure 2: Examples of using smartphone sensors
other expensive medical devices located at central hospitals, to be
viewed from the private hospitals, which have difficulty obtaining
such equipment. This helps reduce capital costs for medical
equipment for the region as a whole, and contributes to providing
high-quality medical care to patients.
Note that lately, patients and doctors using smart devices can
reference chart data at any time, so parts of this service are already
being introduced (Figure 2).
3. Future issues in health and medicine
Lifestyle diseases are currently one of the causes of increasing
numbers of patients, particularly in developed countries, and are
becoming an issue in the rising medical costs in countries around
the world.
This is also recognized as an important issue in Japan, and
health awareness among Japanese is seen to be increasing steadily.
Government policy mandates that medical costs must be reduced,
policies to increase the efficiency of overall medical care quickly
are being promoted, and the need for digital health care is expected
to increase steadily each year, from both the government and the
public. Increasing numbers of the elderly are living alone, and in
cases, have passed away, unable to receive help from neighbors.
Measures to deal with such case are being pursued urgently.
As one step in resolving these issues, we are creating
environments that can periodically detect changes in an
individual's physical condition, and can provide appropriate
medical care for such changes, to help resolve the problem of
lifestyle-disease patients, increasing yearly.
4. Directions for future goals in digital health
As we have introduced above, Fujitsu is working both on
collecting and managing PHRs using smartphones, and on
solutions for medical facilities.
By linking data from these to build a total health care
environment, from homes to medical facilities, we hope to build an
environment in which users
can live with security, all of
the time and anywhere.
This is one way that we
are advancing digital health
care, among the products and
services we proved toward
realizing a rich, "HumanCentric Intelligent Society,"
which will benefit the people
and promote a prosperous
future.
- A communications standard
* Continua
promoted by the Continua Health
A lliance, which mainly promote s
data communications specifications
between health and medical devices
such as sphygmomanometers,
and data collection devices such as
smartphones.
New Breeze Spring 2013
5
Ultra-sensitive Human-detecting Sensor Technology for
Elderly Care
—Detect Minute Movements at the Level of Human Breathing—
Corporate Research & Development Center
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
1.Introduction
In Japan's rapidly aging society in recent years, issues of
participation in society and of medical and nursing care for the
elderly are manifesting. Companies are undertaking a variety of
initiatives to realize a safe and secure society, attempting to capture
potential growing markets. Of these, we are focusing on issues for
capable elderly people that live alone, and using ICT based sensor
technology to study services that watch over them unobtrusively.
If a human-detecting sensor is placed in the rooms where a
person lives, the sensor responds to the activities of the person, and
the rhythm of their life can be seen by observing the frequencies
of those responses. Pyroelectric infrared sensors have been widely
used in this type of service, to detect whether the person is present
or not from changes in temperatures. However, while these
sensors are well suited to detecting moving people, there are issues
with detecting people at rest. Thus, we have focused our research
on microwave radio sensors, which can penetrate or go around
obstacles and detect not only people's large movements, but also
minute movements such as breathing or heartbeats, using the
Doppler Effect, yielding methods that can detect people at rest
with high sensitivity.
2.Human-detecting sensor technology
In the past, microwave radio sensors have been used in some
human sensors. However, using a single sensor to cover a whole
room in a typical house, results in problems such as responding to
movements of other than the desired person, such as an indoor fan,
vehicles or people passing by outside. This made it very difficult to
use for detection of any but the largest and local movements such
as automatic doors or gates.
We have conducted R&D on statistical models to extract
the movements of people with high precision by examining the
differences in how objects shake while moving and by eliminating
the effects of moving background objects from the output of
the radio sensor. We gathered large amounts of experimental
data assuming environmental factors likely to occur in ordinary
households, and by improving on this model, we have implemented
high-precision sensing of people at rest, at the level of breathing,
and that is not affected by environmental factors (Figure 1).
The radio sensors used in this technology do not require the
sensors to be exposed, so they are not conspicuous. This helps
reduce resistance to installation in private spaces. The signals also
penetrate furniture and bedding, and are resilient to elements in
■ Figure 1: Example of output from radio human sensor compared to conventional technology
6
New Breeze Spring 2013
■ Figure 2: Visualization of daily life activity
■ Figure 3: Example application in elderly care
heaters and changes in room-temperature, so they can be used in
most bathrooms, which are warm and humid environments. These
sensors show promise for applications monitoring and watching
over people at home or in the hospital.
3.Application for watching over the elderly
This sensor technology, is able to distinguish between active
and rest states in real time, so it can be applied for checking
the state of well-being of the elderly who live alone, away from
the their children's families. By installing them in the homes
or care-facility private rooms of elderly persons, it is possible to
build a monitoring system able to collect a very precise history of
their daily life, including times of rest and sleeping, as shown in
the example in Figure 2. The system can then be built to detect
abnormalities by incorporating rule-based logic, as shown in
Figure 3. In the future, we plan to summarize detection results
on the cloud, and to implement sophisticated visualizations of
daily life rhythms and state of health by analyzing large amounts
of daily-activity history. As examples, in addition to transition
patterns for states such as at home (in the room) and out, which
can be estimated using rules, it should be possible to implement
sophisticated detection of abnormalities in factors such as
time at home (for wandering), bathing or using the toilet (for
impaired consciousness), or abnormal sleep indicators (breathing
impairment) by building a probability model that combines such
state transition patterns and time information.
4.Future initiatives
In the future, we will advance our R&D activity beyond
visualization of life states to include more-active detection of
abnormalities, contributing to a more safe and secure aging
society. At the same time, we will also examine application of this
technology for other fields such as security and energy savings.
We hope to implement services offering value that society will
accept, by demonstrating applications for initiatives such as Smart
Community and Smart House.
New Breeze Spring 2013
7
A New Hitachi ASP Business for the Healthcare Field
—HALSMA Diet—
Strategy Planning & Development Office
Information & Telecommunication Systems Company
Hitachi, Ltd.
1.Introduction
Lifestyle-related diseases account for approximately two thirds
of all deaths in Japan. Medical expenditure on lifestyle-related
diseases has reached approximately ¥11 trillion — equivalent
to one-third of all health care costs. Japan's healthcare systems
and finances are being severely strained by the country's everincreasing elderly population. The government is therefore steering
itself towards reducing the incidence of lifestyle-related diseases
by playing a more active role in preventative medical care. Since
October 2009, the Hitachi Group has been offering HALSMA
Diet as an ASP service for the promotion of healthy living that has
been cultivated within the company.
2. Overview of the HALSMA Diet ASP
2.1Providing metered services according to the number of
users as an Application Service Provider (ASP)
Currently, most of the IT services deployed in this field are
centered around the management of data such as body mass,
calorie intake and exercise levels, and the delivery of advice is
generally left as the responsibility of advisory organizations that
use these IT services. Hitachi's HALSMA Diet ASP is different
in that the delivery of advice is itself integrally contained within
the IT service.
2.2Providing advice with high efficiency
In the HALSMA Diet ASP, advisors basically only send
advisory mail once every ten days. By integrating the delivery
of advice with the IT services, we are able to implement various
features, including (1) a "To Do" function that offers a prioritized
list of work to be done each day, (2) a function that checks the
state of implementation of each subject's program, and (3) an
advice mail creation support function that automatically creates
advice mail templates to suit the circumstances of each subject.
In this way, it is possible to provide guidance to each individual in
approximately 5 minutes on average. Although the effectiveness of
advice generally varies depending on the advisor's skill level, this
system can also be used to standardize the way in which advice is
provided.
2.3 Achieving high weight loss efficacy
HALSMA Diet is a type of "recording" diet where a tool
called "100 kcal card" is used to select achievable weight loss menus
based on each individual's lifestyle habits, and the participants
themselves record daily information such as their body mass and
their progress in sticking to the menu provided (Figure 1).
A recording diet aims to maintain or increase people's
motivation simply by measuring and recording their body mass,
thereby subconsciously guiding them towards lifestyle activities
that are effective for weight reduction. HALSMA Diet extends
this idea by implementing measures that allow people to continue
on this path both consciously and rationally. Participants are
provided with practical experience, including knowledge about the
■ Figure 1: E-mail counseling provided by the advisor to the participants
8
New Breeze Spring 2013
■ Figure 2: System configuration and Service supply pattern
food calories they unknowingly ingest each day, and knowledge
about the calories they are burning off in exercise. It is also a
self-improvement technique that allows people to ascertain the
correlation between events in their daily lives and changes in
their body mass, whereby they can understand based on actual
experience what causes them to gain weight and what causes them
to lose weight, allowing them to master ways of controlling their
body mass in a way that suits them. During the advisory period,
participants tend to make a determined effort because they are
aware that their daily records are being observed by the advisor.
When this system was made available to approximately 400
individuals within Hitachi, approximately 50% of them achieved
their weight loss targets, and a continuation rate of 96% was
achieved.
3. Development of a remote advisory platform
3.1Concept and configuration
HALSMA Diet was developed around the following four
concepts.
•Aim to provide a standardized service as a rule, but make
every effort to accommodate the differing needs of each
individual client.
•Make it possible to incorporate system improvements and
adapt f lexibly to other fields in the future (e.g., for the
healthcare industry or disease management).
•Implement the security functions necessary for a system that
handles personal information.
•Make it possible to cooperate flexibly with existing systems
such as checkup systems belonging to clients.
We implemented a system to implement these concepts based
on loosely coupled groups of Web services, with the functions
in each service using metadata management to parameterize the
functions and specifications used by each user. Furthermore, a
data services platform is provided to configure a system where
there is no need to work on the main system when linking up
with data from the existing systems of individual users. To enable
the provision of services at lower cost, the system is configured to
operate almost entirely automatically (Figure 2).
3.2Security measures
Security measures tend to detract from efforts to make systems
more convenient and affordable, resulting in systems that are
secure but difficult and costly to use. This is liable to become
counterproductive in services where it is important to ensure
continued daily use over a long period of time. The HALSMA
Diet ASP gives a great deal of consideration to safety, security
and usability from the user's perspective, and implements security
measures based on the guidelines for ASP/SaaS data security
measures published in January 2009 by Japan's Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Communications.
4. Future prospects
HALSMA Diet ASP was started as a service to provide
specific health guidance to insurance clients, but its concepts
and system platform can be applied to a wide variety of other
fields. In the healthcare field, it can be used as a healthcare
promotion service platform in a wide range of industries,
including cooperating with healthcare industries such as consumer
applications, health foods or fitness programs, providing remote
advisory tools for corporate in-house health promotion or
to provide a more invigorating workplace or provide disease
management for people with conditions such as diabetes, and
managing the healthcare information of mental health patients.
New Breeze Spring 2013
9
Bluetooth Healthcare Stack Supporting Continua
Business Development Div.
Digital Products & Service Company
Toshiba Corporation
1.Introduction
The idea that individuals should manage their own health
information is becoming established. Health information is
collected in various places such as medical facilities, fitness clubs
and homes, but since their objectives and responsibilities differ,
this information has remained diffused across these facilities and
shared use has been limited. Collecting and managing a Personal
Health Record (PHR), which is part of this health information,
has also been laborious because it has not been digitized. Now,
the basic components and system infrastructure needed to allow
individuals to take responsibility for gathering and managing their
own PHR have been cultivated. This will increase individuals'
awareness of their own health and can be expected to increase
quality of life (QOL) through synergistic effects with various
other services. In this article, we introduce a Bluetooth healthcare
stack supporting Continua, which is one of these infrastructure
components, as well as some related activities.
2.Healthiness and Illness are "Continua"
Being able to live in continuous good health is very fortunate.
However, we do not usually notice it when we are in good health,
and only begin to notice that our health has become unbalanced
when we receive a diagnosis or fall ill. Since lifestyle diseases onset
gradually over time, people are often not very aware of them and
notice them late. Then, when they first find out they are ill, they
realize how important it is to pay attention to managing their
health all of the time. However, while most follow instructions
from their doctors, many are careless gathering and managing
data when they must manage it themselves. This sort of health
management is difficult, due to factors including lack of resolve
and inadequate mechanisms to help people persevere.
Many hit products include a good combination of convenience,
simplicity and fun. Examining health management products
and systems from this perspective, the primary barrier to health
management is convenience. "Convenience" means that the
conditions for achieving the objective are good, but with health
management, often the objectives themselves are quite vague. For
this goal, objectives can be set easily or automatically and broken
down into smaller objectives in order to give users a sense of
achievement.
"Simplicity" means that the task does not require much time
and effort. Measuring devices must be in line with daily life and
be able to be stored compactly when they are not in use. One must
be able to take measurements with a simple touch or by wearing
the device during measurement times. It is also desirable that the
data be transmitted automatically. For these reasons, we expect
that measurement devices able to operate without requiring any
10
New Breeze Spring 2013
awareness of the measurement will be an important element of
health management in the future.
The second barrier to health management is "fun". It is
difficult to persevere with activities that are not fun, and it is
even more difficult if resolve is not strong. Connecting with other
people on a network can have the roles of mutual support for
achieving goals and of producing enjoyment simply from being
connected, so it can function as a mechanism helping people
persevere in managing their health. Life logs and point systems
convert health management objectives into value and utilize the
psychology of collecting, so they also function as mechanisms to
help people persevere. The accumulated years of health before
becoming ill are very important in living out one's own life, and
for this, it is important to begin to pay attention to one's own
health and start gathering and managing health information while
still healthy.
3.From Analog to Digital and Networking
Measuring devices used for gathering PHRs are transitioning
from analog to digital, and the records are moving from paperbased to directly-transmittable digital data. This digital data
is not simply being stored within the devices, but can be stored
within the home or on the Internet through networks. Managing
health through the Internet enables comparison with standard
values easily. Sharing information with other like-minded people
has also become a source of mutual support. Individuals using
these technologies have become more aware of their own health
and become able to use their health information to estimate their
own bodily condition and plan their activities, whether on a daily,
weekly or monthly basis.
On the other hand, medical devices are legally classified as
devices that promote a particular benefit or effect, that are used for
treatment, diagnosis, or prevention, or that are used to affect the
bodily structure or function. The handling of data from medical
devices is strictly regulated according to the presumed medical
purpose. However, considering that the idea that individuals
should manage their own health information is becoming
established, we hope that health information will be opened to
the extent that the risk placed on people is low, so that health data
can be gathered and managed based on personal responsibility,
for example, from low-class medical devices equipped with a
display which can validate transmitted data. It will be important
to establish methods both for gathering and managing Electronic
Health Records (EHR) for treatment when someone becomes ill,
and for managing PHRs before becoming ill. It is also important
that these two should connect with each other seamlessly.
■ Figure 1: Overview of Healthcare Systems with Connectivity by Continua™ Certified Bluetooth® Healthcare Stack
4.Wireless Data Transmission and Health
Management Platform
Wireless technology plays a large role for devices that
transmit data automatically after taking measurements, or that
take measurements without requiring any awareness by the user.
Having the health data collected, without loss, immediately after
measurement enables the user to spend the same amount of time,
but on more services. The Bluetooth healthcare stack supporting
Continua is a functional block that implements this. Continua
is an organization with the goal of enabling interconnectivity
and operability of data from healthcare devices and it creates
design guidelines toward achieving this goal. Health management
services are implemented using technologies such as Bluetooth
and USB at the physical layer, with Personal Health Devices
(PHD) sending health information regulated by IEEE 11073
to an Application Hosting Device (AHD) such as a PC or
mobile phone, where it is managed by a local application. Health
management services are also implemented as Web applications on
a server, by transmitting data to a Health Record Network (HRN)
through a WAN (Figure 1).
Our Healthcare stack runs on Windows 8 and enables a PC
to receive measurement data from healthcare devices supporting
Continua via Bluetooth or USB. It is also able to output data in
intermediate, general purpose formats such as XML and CSV, so
it enables health information to be handled easily at the application
level, even without being familiar with standards such as Continua,
Bluetooth, or IEEE 11073. Healthcare device products supporting
Continua exist for measuring body composition, blood pressure,
level of activity, oxygen concentration, and glucose, and data
from these devices can be read into a PC easily, regardless of
manufacturer using our stack. PHD information is handled on a
one-to-one basis for our stack, so devices can be differentiated as
soon as they are standardized by the various PHD manufacturers.
Bluetooth is a powerful means of communication for PAN, so we
expect growth of applications in areas such as fitness, health and
medical care, and sensor networks, to accelerate in the future.
5.Conclusion
We have introduced a Bluetooth healthcare stack supporting
Continua, as well as some of the characteristics and functions
needed for applications on this healthcare platform. This stack
enables data from healthcare devices supporting Continua to be
read easily using a PC, and enables PC applications for healthcare
management and Web-application health management systems
on a server to be built easily. In the future, new bio-informatic
sensors will be created, and users will be able to record a history
of measurements from them and use it to estimate their own
physical condition. Health-related indices will also be calculated
by combining this collected biological information and comparing
it with other data regarding physical condition.
As measuring devices shift to using unconscious wireless
transmission, it should become simpler to gather and manage
health data. We hope that this will help everyone fulfill their own
life, enjoying it in health and happiness. We will continue to apply
ICT to realize these goals.
New Breeze Spring 2013
11
Increasing Accessibility to Broadcast Services
Atsushi Imai
NHK Science & Technology
Research Laboratories
Human & Information Science
Research Division
Senior research engineer
1. Introduction
NHK is engaged in research on userfriendly broadcast technologies for the
information-disadvantaged, such as the
aged or disabled and for foreigners and
others in Japan whose first language is not
Japanese, so that more people can enjoy our
broadcasts. In addition to expanding current
broadcasts, we are studying potential new
services integrating broadcasting with
telecommunications. We introduce some of
these here, including a system that adjusts
the audio signal to make it easier to hear
for the elderly, real-time subtitle broadcasts
utilizing speech recognition, a system that
generates sign-language animations using
computer graphics, and a news service that
uses simplified Japanese.
2. Adjusting Audio for the
Elderly
We have received complaints from
elderly viewers that they had difficulty
hearing the dialog in programs because
there was too much background noise. On
the other hand we have received positive
comments regarding background audio,
saying that they enjoyed the portrayal of the
Nobuyuki Hiruma
NHK Science & Technology
Research Laboratories
Human & Information Science
Research Division
Senior research engineer
scene with sound effects, so it is difficult
to achieve an audio balance that suites
everyone. Here, we introduce technical
initiatives to adjust the balance between
voices and background audio according to
preferences in both program production
and on receiver devices.
2.1 Initiatives in Program Production
For those claiming that the background
noise is too loud, simply reducing the
volume of the background audio is not
always the best option. In experiments
viewing programs with the background
audio volume reduced, the voices were
easier to hear, but sense of presence also
decreased, and viewers reported that
they could not enjoy the content to their
satisfaction.
Accordingly, we prototyped a mixing
balance meter that objectively evaluates the
balance between voices and background
audio preferred by elderly viewers, based
on studies of ability to isolate voices from
background audio and hear them, and
preferences for background audio level1.
This technology supports production of
programs that are easy to hear for the
elderly without sacrificing the production
goal of background audio that draws in the
■ Figure 1: Mixing balance meter (left) and studio environment (right)
12
New Breeze Spring 2013
Hideki Tanaka
NHK Science & Technology
Research Laboratories
Human & Information Science
Research Division
Senior research engineer
viewer. Currently, we have introduced the
prototype into the production studio for a
drama, and are conducting trial operations
(Figure 1).
2.2 Initiatives at the Receiver Device
The meter described above is based
on an average hearing ability of elderly
viewers, but there are differences among
individuals. Accordingly, we studied ways
of making adjustments to aid hearing on
receiver devices. This technology is able
to divide the program into segments in
which people are speaking (voice segments)
and others (non-voice segments), and
for the voice segments, it calculates the
correlation between the right and left stereo
signals. It then treats the components with
high correlation as voice, and with low
correlation as background, and allows the
background components to be adjusted.
Also, if non-voice segments, such as jingles,
seem loud compared to voice segments,
then the volume of only the non-voice
segments can be adjusted. Currently, we
are researching technology to enhance
ability to hear voices, and we continue to
study practical implementation methods
that combine it with the technology for
adjusting background audio above.
■ Figure 2: Temporary facility for creating subtitles
using speech recognition for news of the
Great East Japan Earthquake
3. Research on Real-time
Subtitling with Speech
Recognition
Subtitle broadcasts are a service that
presents television-program audio to the
elderly and hearing disabled as text, but
other members of the general public have
also found it useful recently. Viewing out
of doors is becoming more common with
the spread of OneSeg receivers, and many
viewers have had difficulty hearing due to
surrounding noise, or were in situations
where they could not create loud noise
themselves. Subtitles are also useful in
these types of situations.
We started a news subtitling service
using speech recognition technology in
2000, but at that time, we only applied it
to segments where the announcer read a
script in the studio2. For situations such
as on-site reporting, we could not achieve
adequate speech recognition rates due to
background noise or the style of speech, so
these were covered in operation using highspeed word processor input. Re-speaking
methods were later developed for segments
difficult to handle with speech recognition,
in which another person, called a subtitle
caster, repeats the content so that it can be
recognized. The service was then expanded
to include sports and variety programs.
Currently, we are expanding the range of
program segments that can be recognized
directly, and researching hybrid methods
in which segments not yielding high
enough recognition rates are seamlessly
handled with re-speaking methods. We
plan to expand subtitle broadcasts by
implementing a system
with low operating costs.
3.1Operation During
Emergency or Disaster
W hen the Great
East Japan Earthquake
occ u r red , t he hy br id
subtitling system was still a
prototype, but we brought
it into the broadcast center
(Figure 2) and used it
together with high-speed
word processor input to
enhance the information
provided using subtitles.
Operating under these
rest r ic ted cond it ions,
we were able to identify technical and
operational issues in providing continuous
subtitling services during a disaster. It is
our mission as a public broadcaster to bring
information about life and property to as
many as possible, and we are working to
overcome each of these issues in preparation
for disasters that may occur in the future.
of the motions of a person performing
the sign language. Actual video of these
motions provides a high quality recording,
but it is difficult to process aspects such
as the body pose when applying it after
the recording is made. As with spoken
language, the forms of words also change
due to factors such as connections with
previous and following words, so sign
language vocabulary was recorded based on
motion data, which is easier to process and
modify for CG animation.
We used high-precision optical motion
capture to record the motion data, because
motion detail, such as in the fingers, is
important in reading sign language. To
date, we have recorded sign language
vocabulary motion data for approximately
7,000 words, including the finger alphabet
and numeric expressions.
The data obtained using motion
capture is then converted to motion data
for the skeletal structure of a CG character
(Figure 3). The character can then
reproduce the bodily motions according to
the motion data.
4. Automatic Generation of
Sign-Language Animations
with CG
4.2Generating CG Animation based
on Japanese Text
In this research, we first convert the
Sign lang uage, used mainly by
congenitally deaf persons, is a separate
language with its own vocabulary and
grammar, and there is demand for enriched
sign language services in addition to
subtitles from people using it as their first
language. In response to this demand, we
are conducting research on technology able
to generate computer graphic (CG) sign
language animation from Japanese input
text3. However, it is not currently practical
to convert Japanese text on an arbitrary
topic to sign language, to so we have
limited our scope to weather news. This
is still useful because weather information
can be urgent at times, and such a system
would be used for emergency news at times
such as late at night when a sign language
interpreter is not available. It is also more
feasible technically because vocabulary and
grammar used is somewhat limited.
■ Figure 3: Skeletal model of CG signlanguage character
4.1Recording Sign-language Motion
Data
The key data which forms the basis
of this research is an electronic recording
New Breeze Spring 2013
13
input Japanese text into a sequence of sign
language words (transcribe as a sequence
of sign-language motions), and then
the sequence is converted to a CG signlanguage video. To convert from Japanese
to the sign-language word sequence, we
use mainly an example-based method. We
are gathering examples from NHK's signlanguage news program as basic data for
this. We are recording pairs of segments
from the sign-language news announcer
script and the corresponding sign-language
video (including motions such as nods and
pointing), transcribed into sign-language
word-sequence data, and have currently
gathered approximately 30,000 example
data pairs.
To generate the CG animation, we use
TV program Making Language (TVML),
which was developed by NHK. TVML
is a language system that incorporates a
variety of concepts and know-how about
television program production, such as
camera work and lighting. It can be used
to create video content according to diverse
production direction. Scenes of a program
are described using TVML (in a TVML
script), assigning lines (words) and body
motion to CG characters, and the TVML
script is then interpreted in sequence by a
TVML player to generate the CG video
content. With TVML, CG animation
can be generated flexibly according to a
program plan, easily changing aspects
such as the character performing the sign
language, the background, the point-ofview, or camera parameters such as zoom.
4.3Prototype Automatic Translation
System
We have prototyped a system that
automatically generates CG animations of
sign language from input Japanese text by
combining the above technologies (Figure
4). The discussion topics handled by the
system are limited to weather information,
but it is able to generate sign-language
animations from Japanese text input within
that scope.
A systematic evaluation of the quality
of the sign-language animation is still to be
done, but we have received the following
impressions from people viewing the results
at events such as the NHK STRL Open
House.
• There are sections that are understandable
sign language and it looks promising.
• There is room for overall improvements
such as naturalness.
We plan to continue evaluating
and improving the system, but we need
to develop methods for evaluating the
correctness and fluency of the generated
sign-language animations, and the
cooperation and understanding of the deaf
community will be important in this.
5. Research on a News Service
using Simplified Japanese
The number of foreigners living
in Japan is increasing yearly. At the end
of 2011, 2.08 million foreigners were
registered, accounting for 1.63% of the
overall population. Many among this
■ Figure 4: Prototype Japanese-to-sign language translation system
14
New Breeze Spring 2013
population experience difficulty in daily
life because they are not proficient with the
Japanese language.
According to various surveys, these
people would prefer to receive information
in their first language, but this would be
difficult to achieve because they come
from over 190 different countries. To
address this, we have begun initiatives
to provide information in simplif ied
Japanese, according to the level of Japanese
comprehension of this population. In
similar initiatives, some municipalities have
begun providing information in simplified
Japanese in addition to several other
languages such as Chinese and English.
Considering such factors, the authors
have begun research on providing news
in simplified Japanese. In April, 2012, we
initiated a trial Web site called "NEWS
WEB EASY," providing the regular news
rewritten in simplified form.
In this section, we describe the
features of simplified Japanese, research
on technology to support these efforts, and
future issues.
5.1Features of Simplified Japanese
used for the News
In rewriting news content, we decided
to use beginner-level Japanese grammar
and vocabulary. To set a concrete level, we
referred to Japanese language tests taken
by foreigners. However, it was difficult to
write the news correctly and concisely using
this standard, so we expanded the grammar
and vocabulary in some ways. Thus,
■ Figure 5: Replaced sections
the simplified Japanese we use should
be understandable by foreigners having
completed a beginner level and moving into
an intermediate level of Japanese ability.
5.2 Web Page Functions
In addition to simplifying the Japanese
in articles, we added the following to how
Web pages are displayed to make the
content more understandable for foreigners.
• Dictionary lookup
Words that are beyond the beginner level
can be looked up in an elementary school
dictionary, and simple explanations are
added for words not in the dictionary.
• Display of proper nouns in color
Most names of people, places and
companies are not in the dictionary,
so these are shown in a special color
indicating that they are a different
category.
• Furigana (pronunciation key)
All kanji characters appearing in an
article are shown with furigana.
• Audio read-out
A function to read articles with a
synthesized voice is provided for those
that can understand more easily through
listening than reading.
An image of the trial screen is shown
in Figure 5.
5.3 Support Systems and Trial Web Site
Rewriting of the news was done by
pairing reporters with teachers having
training in simplif ied Japanese. Two
systems were developed to support this pair
work4.
The first was a rewriting-support
editor. This editor can use colors and
numbers to display sentences with difficult
vocabulary or that are too long. This
improves rewriting consistency no matter
who does the work.
The other is an example search system.
This system stores pairs of simplified
Japanese news articles with the original
articles in a searchable database. It enables
the results of rewriting difficult expressions
in the past to be used for reference.
The trial web site, "NEWS WEB
EASY" (http://www.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/),
providing news using simplified Japanese
prepared using the above two systems, and
was opened in April, 2012. Initially, one
article per day was provided, but starting in
August, after revising the operational flow
and making improvements to the systems,
this was increased to three articles per day.
5.4 Future Plans
In order to create a full-fledged service
from the current trial site, many more
articles would need to be rewritten. Only
a limited amount of additional manual
work is possible, and adding automatic
translation technology to the rewriting
support system could be effective in
implementing this, so we plan to advance
development in that area in the future.
6. The Future
Television has never been a portable
medium, but with the spread of OneSeg,
this has changed. Difficulty in hearing
voices is no longer just a problem for the
aged or disabled, and subtitles have become
a useful means of guaranteeing information
for the general public as well. Trials linking
broadcasting with communications have
been able to deliver information suited to
the physical condition and capabilities of
individuals, in ways not possible with earlier
broadcasting frameworks, demonstrating
possibilities that can be expected in detail.
As broadcast services diversify, we will
continue to address issues for improving
accessibility as well.
References
1 Komori, Dan, Takagi, Kurozumi, Shoda, Komiyama, Hoshi,
Murakawa: "Research on Audio Balance Control based on
the Loudness Level," IEICE Journal, Vol. J92-A no. 5, pp.
344-352 (2009) (Japanese).
2 Ando, Imai, Kobayashi, Honma, Goto, Seiyama, Mishima,
Kobayakawa, et al.: "A simultaneous Subtitling System for
Broadcast News Programs with a Speech Recognizer,"
IEICE Journal Vol. J84-DII, No. 6, pp. 877-887 (2001)
(Japanese).
3 Hiruma, Shimizu, Umeda, Kato, Miyazaki, Inoue, Kaneko,
Nagashima: "Automatic Generation System of CG Sign
Language Animation," Journal of the Inst. of Image
Electronics Engineers of Japan, Vol. 41, No. 4, pp. 406410 (2012) (Japanese).
4 Mino, Tanaka: "Assistant Tool for Rewriting News Scripts
into Easy Japanese: For foreign-born residents in Japan,"
ITE Annual Conference 2012, 18-6, (2012) (Japanese).
New Breeze Spring 2013
15
JICA Training Program: Broadcasting Executive’s Seminar
International Economic Affairs Division
Global ICT Strategy Bureau
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
TV broadcasting plays an important role in many areas, including the
dissemination of knowledge in the fields of
education, healthcare, disaster prevention
and environmental protection, and in the
democratization of government. In particular, digital broadcasting services, which
are expected to become more commonplace
in the future, are not only able to effectively
expand the broadcast area of high-quality
video due to their technical properties, but
are also able to deliver a wide variety of
information over many different channels,
and are expected to resolve a variety of
issues in developing countries.
In Japan, digital broadcasting started
in December 2003 in Tokyo, Osaka and
Nagoya, with the rest of the country following suit in December 2006. Meanwhile,
One-seg broadcasts for mobile devices were
started in April 2006, and on 24 July 2011
(Sunday), the digital switch-over was completed as terrestrial analog broadcasts were
terminated.
During the spread of terrestrial digital
broadcasting across Japan, a public-private
partnership was formed to actively support
the international expansion of the ISDB-T
(Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting –
Terrestrial) broadcasting standard through
activities such as seminars, demonstrations
and trial broadcasts. This partnership consisted of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
and Communications (MIC) and other related authorities, together with the Digital
Broadcasting Experts Group (DiBEG)—a
group of broadcasters and manufacturers
within the Association of Radio Industries
and Businesses (ARIB). As a result, Brazil
decided to adopt ISDB-T in June 2006,
and then collaborated with Japan in the
establishment of a public-private partner-
Closing session (1)
16
New Breeze Spring 2013
ship to promote ISDB-T in other Latin
American countries. As of March 2013,
ISDB-T has so far been adopted by 14
countries, mostly in Latin America, where
commercial services or trial broadcasts are
already under way. The digital switchover of TV broadcasting has now become
a global trend, including in developing
countries, where the transition to digital
broadcasting is being met with widespread
interest and enthusiasm.
In recognition of this situation, the
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has been working in partnership
with JICA to hold a training program
called the Broadcasting Executive’s Seminar every autumn since 2010. This training
program is provided as part of the activities
associated with the international deployment of ISDB-T, which is the Japanese
standard for terrestrial digital broadcasting.
The aims of this training program are to
introduce Japan’s broadcasting policy and
the current situation of broadcasting, understand the latest trends in broadcasting
technology (including digital switch-over),
learn about issues such as the formation
of policies for the installation and expansion of broadcasting facilities suitable for
developing countries, and contribute to the
development of the broadcasting field in
participating countries. Originally, based
on a government technology cooperation
plan, an ICT Executive’s Seminar was held
from 2005 for broadcasting directors and
others working at a similar level in government or industry in the broadcasting or
telecommunications fields, but a new training program was established to provide
further training in the broadcasting field.
This training program is designed for
executives with managerial roles in governmental broadcasting administrations of
countries that have adopted ISDB-T or are
considering doing so, or at the divisional
head level in public broadcasting organizations. Its aim is to enable participants to
tackle issues in their own countries by
gaining a deeper understanding of diversification in the broadcasting industry
(including the role of public broadcasting,
the digital switch-over of terrestrial broad-
casting, and fusion of broadcasting and
communications), and of the state of
administrative and legal provisions and
business systems for broadcasters. In this
regard, the following five goals have been
set:
1) Obtain a better understanding of the
current situation regarding broadcasting
policy, administration and regulations in
the context of developments in the Japanese
broadcasting sector.
2) Obtain a better understanding of
Japanese policies and measures for the
introduction of digital terrestrial TV
broadcasting, the distinctive features of the
ISDB-T standard, and the main technical
trends in TV broadcasting.
3) Obtain a better understanding of the
current situation and future prospects of
operations at Japanese broadcasters.
4) Obtain a better understanding of the
operation of TV broadcasting facilities,
and of the management of radio wave
supervision to ensure the legal use of radio
waves, including broadcast bands.
5) Identify problems and issues in one’s
own country, engage in discussions to
decide how these should be resolved, and
create a report.
This training program is held in
Japan, and the fact that it takes place in
an environment that is fully equipped
with the latest broadcasting facilities with
instructors selected from government
agencies, broadcasting stations, research
organizations and manufacturers means
that participants can effectively acquire
a broad spectrum of knowledge, ranging
from broadcasting policies to the operation
of broadcasting stations, and the broadcasting technology of Japan, which is well
advanced compared with other countries.
Furthermore, the action plans developed
by trainees can form the basis of broadcast
policy initiatives by the broadcasting administration organizations of their home
countries. It is expected that trainees will
play a central role in the administration
of broadcasting in their home countries,
thereby making a valuable contribution to
the planning and implementation of action
plans that are already under way, and to the
development of the ICT field in Japan.
As a specific example of how progress
can be made, we can consider the training
program held in 2012. The duration of this
training program was two weeks. Before
coming to Japan for this training program,
the trainees had prepared country reports
on broadcasting in their own countries (the
current situation, organization, and so on).
These were presented at the start of the
training program, allowing the trainees to
share information about the status of their
own country with all the other trainees.
Next, the trainees were given a series
of lectures on policy, covering such topics
as an overview of ISDB-T at the Ministry
of Internal Affairs and Communications,
the current state of broadcasting policy in
Japan, and the completion of the switchover to terrestrial digital broadcasting
(switching off the analog signals). These
lectures not only introduced the trainees to
ISDB-T and deepened their understanding
of Japan’s policies, but also allowed them to
share their experiences of terrestrial digital
television in Japan.
Next, the operation methods of
specific systems and the advantages of
Japanese products were also introduced.
This includes visits and lectures, which
were conducted with the cooperation of
broadcasters and manufacturers. In Japan,
broadcasting consists of both public and
private broadcasting, and these lectures
explained how broadcasting can be managed and operated from each of these
viewpoints. Opportunities were provided
for visits to facilities such as broadcasting
stations, manufacturing facilities and the
transmitter room in Tokyo Tower, allowing
the trainees to deepen their understanding
of how terrestrial digital broadcasting is
operated in practice. The training program
included lectures on data broadcasting
and One-seg broadcasting, which are two
characteristics of the ISDB-T standard,
and set-top boxes, which are key elements
in developing countries for the commencement of terrestrial digital broadcasting.
Furthermore, this training program
was scheduled to coincide with the InterBEE (International Broadcast Equipment
Exhibition) event, which is held every
autumn in Japan. The equipment exhibited at Inter-BEE includes cutting-edge
broadcast systems from Japan and around
the world, including broadcast, video and
audio equipment. By getting the chance to
see this equipment, the trainees were able
to gather useful information that they can
draw on when deciding on the way forward
for terrestrial digital television in their own
countries.
To conclude the training program, each
trainee created an action plan and delivered
a presentation on the sort of actions needed
for the introduction and spread of terrestrial digital television in the trainee’s own
country based on the training program
in Japan, and exchanged opinions with
other trainees regarding their respective
presentations. Also, by including visits to
regional TV stations if required, trainees
were given the opportunity to consider the
issues of terrestrial digital broadcasting in
a regional situation. Therefore, although
this training program was short, it was
structured to provide a thorough consideration of ISDB-T’s policies, technologies,
operational requirements, and so on.
When this training program was first
held in 2010, most of the trainees came
from Latin America, but as the international expansion of ISDB-T continues,
requests for participation have also been
received from African and Asian countries.
Of the 2012 trainees, four were from Latin
America, seven were from Africa, and one
was from Asia. Also, the opportunity to
participate in this sort of training program
is extremely valuable in that it enables the
trainees to interact with broadcasters and
individuals from the home countries of
other trainees via ISDB-T. This training program also provides the lecturers
with the opportunity to exchange views
with the trainees on such matters as the
broadcasting policies and practical issues
of broadcasting in other countries, which is
useful for future international expansion.
From 2013, this training program
is due to evolve from the “Broadcasting
Executive’s Seminar” into the “ISDB-T
Broadcasting Executive’s Seminar” with a
greater focus on the transition to terrestrial
digital television. Like the “Broadcasting
Executive’s Seminar” before it, the “ISDBT Broadcasting Executive’s Seminar” will
be designed for managerial executives involved in the proposal and implementation
of broadcasting policies in countries that
have adopted ISDB-T, or are considering doing so. The earlier “Broadcasting
Executive’s Seminar” training programs
also covered the basics of ISDB-T and diverse issues, including Japan’s broadcasting
policies. However, from 2013 the lectures
will become more focused, and will introduce know-how related to matters such as
broadcasting policies started with Japan’s
completion of the digital switch-over in
July 2011. They will also introduce a broad
Closing session (2)
range of topics, such as the policy findings
and public/private partnership methods
that were needed for the digital switchover. By holding discussions on the issues
surrounding broadcasting in the trainees’
home countries (especially issues associated
with the digital switch-over), the aim is to
investigate policies for overcoming these
issues to achieve the effective introduction
and operation of terrestrial digital broadcasting in these countries. By sharing the
experience gained in Japan to support the
trainees in their role of establishing policies
for completing a digital switch-over in their
own countries, our basic aim is to contribute to the introduction of terrestrial digital
television both in Japan and overseas. We
are reviewing the lecture content and visit
destinations based on our three years of
experience with the “Broadcasting Executive’s Seminar,” and are working towards a
more effective training program.
In addition to this training program,
we are also cooperating with “Terrestrial
Digital Broadcasting Technology,” which
is being led by the Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) for training
related to terrestrial digital broadcasting
in Japan. The “Broadcasting Executive’s
Seminar” was a training program targeting policy makers, whereas the “Terrestrial
Digital Broadcasting Technology” training
program is mainly aimed at broadcast engineers. We hope that both of these training
programs will support the establishment of
policies as well as technologies.
Finally, we would like to thank JICA,
various broadcasting stations, manufacturers, and the assisting coordinators for
their valuable cooperation in delivering this
training program, and the NHK Communications Training Institute (NHK-CTI)
for serving as course leaders in the implementation of this program. We would
also like to thank all the trainees from
16 different countries—including Latin
America, Asia, and African states—for
their cooperation with previous training
programs.
New Breeze Spring 2013
17
Transmission System Standard and Operational Guidelines
for Area Broadcasting
Izumi Hatakeyama
Manager
Standard Technology Development Dept.
Information Technology Development Div.
System & Software Technology Platform
Sony Corporation
Chief Specialist
Telecommunication Systems Equipment Design Group,
Broadcasting and Network Systems Dept.
Toshiba Corporation Social Infrastructure Systems Company
1.Introduction
Effective use of white space* is receiving much attention
around the world, and area broadcasting is a technology that
uses it to meet the demand for distributing information within
small areas up to about 2 km in size. It uses white space in the
UHF band (470-710 MHz) that has been allocated to Integrated
Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T).
White spaces can only be used locally, but they can be used as
a means to distribute local information that is valuable within the
small area. By applying the ISDB-T digital terrestrial broadcasting
format for area broadcasting, the signal can be received by mobile
television function on devices such as mobile phones, and home
televisions which are already wide-spread. After conducting many
demonstration tests, studies of technical conditions and studies
related to placement of base stations were concluded, and the
■ Figure 1: Area broadcasting services
18
New Breeze Spring 2013
Kyosuke Dobashi
system was put into force in April, 2012, ahead of other systems
using white spaces.
1.1 Area broadcasting overview
Small areas where area broadcasting could be used include
stadiums, university campuses, shopping streets and business
districts, airports and train stations, museums and sight-seeing
areas, municipalities and disaster shelters.
Various information (facilities, advertising, promotion,
guidance, events, sight-seeing, life-style, etc.) related to the
location can be provided over suitable time periods (permanent or
temporary, such as the duration of an event). (Figure 1)
Broadcasts cover indoor areas or small areas from several
meters to 2 km in size, so they can be built using transmit power
in the 10 mW range, either existing digital terrestrial television
transmitters or simplified transmitters for providing mobile
phone services (One-Seg), and services can be initiated at low
equipment cost. Accordingly, ordinary businesses and facilities
(governments, schools, etc.), and not just existing broadcasters, can
provide broadcast services easily, so these services can contribute to
regional economic development and revitalization.
By using the same receivers as digital terrestrial television,
which is already widespread, information can be presented not
only on home televisions, but also with the mobile television
function on devices such as mobile phones (One-Seg) and viewed
at any location the user visits.
Since broadcasting with these characteristics can provide
information easily to people in and around refuge areas during
disasters, when communication conditions have deteriorated,
they are promising as methods useful for providing information
to prevent and decrease damage during emergency, as well as
providing local information during ordinary times.
1.2 Overview of area broadcasting standards
Since area broadcasting uses white spaces within the digital
terrestrial television frequency band and use the same digital
terrestrial television receivers, they conform to digital terrestrial
television broadcasting standards (ISDB-T), but additional
standards specific to area broadcasting have also been created
to ensure that they do not affect digital terrestrial television
broadcasts. These standards were created by the Association
of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB), as were the digital
terrestrial television broadcast standards.
The system stipulates forms and conditions for frequency use
that are different from the digital terrestrial television format,
so a new standard for the area broadcasting transmission format
(ARIB STD-B55) was created.
A new technical report providing operational guidelines for
area broadcasting (ARIB TR-B35) was also created.
2. Overview of the Standard
2.1 Overview
Area broadcasting is being studied in two stages. The first
stage deals with receiver devices that are already in wide use and
the second stage deals with more sophisticated services still to
be studied and aims to utilize frequencies more efficiently. In a
revision of a Ministry of Internal affairs and Communications
■ Table 1: Area broadcast radio format
Frequencyuse form
Frequency
bandwidth
Segment structure and main uses
5.7 MHz
Composed of 13 segments.
As with digital terrestrial television
broadcasts, One-Seg and other services
such as high definition broadcasts are
transmitted simultaneously.
5.7 MHz
Composed of 13 segments.
The One-Seg service is transmitted
on the central segment. Null packets
are transmitted on the remaining 12
segments.
468 kHz
Composed of one segment.
Only the single central segment of the
channel is used to transmit a One-Seg
service.
(MIC) Ordinance enacted in April 2012, conditions for use
of frequencies in the first stage were stipulated (as indicated in
Table 1).
The area broadcasting transmission system standard (ARIB
STD-B55) regulates the area broadcasting transmission system
based on this MIC ordinance.
In creating the area broadcasting standard, consideration is
given to the fact that it uses white spaces in the digital terrestrial
broadcasting band, to the fact that it shares existing digital
terrestrial television broadcast receivers (including mobile phones
supporting One-Seg), and to not affecting regular broadcasts.
2.2 The standard
ARIB STD-B55 specifies the transmission system for area
broadcasting and has the same structure as the digital terrestrial
television broadcasting transmission system standard (ARIB
STD-B31).
The standard is composed of two parts. The first part describes
the full-segment area broadcasting transmission format and the
second part describes One-Seg area broadcasting transmission
format. Both parts contain a main specification and an appendix.
Note that the One-Seg with Null area broadcasting
transmission format occupies the same bandwidth as the
full-segment format, so it conforms to the full-segment area
broadcasting transmission format.
The main specification stipulates the channel-coding scheme
for area broadcasting in terms of its basic structural elements,
including multiplex-frame configuration, error correction,
energy dispersal and delay adjustment; and the frequency use
requirements, including frequency bandwidth, permissible
transmission-frequency deviation, transmission-spectrum mask,
and radio equipment. The annex specifies transmission parameters
such as data rates for extending the system to handle 7 MHz and 8
MHz bandwidths.
The specifications for frequency use requirements with area
broadcasting are somewhat relaxed relative to digital terrestrial
television broadcasting to allow for low-cost transmitter
equipment, taking into account that only small areas can be
handled, with the power supplied to antenna transmission line
of 50 mW or less for full-segment and full-segment with Null
forms, and (50/13) mW or less for One-Seg. However, to avoid
any effect on reception of digital terrestrial television broadcasting,
which are the primary service using the same frequency bands, the
transmission-spectrum mask values specified are more strict than
digital terrestrial television broadcasting values.
Guidelines for various conditions related to recommended
program transmission and transmission facilities when operating
an area broadcast are stipulated in the appendix.
3.Overview of the Area Broadcasting
Operational Guidelines
3.1 Overview
The area broadcasting operational guidelines (ARIB TR-B35)
were created as an ARIB technical report and specify technical
parameters and other operational details used in practical operation
of area broadcasting conforming to MIC Ordinances and bulletins
and ARIB standards.
New Breeze Spring 2013
19
■ Figure 2: Services for full segment and One-Seg forms of area broadcasting
The area broadcast operational guidelines reference the
operational guidelines for digital terrestrial television broadcasting,
ARIB TR-B14 since area broadcasting uses the same receivers as
digital terrestrial television broadcasting, and include additional
regulations related to basic operation that are particular to area
broadcasting, and regulations to prevent them from hindering
operation of the main digital terrestrial broadcasting stations,
which are the primary services.
3.2 Operational guidelines
The ARIB TR-B35 area broadcasting operational guidelines
gives guidelines for operation of area broadcasting and has the
same structure as the ARIB TR-B14 technical report for digital
terrestrial television broadcasting. As with the transmission format
standard for area broadcasting, ARIB STD-B55, it is composed
of two parts. The first part contains operational guidelines for
full-segment area broadcasting, and the second part contains
operational guidelines for One-Seg area broadcasting. (Figure 2)
As with digital terrestrial television broadcasting, the fullsegment area broadcasting described in Part 1 simultaneously
broadcasts high-definition and other services that can be viewed
on home televisions and mobile services (One-Seg) that can be
viewed on mobile devices such as mobile phones.
Operation forms specific to area broadcasting, including OneSeg area broadcasting in Part 2 and One-Seg area broadcasting
with Null in Part 1, only transmit mobile services (One-Seg) that
can be viewed on mobile terminals.
Both Part 1 and Part 2 consist of a main guideline and an
appendix.
The main guideline stipulates mainly what should be
referenced in the guidelines for digital terrestrial television
broadcasting (ARIB TR-B14) and how.
The appendices stipulate operational limitations and warnings
that must be observed by area broadcasting operators in order to
20
New Breeze Spring 2013
avoid obstructing the operation of the main terrestrial broadcasters,
which offer the primary services.
For full segment area broadcasting, Part 1 stipulates mainly
operational limitations on functions specific to the major digital
terrestrial broadcasters, and for One-Seg area broadcasting, Part 2
stipulates mainly operational methods for using frequencies where
digital terrestrial television broadcasting is not being operated.
4. Conclusions
We have given an overview of area broadcasting services that
have begun in Japan and introduced the transmission standards
and operational guidelines for these services.
Area broadcasting makes effective use of white spaces, and by
providing a variety of information appropriate to a location in this
broadcasting format, it holds great promise for services that can
help regional economic development and revitalization.
Study has also begun on broadcast formats with more
sophisticated functionality, and we hope that area broadcasting
will develop into a powerful information service covering limited
areas in the future. We also anticipate that similar services will
be offered in other countries that have adopted standards in the
ISDB-T family.
space: Frequencies allocated to broadcasting, but also usable for other purposes,
* White
depending on geographical and technical conditions
Reference
1 Standard: ARIB STD-B55 Transmission System for Area Broadcasting
2 Standard: ARIB STD-B31 Transmission System for Digital Terrestrial Television
Broadcasting
3 Technical Report: ARIB TR-B35 Operational Guidelines for Area Broadcasting
4 Technical Report: ARIB TR-B14 Operational Guidelines for Digital Terrestrial Television
Broadcasting
5 "Overview of the transmission format specification for area broadcasting (ARIB STD-B55
ver. 1.0)," ARIB BULLETIN, No. 79, pp. 2-7, 2012
6 "Area broadcasting operational regulations (ARIB TR-B35)," ARIB BULLETIN, No. 79, pp.
8-13, 2012
Telecommunications for Disasters and
Pandemics
Isao Nakajima
M.D., Ph.D., Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care
Tokai University
Tokai University was a Sector Member for 13 years since 2000
and became an academic in 2013. The university has been actively
involved in ITU-D focusing on telemedicine, and has engaged in a
number of activities introduced below.
I have for many years supported Prof. Leonid Androuchko, a
member of Telemedicine Question (Q14/2) in the ITU-D SG2, as
a co-rapporteur.
1. Countermeasures against avian influenza using ICT
The ARGOS system that is currently being used in migratory
bird flyway surveys contains a heavy ground station unit and
cannot be attached to small migratory birds due to its high
battery consumption. Tokai University, in collaboration with the
Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, is developing a compact size
terminal that emits a wireless packet signal with a 1-10 mW output
using an ISM frequency band of 2.4 GHz that can be utilized in a
data collection system for relay transmission of various data such as
heart rate, respiratory rate, wingstroke frequency, body movement
data based on the store-and-forward system, and GPS location
data from an on-board accelerometer. In the future, we expect
to develop a power generation method using electromagnetic
induction for a subcutaneous device that is protected from the sun
to detect antigen-antibody reactions. (Figure 1)
2. Ambulance-based video transmission
The Advanced Critical Care and Emergency Service Center
of Tokai University Hospital registers patient intake from about
7,000 ambulance and more than 400 emergency rescue helicopter
calls per year and is ranked first or second in terms of the number
of patient intake in Japan. We are involved in research projects on
counter NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) terrorism, one of
which involves real-time transmission of video and digital 12-lead
ECGs from a moving land vehicle. Specifically as shown in the
picture below, an emergency vehicle that has the ability to access
a stationary orbit or quasi-zenith satellite from land is used (for
research communication purposes; property of Tokai University).
■ Figure 1: Flight test using a wingstrokebased back-mounted
electromagnetic-induction-based
power generator and data logger
(Japanese pheasant)
Two quadrant-detector-equipped satellite tracking devices are
employed at the front and back sides of the vehicle to reduce the
shadowing effect caused by obstacles. We proposed that this
system can become one of the applications for communication
missions carried by quasi-zenith satellites. (Figure 2)
3. Roles and challenges of communication in the
accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company's
Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant
In the report on the survey conducted by Prof. Nakajima’s
group upon request from the National Diet of Japan Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission,
it was noticed that extended damage had occurred because
“Evacuation instructions were not appropriately transmitted to the
public”. Because power supply from Tohoku Electric at the disaster
site stopped due to the earthquake, mobile phone and fiber optic
networks were disrupted resulting in insufficient information
transmission. Iodine tablet were not distributed and administered.
Furthermore, there was no other choice than to transport the
elderly and hospital patients by bus over long distances, which
took much time and resulted in loss of human lives. The NAIIC
believes that if smooth information transmission could have been
achieved, unnecessary exposure to residents could have been
avoided. Communication played a crucial role in the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear accident. The following items should be noted,
and are expected to be reflected in the coming Communication
Administration.
1.Establishment of an emergency phone number (119) as a
Universal Service Obligation
2.Establishment of a public phone line as a Universal Service
Obligation
3.Establishment of an emergency announcement channel,
“Nigero!” (“Get out of there!”), as a final decision call
4.Establishment of double or triple SPEEDI line as a Radiation
Measurement System
5. Development of an emergency radio communication network
■ Figure 2: Ambulances equipped with two
satellite tracking devices
For efficient realization
of the above items, it is
essential to have the full
cooperation of public and
private sectors (including
SDF) to prepare stationary
orbit satellites, high orbit
quasi-zenith satellites
and reserve fiber optics
spanning hundreds of
kilometers.
New Breeze Spring 2013
21
REPORT
Report on ITU Workshop on “eHealth Services in
Low-resource Settings: Requirements and ITU Role”
Masahito Kawamori
Service Evolution Laboratories
NTT
1.Introduction
An ITU workshop on eHealth was held in Tokyo, Japan, from
Monday 4th to Tuesday 5th February, 2013. This workshop was
hosted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
(MIC), Japan and was attended by 135 people from over 20
countries. The workshop included an introduction to the needs
and expectations of developing countries with regard to eHealth,
and the advanced technology that may have to be considered for
standardization in the future.
2. Background and purpose of the event
In developed countries including Japan, the aging society
problem is causing a chronic shortage of doctors. Meanwhile,
developing countries also have a chronic shortage of doctors but
for a different reason, namely the limited availability of medical
services.
Tele-medicine and eHealth are being studied as solutions to
these problems, and at ITU-T SG16 and ITU-D SG2, studies are
being pursued with the aim of standardizing eHealth and making
it widely available in developing countries. In November 2012,
the ITU and WHO (World Health Organization) launched
a partnership called the mHealth initiative, which aims to use
mobile phones to deliver eHealth services combating noninfectious illnesses1. Since 2012, an ITU-T focus group called
FG-M2M has been studying the standardization of eHealth as a
machine-to-machine (M2M) application.
With the aim of ensuring that eHealth standardization
proceeds smoothly in the future, the ITU-D and ITU-T held
a joint eHealth workshop2 to provide a forum for dialogue and
the exchange of information between each of their members. In
this way, we aim to clarify the special requirements of developing
Photo 1
22
New Breeze Spring 2013
Hideo Imanaka
R&D Planning Department
NTT
countries, and specify the items for future standardization towards
the implementation of eHealth using advanced technology.
3. Overview of the event
3.1 Opening and keynote speeches
Opening speeches were made by Eiichi Tanaka, Vice-Minister
for Policy Coordination of MIC, Japan (Photo 1), and by Sameer
Sharma of the ITU Asia-Pacific regional office on behalf of
the ITU Secretary-General. These were followed by keynote
speeches from Tetsushi Sakamoto, the State Secretary for MIC,
Japan on the subject of Japan's eHealth policies, and Kiyoshi
Kurokawa of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies,
who gave a presentation under the title of "Global Agenda in Post
Fukushima" in which he raised issues that should be addressed
not just by Japan but by the whole world in the wake of the Great
East Japan Earthquake. This speech stressed the importance of
resilience based on the assumption of diverse risks. It also pointed
out that as the world evolves from the Web 2.0 era into the Web
3.0 era, mobile devices such as tablet PCs will come to play a more
important role. Mark Landry of the Philippines gave a speech
on behalf of the WHO in which he described some examples of
eHealth policies across Asia, and the current status of cooperation
with the WHO (Photo 2).
3.2 Requirements from developing countries
On the theme of implementing eHealth in a low-resource
setting, representatives from India, Sudan, Uganda, Algeria, the
United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Myanmar gave
presentations on the current situation of eHealth in each country,
the issues that need to be addressed, and the requirements in each
case. The requirements of developing countries are characterized
Photo 2
REPORT
by delayed development of infrastructure not only for medical care
but also for insurance, sanitation and health management, and a
shortage of healthcare workers coupled with a poor educational
environment. Instead of the advanced eHealth systems that are
being considered in developed countries, these presentations
introduced solutions such as Web-based sharing and education
of medical information, using video conferencing to facilitate
collaboration between medical workers including doctors, and
using mobile phones for medical consulting (mHealth), whereby
eHealth is expected to provide a broad range of benefits.
3.3 Items for standardization from developed countries
Representatives from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and the
United States introduced some advanced examples of eHealth
initiatives, and discussed the challenges of implementing eHealth.
NTT Data gave a presentation introducing use cases of personal
health record (PHR) management and monitoring as examples
of mHealth services in Japan, and stressed the importance of
security and privacy protection. The representative from Singapore
introduced a Smart TV health management system based on
ITU standards, and showed that interactive eHealth using TV
sets and remote control devices may be suitable for an aging
society since these devices can be easily used even by elderly
people. Also, the US representative introduced the importance of
considering eHealth for people with disabilities; NICT introduced
the possibility of a body area network (BAN) that people can
wear in order to connect to healthcare equipment; and Fujitsu
introduced the possibility of a heart simulator that aims to improve
healthcare technology. These presentations highlighted the need
for standardization of the data structures and protocols required
for the transmission of PHR and other data, of the application
interfaces and transmission methods used between medical/
healthcare devices and telecommunication networks, wireless
devices and fixed devices, and of security, which is essential when
exchanging PHR data.
3.4 eHealth in the event of disaster
The experience gained from the Great East Japan Earthquake
with regard to the use of eHealth in disaster situations were
introduced. A&D made a presentation about a monitoring system
for information such as blood pressure for health management of
people affected by disasters, which was actually put to use after the
Great East Japan Earthquake. Professor Isao Nakajima of Tokai
University—who is the ITU-D vice rapporteur for eHealth and
co-chairman of this workshop—described items that need to be
studied in eHealth and radioactivity disasters in relation to the
nuclear power plant incident. These presentations demonstrated
the usefulness of eHealth in the event of disaster, and made a case
for the importance of preserving two-way communications.
3.5 Future direction of work with the ITU
One of the authors (Kawamori), who also acted as co-chairman
of this workshop, drew up the following summary of the results of
this workshop and the future direction of eHealth standardization
at the ITU.
•To promote the spread of eHealth, it is important to provide
education in order to eliminate misconceptions about the
circumstances of developing countries.
•From the viewpoint of standardization, to establish
cooperation between the ITU and related organizations with
regard to requirements, terminology definitions and data
sets/applications, and related organizations
•In particular, to make a terminology database, since the
technical terminology relating to eHealth covers many fields
including medicine, healthcare and ICT
•For eHealth related regions, to study the application of this
technology to elderly people, disaster victims and disabled
people.
•In the future, to supply information to the ITU website
including the content of speeches given at this workshop,
and to hold an enlightenment event in cooperation with the
WHO.
4. Other related events
Alongside the workshop, there were also demonstrations from
NTT Laboratories related to mHealth (photo 3). A simple health
management system was introduced where healthcare equipment
including blood pressure gauges and SMS text messaging is
used to implement mHealth with low initial investment. These
demonstrations drew a great deal of interest from many countries,
including African nations.
Photo 3
5. Conclusion
eHealth is a medical care and health management solution
that has been globally recognized as important by developing
and developed countries alike. It is expected that this field will
continue to grow in the future. For its efficient global development,
international standards, with appropriate consideration of
the regional characteristics and environmental conditions of
each country, are essential. It is hoped that this workshop will
contribute to the expansion of developing countries, which is
the scope of ITU-D, as well as the further development of ICT
standardization, which is the scope of ITU-T.
References
1 ITUWHO mHealth:
http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2012/77.aspx#.URNifh0j6So
2 ITU workshop Tokyo:
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Workshops-and-Seminars/e-Health/201302/Pages/default.aspx
New Breeze Spring 2013
23
REPORT
Report on the Fourth Meeting of
ITU-T FG-DR&NRR in Tokyo
Noriyuki Araki
Access Network Service Systems Laboratories
NTT
1.Introduction
The fourth meeting of the ITU-T Focus Group on Disaster
Relief Systems, Network Resilience and Recovery (FGDR&NRR) was held in Tokyo from Tuesday 5th to Friday 8th
February, 2013. This meeting was attended by approximately 80
people from 15 countries. In addition to the usual discussions
relating to standardization, this event included a visit to the
disaster affected area in Tohoku and the NICT Resilient ICT
Research Center.
2. Background and purpose of the event
In the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
of March 2011, the ITU-T established a focus group (FG) in June
2012 to clarify the role of ICT in disaster situations and investigate
the need for international standardization at the ITU-T1. The
author (Araki) was appointed as the chairman of this FG. To
introduce Japan's disaster resistance research to the world, in
addition to the usual FG meeting, the event also included an
introduction to eHealth activities that are needed at the time of a
disaster, a technical visit to the region affected by the Great East
Japan Earthquake, and demonstrations of disaster-resistant ICT.
3. Overview of the event
3.1 Speeches at special sessions
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) gave a
presentation on the provision of information relating to technical
specifications (RFC: Request for Comments) for emergencies
Photo 1
24
New Breeze Spring 2013
Hideo Imanaka
R&D Planning Department
NTT
situations, and demonstrated technology for transmitting highpriority traffic without delays, which has been proposed as
an effective way of avoiding congestion in a disaster. Tokyo
University's Earthquake Research Institute proposed an
earthquake/tsunami monitoring system using submarine optical
fiber cables, and reported on the installation and planned
operation of a new system off the coast of Sanriku (total length:
120 km, node interval: 25–40 km). NTT DOCOMO introduced
an early warning system called Area Mail that uses CBS (Cell
Broadcast Service) to allow alerts and email warning messages to
be transmitted to all the mobile terminals in a specified region.
It was agreed that the FG should hold further discussions on
these technologies, and that the research items should reflect the
requirement documents. (Photo 1)
3.2 Introduction to disaster response research in Japan
From Japan, regarding technologies for strengthening disaster
resistance that were designated for research and development by
the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC),
Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake, organizations
including NTT, Tohoku University, SKY Perfect JSAT,
NEC, NTT DOCOMO and KDDI R&D Laboratories
proposed technology for the rapid recovery and restoration of
communications, which can provide a lifeline during a disaster.
An emergency communication system for people with disabilities
was proposed by the TTC (Telecommunication Technology
Committee). In order to share information about this technology
and gather information on similar systems in other
countries, it was agreed that a liaison statement
would be sent to ITU-D, ITU-R, and ITU-T
SG16 and JCA-AHF (Accessibility and Human
Factors). NTT proposed a way of configuring
networks by assembling and reconf iguring
resource units, and it was confirmed that ongoing
discussions will continue in order to further clarify
the requirements for providing people with the
means of communication in disaster situations.
It was agreed that this information would partly
be ref lected in the deliverables, including the
overview and requirements documents.
3.3 Updates of the deliverables
We discussed the updated draft overview
document based on the results of this meeting and
the previous meeting, and added a list of technical
REPORT
Photo 2
Photo 3
specifications of IETF emergency/disaster communications,
requirements for disaster message board and voice messaging
services for mobile devices, and requirements relating to technology
for the construction and reconfiguration of resource units. We
also discussed the first draft of the requirements document.
The draft table of contents was approved. It was also agreed that
requirements would be added for disaster message board services
for mobile devices and evacuation guidance systems.
5. Conclusion
3.4 Future plans
The fifth meeting is scheduled to be held in Thailand in May
20-24 2013. After that, we aim to continue holding meetings in
countries that have experienced major disasters such as floods,
hurricanes/typhoons, earthquakes or tsunamis. Since the lifetime
of this FG has been set to one year, it was confirmed that the
extension of this period would be discussed at the next meeting.
Disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes/typhoons, floods,
tsunamis and landslides occur all over the world. The responses to
the unprecedented earthquake and tsunami that Japan experienced
will be helpful for all the disaster affected countries of the world.
The establishment of international standards for dealing with
disasters is essential for the construction of a safe society, so there
are high expectations placed on this FG. We are sure that the FG
meeting in Japan has raised awareness of standardization efforts
relating to disaster response.
References
1 ITU-T Focus Group on Disaster Relief system, Network Resiliency and Recover
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/drnrr/Pages/default.aspx
2 ITU workshop Tokyo:
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Workshops-and-Seminars/e-Health/201302/Pages/default.aspx
4. Other related events
4.1 eHealth in the event of a disaster
Prior to the FG meeting, an ITU workshop on eHealth was
held on February 4th (Monday) and 5th (Tuesday)2. In one of the
sessions at this workshop, there were some presentation on eHealth
in the event of disaster, and it was recognized that the importance
of eHealth inevitably increases at such times. It is expected that
the FG will investigate this in the future.
4.2 Technical visit to Sendai
This FG included a technical visit to Sendai, including
stopovers at NTT offices that had been affected by the tsunami,
and at the NICT’s Resilient ICT research center. It was felt that
a visit to the affected area during a period of cold snowy weather
would help to highlight people's fears of disasters and the need for
countermeasures, and show the importance of working towards a
rapid recovery after a disaster has occurred. At the NICT center,
the visitors were introduced to the R&D efforts being made
by the MIC, Japan and the NICT in order to deal with largescale disasters, and they were given the chance to see the state of
research in areas including communication devices and satellite
communication equipment for ensuring regional communications
after a disaster. (Photos 2, 3)
Cover Art
Matsubaya Segawa
(Segawa of the Matsubaya)
Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806)
Woodblock print:
Courtesy of Sakai Kokodo Gallery
New Breeze Spring 2013
25
New Breeze
平成二十五年四月十日発行（年四回一、四、七、十月の十日発行）第二十五巻第二号（通巻九十八号）
定価　一冊　一、五七五円 （本体価格 一、五〇〇円、消費税 七五円）
年間購読料　六、三〇〇円 （本体価格 六、〇〇〇円、消費税 三〇〇円）