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We are at the dawn of an age of new solutions that connect separate devices via networks. IoT (Internet of Things) replaces the use of stand-alone devices with universal sharing in which the network connects everyone and everything. Individual elements having distinctive roles are linked via the network to create completely new and exciting synergy.
Increasing Connectivity and Accelerating Innovation!(PDF: 4.14MB)
Your health conditions are registered at the hospital before you know it. Vehicles recognize each other's location and speed to prevent accidents. Your home and plant now have lower running costs and are supplied with any items that may be running short. All this taking place unnoticed—thanks to sensors and communications connecting everyone and everything. Such a future is just around the corner.
Healthcare/medical equipment and services are undergoing changes in line with changes in the social environment, such as the advances in ICT (information and communication technology), an increase in lifestyle diseases due to changes in the living environment and population aging, and hikes in healthcare expenses. Murata delivers wireless communication modules such as the Bluetooth® Smart to help facilitate everyday health management, thereby providing support for telemedicine and home care.
Murata's in-vehicle connectivity modules help vehicles stay “connected.” BT/Wi-Fi® infotainment modules ensure handsfree phone operations, music/video streaming, and links to external services while safety-oriented V2X modules establish car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communication to provide even greater road safety and security.
Different initiatives for increasing energy efficiency have been under way in recent years. The most promising include using smart meters for automated remote meter reading of power usage, visualization of power usage by users, and improving grid reliability in combination with HEMS (Home Energy Management System) technology. These developments are leading to higher demand for communication technologies that connect smart meters and HEMS equipment. Murata has successfully commercialized a 920 MHz-band wireless communication module that meets the Wi-SUN® international wireless communication standard. The new product helps make use of smart meters to increase energy efficiency.
Industrial plants use a range of field devices for the measurement of parameters such as temperature, pressure, liquid levels, gas concentration, and vibration. The aim of improving productivity and increasing safety awareness has generated greater needs for collecting more data at plants. This is leading to growing demand for wireless field devices, since they can be installed where traditional devices are hard to wire and reduce installation costs compared with wired systems. Murata offers wireless communication modules that convert measured data into the protocol specified in the relevant standards as well as driver software for such wireless modules.
Continual changes in light intensity and color temperature are completely imperceptible Comparative photos reveal that, despite changes in the sunlight coming through the windows, the system adjusts light intensity and LED color temperature to remain at constant levels.
Located in Kurume City on Kyushu Island, St. Mary's Hospital of Our Lady of the Snow Social Medical Corporation, established in 1953, is a very popular medical facility in the local community. St. Mary's Healthcare Center was opened in September 2014 as a branch hospital focusing on hospitalized care and rehabilitation. To ensure the earliest possible functional recovery and social rehabilitation of patients, the new Healthcare Center is carefully implemented in terms of not only medical equipment, but also amenity and design. The Smart Hospital Lighting System, one of the features of the second category, is available in the cafeteria on the fourth floor. The cafeteria is where most of the patients stay for a long time, since they use it not only for rehabilitation purposes, but also for their three daily meals. The LED-based lighting control system has been introduced since the room's northeastern location prevents it from letting in enough sunlight. Combining 320 white LED lights with the same number of orange LED lights, the system automatically adjusts illuminance between 30 and 100% and varies color temperatures in 250 levels.
Front row from left: Takeshi Ifuku, General Manager, Michiko Nakanomori, Director of Nursing, and Miki Hashimoto, Charge Nurse, all being members of St. Mary's Healthcare Center Back row from left: Kazuhiro Mori and Eiji Araki, both from Toda Corporation
The construction company Toda Corporation designed and installed the entire system, while Murata implemented the control system featuring wireless communication. Using an algorithm in line with a circadian rhythm (a biological change that follows a roughly 24-hour cycle) , the system is expected to help patients maintain desirable patterns of sleep, hormone secretion, and body temperature change. A questionnaire for patients shows that most of them have "good" or "moderate" conditions. It suggests no dramatic effects can be seen, but that is precisely what the lighting control system is designed to do. It ideally can control the interior environment while users are unaware, consequently ensuring a stress-free ambience. Enabled by sensing and wireless communication, connectivity technology is also creating new solutions in the field of healthcare.
448-5 Tsubukuhonmachi, Kurume, Fukuoka 830-0047, Japan