Communication by Electric Pot.

(From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI))

It is something we use every day, but it can also serve as an opportunity to communicate with a family member who lives far away. What is it? It's the i-POT by Zojirushi corporation. Someone might think, "A communication tool called an i-POT? Is that something like the Apple i-Pod?" The i-POT has nothing to do with playing music. It is a very ordinary and simple electric hot water pot that is used for boiling hot water for tea. It is also extremely easy to use. Well then, how can it be used as a tool for communication? The secret is in the wireless communications device in the base of the pot. (You can think of it as an onboard mobile phone dedicated to data communications.) Using this communications device, information about the use of the pot is reported to a system center, and emails are sent to a family member twice a day about how the pot is being used, with information such as the number of times it was used. If you access the dedicated website for subscribers through a PC or a mobile phone, you can view a graphical display of the latest use of the pot at any time, with data updated every 30 minutes. The i-POT uses wireless communications, so there is no need for any special wiring.

Many elderly people live by themselves in Japan. We unfortunately hear several sad reports each year of elderly people who have died alone and were not discovered for a long time. The i-POT was developed in response to such lonely deaths. It began when a doctor, wondering how people could be watched over in their daily lives using common items, talked with Zojirushi, a maker of electrical appliances such as rice cookers and hot water pots. As is hinted at by the name of the service, Mimamori Hotline (keeping watch hotline), this is not an emergency communication system. Rather, it is a service that allows us to keep track of how elderly people are living their daily lives. Two separate entities, the hot water pot and information technology, which would seem to have nothing at all in common, come together in a perfect marriage from the point of view of "watching over." The hot water pot is an item that has really taken root in our lives, so it is possible to gauge from its use the rhythm of daily life. Generally, people turn it on when they get up in the morning, use it for making tea whenever they eat, and turn it off when they go to bed at night.

As an example of the use of this system, we hear actual accounts of people who sensed that something was wrong because the pot was not turned on at the usual time in the morning. They visited their aged relative and found she had come down with an illness at home. If the pot ...