LAUNCHING SCHOOL BUS MONITORING SERVICE FIELD TRIAL USING "TUNEGRID"

ASICS Corporation is pleased to announce to conduct a field trial of children’s school bus monitoring using ASICS Lite DX Solution*1 “TUNEGRID” with Kinki Taxi Co., Ltd. and Kobe Tokiwa University Kindergarten. The trial is part of an effort to prevent children from being left behind on school buses, an issue of growing concern in Japan.

*1 ASICS intends the system to be easily fitted and utilized and to offer easy-to-understand data

TUNEGRID was developed in November 2020 in Japan as a sports data integration system that records simple sports competition data and daily exercise practices for analysis. By linking with various measuring tools, including shoes with small BLE sensors called “TUNEGRID-Cube,” video cameras, and smartphones, TUNEGRID manages and analyses data to allow visualization of performance attributes and individual exercise amount trends to improve competitiveness, resolve inadequate exercise, and reduce the risk of injury. The system can also be applied in many other fields such as grazing cattle for bioanalysis.

This field trial tests a new app that manages location data using TUNEGRID-Cube which can not only record the number of steps, but also get the user’s location with the use of a sensor.

As part of the field trial, fourteen Tokiwa Kindergarten pupils wears shoes affixed with TUNEGRID-Cube, which will detect pupils’ boarding and de-boarding of the school bus, operated by Kinki Taxi, with a BLE receiver placed inside the bus. Upon boarding, the pupils’ TUNEGRID-Cube IDs appear on the app screen, and the IDs disappear upon deboarding. The onboard status of the pupils can be known at a glance. Tokiwa Kindergarten staffs also are able to remotely confirm that no pupils have been left behind on the school bus. Another receiver is placed at the front gate of the kindergarten, and this also detects the ID to confirm that the pupils have deboarded the school bus and entered the kindergarten grounds, aiming to improve the precision of pupils’ monitoring

The approximate arrival time can be estimated as the receiver is fitted with a GPS device and the location of the school bus is shown in real time. The app will be further developed so that not only the facility staffs but also the child’s guardians will be able to confirm the pupil’s status. ASICS plans to introduce the app to other kindergartens and nursery schools as well.

Furthermore, TUNEGRID can measure the number of steps taken and visualize daily exercise amount, which can be expected to assist the declining amount of children’s physical strength, an issue of childcare in Japan. TUNEGRID can also be used to address health management issues, for example to help create conditions for exercise based on heat countermeasures by placing a receiver including thermometer on the grounds of childcare facilities.

ASICS’ Vison is “Create Quality Lifestyle through Intelligent Sport Technology,” and the company has been actively expanding operations in both traditional product fields as well as with services. ASICS aims to verify new ways to enjoy sports and solutions using digital technology and contribute to creating the healthful bodies and minds of people.