How does Japanese technology solves the issues of aging society? Toilet timing predicting wearable device restores dignity of people
World is becoming old and finds many new problems related to aging. We found a problem which is most primitive but not be looked in so much. It is incontinence. Even though more than 50% of elderly people have some problems in excretion, there is not many solutions but wearing diaper.Our toilet timing predicting wearable device, DFree, solves the problem and support people to live their life as long as possible. DFree tells when it is necessary to go to the bathroom by tracking the progression of bladder movements using non-invasive ultrasonic sensors and analyzing data using a patented algorithm.
The life span of Japanese people is longest in the world and it will be more than 90 years in some decades. However, we worry about becoming old because of anxiety of money, health and social relationship. Length of life is important but at the same time quality of life is also or more important. Incontinence is one of things happening to many elderly people. It sometimes make their quality of life worse. Many people hesitate to go out or to do activities outside because worrying about accidents. Our device has been used by over 2,000 people in Japan. Many people are released from stress just by knowing the situation of their bladder visually. They feel that they regain the control. In our research of the user of DFree, 80% answered that their quality of life was improved by using DFree.
We support not only users but also caregivers. In nursing home, toilet care is one of the hardest task for caregivers. By using DFree, they can understand rhythm of urination of each residents and optimize care such as size of protections, schedule of toilet care etc. One of clients of DFree decreased time of continence care by 30%. The more important fact is that many caregivers said that they feel well because they can know residents better so that they provide better care.
We got inquiries to use DFree from more than 60 countries. So we decided to expand our service to world. We are selling it in Japan, US and Europe now. We would like to share our experience and knowledge from the most aging country.