Value Creation by Contributing to Social Issues of Low Birthrate and Longevity

As an aging population and decreasing birthrate progress in Japan, we face serious social problems such as reduced working population and the accompanying stagnating economy. To suppress the decrease of the working population as much as possible, it is crucial to spur the youth to participate in society and to prolong healthy life expectancy of the elderly.

To address these issues, JVCKENWOOD is pursing the application of Gazefinder, a gaze tracking system developed with the visual and optical technologies that we have cultivated thus far, for medical equipment.

One expected use of Gazefinder is to support the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, which even among developmental disorders is known for involving particular difficulty in communication. According to the Study Related to Students Who Attend Regular Schools but Require Special Educational Support Based on the Possibility of Having a Developmental Disorder (academic year of 2012, issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), approximately 6.5% (estimate) of the surveyed students may be “children who do not have disorders in terms of intellectual development but show significant difficulty in studying and behavioral aspects.” This indicates that there are two students in every classroom of an average elementary school, meaning that it is a critical social issue in Japan, which is threatened by a decreasing working population and stagnating economy due to a low birthrate and an aging population.

During childhood, lower grade students explicitly demonstrate their difficulty in studying and behavioral aspects, while for higher grade students various complications arise and become hard to find. Therefore, it is important to identify the symptoms and respond at an early stage. (Source: Materials from the Reporting Meeting of Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, February 2016)

Appropriate diagnoses help to ensure the provision of proper support in educational environments, and to enhance the understanding of the people around children with disorders. Also, early diagnosis enables necessary support from the time of infancy, which has been proven useful for improving a child’s ability to attend regular classes. In this manner, the more children that receive early treatment via diagnosis support of Gazefinder, the more the youth will be able to engage with society in the future.

Moreover, Gazefinder is expected to be applied to early diagnosis of dementia patients, who will presumably further increase. As simplified and precise diagnosis systems for dementia are required, Gazefinder is a product which can meet this need. It minimizes the mental and physical burden during examination and accurately finds out risks of dementia. It then helps encourage early and proper treatment as well as a supporting environment, contributing to reducing the burden of both the patients and their families. As the utilization of Gazefinder advances, we anticipate that we can help solve significant issues related to medical care for seniors, such as dementia and medical expenses.