This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.
Tokyo-based Fogg launched a mobile app called Cheerz for Android and iOS in early December, which allows users to “cheer” their favorite J-pop idols. The company has partnered with All Blue, a startup that provides idol-focused online media site Tokyo Girls’ Update, for global expansion.
Cheerz is a fan engagement app for budding idols, allowing them to share their selfies and snapshots to receive “cheer” endorsements from users. Idols that acquire a large number of “cheer” endorsements can then expand their exposure by appearing on live performances or TV shows.
Since its December launch, the Cheerz app has sent over 1 million “cheers” endorsements to participating idols in just three days, followed by 5 million in two weeks, and 10 million “cheer” endorsements in a month.
Idols that acquire “cheer” endorsements have the chance to promote themselves via the app’s partnering media, including Tokyo Girls’ Update. Tokyo Girls’ Update will launch a TV show focused on J-pop idols on NHK World/JibTV in April, where budding idols will have a chance to be featured. Fogg and All Blue will work together to help J-pop idols raise their appeal globally, including holding live performances for their global fan base.
See the original story in Japanese. Japanese leading toiletries manufacturer Sunstar has recently developed a smart device attachment to a toothbrush on a prototyping basis, called G.U.M Play. The device has a motion sensor that detects the motion of the toothbrush, and transfers data to mobile apps via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). There will be three mobile apps available supporting the attachment device: “Mouth Band” plays music while users brush their teeth “Mouth News” reads aloud news stories while users brush their teeth “Mouth Monster” is an educational app for children while they brush their teeth All these apps record transversal motions and how much time spent upon brushing. Sunstar says it will adopt more advanced sensing technologies, planning to introduce the product to market later this year. Meanwhile, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) announced at the Mobile World Congress 2014 last July that it would introduce Bluetooth 4.0-enabled Oral-B interactive electric toothbrush. The P&G product is already available in stores. Compared to the new Oral-B toothbrush, G.U.M Play will likely cost less because the latter is an attachment device rather than a toothbrush. More devices designed for synchronization with smartphones in acquiring data are seen appearing. While this trend will be further enhanced so that more things will be enabled, the key…
Japanese leading toiletries manufacturer Sunstar has recently developed a smart device attachment to a toothbrush on a prototyping basis, called G.U.M Play.
The device has a motion sensor that detects the motion of the toothbrush, and transfers data to mobile apps via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
There will be three mobile apps available supporting the attachment device:
“Mouth Band” plays music while users brush their teeth
“Mouth News” reads aloud news stories while users brush their teeth
“Mouth Monster” is an educational app for children while they brush their teeth
All these apps record transversal motions and how much time spent upon brushing. Sunstar says it will adopt more advanced sensing technologies, planning to introduce the product to market later this year.
Meanwhile, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) announced at the Mobile World Congress 2014 last July that it would introduce Bluetooth 4.0-enabled Oral-B interactive electric toothbrush. The P&G product is already available in stores. Compared to the new Oral-B toothbrush, G.U.M Play will likely cost less because the latter is an attachment device rather than a toothbrush.
More devices designed for synchronization with smartphones in acquiring data are seen appearing. While this trend will be further enhanced so that more things will be enabled, the key is how device developers can offer the experience that users really need.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based KDDI Mugen Labo, the tech incubator of Japan’s second largest telco, hosted a demo day event today. Five startups that graduated from the seventh batch of the incubator’s program showcased their achievements over the last several months, upon receiving assistance from 13 big companies supporting the initiative. Dr. Joy, the service improvement platform for hospitals and other healthcare organizations, won the top award and the audience vote award. Dr. Joy Dr. Joy is a social platform aiming to eliminate waste in medical services. Dr. Joy CEO Hiroaki Ishimatsu is a practicing medical doctor who settled in a hospital for an year to find out what the platform requires. Ishimatsu explained: At hospital, we usually have to wait so long but a doctor’s consultation will finish in a minute. Medical offices are busily occupied with document processing. As soon as your doctor starts your consultation, his phone will ring and he has to care about another patient. Dr. Joy aims to streamline this work flow, by helping doctors and other employees in a hospital share information resources while improving their daily operations. The team is testing the product at several medical institutions, preparing to deploy the platform at four university hospitals. Sakaseru Sakaseru enables a flower gift to be delivered using smartphones while consulting…
Tokyo-based KDDI Mugen Labo, the tech incubator of Japan’s second largest telco, hosted a demo day event today. Five startups that graduated from the seventh batch of the incubator’s program showcased their achievements over the last several months, upon receiving assistance from 13 big companies supporting the initiative.
Dr. Joy, the service improvement platform for hospitals and other healthcare organizations, won the top award and the audience vote award.
Dr. Joy
Dr. Joy CEO Hiroaki Ishimatsu
Dr. Joy is a social platform aiming to eliminate waste in medical services. Dr. Joy CEO Hiroaki Ishimatsu is a practicing medical doctor who settled in a hospital for an year to find out what the platform requires.
Ishimatsu explained:
At hospital, we usually have to wait so long but a doctor’s consultation will finish in a minute. Medical offices are busily occupied with document processing. As soon as your doctor starts your consultation, his phone will ring and he has to care about another patient.
Dr. Joy aims to streamline this work flow, by helping doctors and other employees in a hospital share information resources while improving their daily operations. The team is testing the product at several medical institutions, preparing to deploy the platform at four university hospitals.
Sakaseru
Goal CEO Yusuke Nishiyama
Sakaseru enables a flower gift to be delivered using smartphones while consulting with advisors. Goal, the company behind Sakaseru, was founded by Yusuke Nishiyama, who owns a flower shop in Tokyo’s fashionable Roppongi district, and award-winning florist Akihiro Nozaki.
Via the Sakaseru platform, users can ask for one’s favorite flower designer by filling an online questionnaire form to create and order a bouquet for someone, regardless of one’s knowledge of flowers. The bouquet can be delivered to a designated location at a designated time.
Ingram
Ingram allowa one to locate a product of choice for purchase, by taking a picture of it on TV shows or magazines with a smartphone camera. The app was developed by Tokyo-based Add Quality.
Add Quality CEO Soichi Matsuda explained:
Add Quality CEO Soichi Matsuda
The accuracy of our app in finding relevant results depends on how much its artificial intelligence has learned user cases. We would need to ask someone for additional data if we wanted to increase user cases, obviously a time-consuming task. That’s why we developed an independently-learning system that collects data from users.
While the app is still not good at qualitative search, it allows you to find relevant data without meta information utilizing a statistical observation method. The clipping feature in the app will provide notification upon spotting a price decrease associated with a product of choice.
Hado
Meleap CEO Hiroshi Fukuda
Meleap has developed a sports game environment called Hado, leveraging a combination of several technologies such as spatial perception, head-mounted display (HMD) and motion sensors. It virtually reproduces decorated rooms and townscapes for users upon enjoying games or exercises.
The platform consists of a smart watch and a smartphone-connected HMD, aiming to serve users for affordable prices. Yuki Mori of Tokyo-based private broadcaster TV Asahi supporting this startup commented on their mentoring result.
We gave the Meleap team our expertise of engineering and video production as well as event opportunities. We henceforth plan to collaborate with the team for developing content and producing TV programs.
∞books (Mugen Books)
Mugen Books CEO Yukihiro Sada
Mugen Books is a non-inventory book publishing platform leveraging on-demand printing services. Users can create an article using a web app and order its publication just by pressing a button on the web.
Mugen Books CEO Yukihiro Sada has developed a service that allows authors to publish a book starting with a single copy, having brought 250 book titles. He found that many people are interested in creating their books but are unlikely to do so because of the possible expensive and obstacles.
Published titles can be distributed digitally as well as in print, which can be put on sale at online bookstores like Amazon.
KDDI SVP Makoto Takahashi
In the final part of the Demo Day event, KDDI’s SVP Makoto Takahashi unveiled their strategy about how they will conduct the next batch:
I believe that the three-month batch was a memorable experience for participating startups. During the batch, we have given eight business-matching opportunities with our supporting companies to each of these startups. We have also worked on helping companies and startups co-create new ideas together, resulting in bringing out four actual cases.
KDDI will enhance the alliance program for startups in the next batch, adding Credit Saison and Hitachi to a group of the program’s supporting companies. In addition, they will strengthen regional expansion, starting with partnering with Osaka Innovation Hubto better nourish startup communities outside the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Queue, the company behind online diamond jeweler that sells engagement and wedding rings, called Brilliance+, announced today that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese investment firm Global Brain. Queue was founded in 2006, followed by the launch of a jewelry-focused e-commerce site called Brilliance+ in 2008. On Brilliance+, users can custom order an engagement ring from a selection of over 7,000 kinds of diamonds and 2,000 ring designs, enabling the creation of over three million ring combinations. Wedding rings can be customized in six crafting categories such as material, width, and ring texture. While they have showrooms in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district and Yokohama to serve customers on a face-to-face basis, their system of cutting out inventory and optimizing distribution channels has allowed them to sell rings and jewelry at almost half of retail market prices. Queue will use the funds to develop a mobile app and strengthen systems development in order to receive fully-customized orders online. Blue Nile (NASDAQ:NILE) is the leading online jeweler in the US. Leveraging the e-commerce opportunity, they cut the cost of samples showcased at storefronts that conventional jewelers have been handling, and their revenue has…
Tokyo-based Queue, the company behind online diamond jeweler that sells engagement and wedding rings, called Brilliance+, announced today that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese investment firm Global Brain.
Queue was founded in 2006, followed by the launch of a jewelry-focused e-commerce site called Brilliance+ in 2008. On Brilliance+, users can custom order an engagement ring from a selection of over 7,000 kinds of diamonds and 2,000 ring designs, enabling the creation of over three million ring combinations. Wedding rings can be customized in six crafting categories such as material, width, and ring texture.
While they have showrooms in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district and Yokohama to serve customers on a face-to-face basis, their system of cutting out inventory and optimizing distribution channels has allowed them to sell rings and jewelry at almost half of retail market prices.
Queue will use the funds to develop a mobile app and strengthen systems development in order to receive fully-customized orders online.
Blue Nile (NASDAQ:NILE) is the leading online jeweler in the US. Leveraging the e-commerce opportunity, they cut the cost of samples showcased at storefronts that conventional jewelers have been handling, and their revenue has exceeded that of the e-commerce sales of Tiffany (NASDAQ:TIF), one of the largest jewelers in the US.
Blue Nile has expanded to Japan, so they may be a rival to Billiance+. It will be interesting to see how Queue will be able to expand their e-commerce site on top of the business model derived from the US-based online jeweler giant.
See the original story in Japanese. Japanese people are likely to forget the preciousness of water resources. Thanks to geographical reasons and advanced infrastructure, it is very common for the Japanese to get drinkable water just by turning the faucet. However, because seawater accounts for almost all of water existing on our planet, only 3% of the fresh water can be turned into drinkable water, with the ratio being lowered to 1% if excluding water (or rather ice) existing in the polar regions. So there are many problems in obtaining water resources, such as allocation imbalances between countries, pollution, drought and sea level rises caused by climate changes, not to mention the increased water demand due to the world’s growing population. The SenSprout team is taking on such a huge global challenge. Leveraging the IoT (Internet of Things) expertise, they want to improve the water usage efficiency in agriculture, which accounts for 70% of the world’s entire water demand. SenSprout CEO Kazuhito Mine explained: Agricultural-use water accounts for 70% of our entire water demand. However, taking sprinkling water as an example, don’t you think there’s a more efficient way? On the other hand, we have been facing many issues such…
Japanese people are likely to forget the preciousness of water resources. Thanks to geographical reasons and advanced infrastructure, it is very common for the Japanese to get drinkable water just by turning the faucet.
However, because seawater accounts for almost all of water existing on our planet, only 3% of the fresh water can be turned into drinkable water, with the ratio being lowered to 1% if excluding water (or rather ice) existing in the polar regions. So there are many problems in obtaining water resources, such as allocation imbalances between countries, pollution, drought and sea level rises caused by climate changes, not to mention the increased water demand due to the world’s growing population.
The SenSprout team is taking on such a huge global challenge. Leveraging the IoT (Internet of Things) expertise, they want to improve the water usage efficiency in agriculture, which accounts for 70% of the world’s entire water demand.
SenSprout CEO Kazuhito Mine explained:
SenSprout CEO Kazuhito Mine
Agricultural-use water accounts for 70% of our entire water demand. However, taking sprinkling water as an example, don’t you think there’s a more efficient way? On the other hand, we have been facing many issues such as last year’s severe drought in California and farmland flooding caused by heavy precipitation in Europe.
Mine has been involved in many projects including business incubation and investment as well as systems development. He is currently working on a sensor device system for use in agriculture, called SenSprout, in association with Professor Yoshihiro Kawahara and project researcher Kazuhiro Nishioka of the University of Tokyo.
SenSprout is a leaf-shaped sensor measuring rainfall amount and soil moisture, allowing users to receive acquired metrics with their smartphone or other devices. Sensor systems for agriculture are not a new concept but hard for typical farmers to implement, because these require an average of over 10 million yen (about $85,000) investment and a network for data acquisition.
SenSprout is still in the testing phase but has solved these obstacles by combining several new technologies. They recently won a huge cash prize at a business competition hosted by Chivas Regal.
Mine continued:
We print a circuit on the leaf-shaped part of a sensor with conductive ink made from silver nanoparticles. Regarding power supply, we are considering several plans including wireless power transmission and solar photovoltaics.
Courtesy: SenSprout
The SenSprout sensor embedded in the ground can accumulate transitioning data of soil moisture and rainfall amount. Using the data acquired, farmers can create a heat map visualizing which part of their farming field is sufficiently supplied with water, which can help them eliminate wasting water and improve the efficiency in water feeding performance of sprinklers.
The sensor device transfers data to smartphones over BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) or ZigBee. According to Mine, his SenSprout team is experimenting to see how many sensor devices should be equipped in a certain width of a farming field, and plan to launch a full-scale business around this summer.
Courtesy: SenSprout
While planning to sell sensor devices for an affordable price ranging the tens of US dollars per unit, they want to create a primary revenue stream by introducing paying apps for measuring data. This kind of hardware startups usually faces problems upon mass production, but SenSprout will unlikely face such issues because CEO Mine has been involved in launching Cerevo, a noteworthy Japanese hardware startup.
While news media typically wants to deal with the IoT (Internet of Things) concept just as a buzzword, the key is how to transform existing industries like agriculture, fisheries and manufacturing into new businesses through improved productivity gained from leveraging innovative ideas and technologies.
In addition to optimizing water usage, the SenSprout device provides hints to solving major issues like pinpointing regional weather forecasts and ameliorating food supply situations. Information obtained from the device can be of great value, helping businesses grow further.
This tiny leaf may change the world.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by Masaru Ikeda and “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Safie introduced a smartphone-based home security system of the same name earlier this week. What’s most unique about it is affordable prices. Their connected camera is available for 19,800 yen (about $168), while video recording and alert features are provided for a monthly subscription fee of 980 yen (about $8.3). They are apparently cheaper than conventional service operators, providing professional service for 10% of the cost of other conventional services. Professional service for tenth those from rivals While security demands are growing at shopping complexes, public venues, and even at households, home security systems have not become so widespread because of cost; it requires over 50,000 yen (about $4,200) for installing closed-circuit television (CCTV) equipment as well as about 5,000 to 10,000 yen (about $42 to $85) for monthly subscription fee. However, videos are typically recorded in low resolution or in low frame rate on these systems, as well as stored into a local component which is obviously inaccessible over the internet. Safie can solve all these problems. With Safie, you can start recording HD quality video into the cloud platform as easily as by connecting a Safie camera costing around $200 to a…
Tokyo-based Safie introduced a smartphone-based home security system of the same name earlier this week. What’s most unique about it is affordable prices. Their connected camera is available for 19,800 yen (about $168), while video recording and alert features are provided for a monthly subscription fee of 980 yen (about $8.3). They are apparently cheaper than conventional service operators, providing professional service for 10% of the cost of other conventional services.
Professional service for tenth those from rivals
While security demands are growing at shopping complexes, public venues, and even at households, home security systems have not become so widespread because of cost; it requires over 50,000 yen (about $4,200) for installing closed-circuit television (CCTV) equipment as well as about 5,000 to 10,000 yen (about $42 to $85) for monthly subscription fee. However, videos are typically recorded in low resolution or in low frame rate on these systems, as well as stored into a local component which is obviously inaccessible over the internet.
Safie can solve all these problems. With Safie, you can start recording HD quality video into the cloud platform as easily as by connecting a Safie camera costing around $200 to a power source and wi-fi. With the current version, there is a three to four second delay when viewing live video but the company says it will be improved soon.
In addition to its affordable pricing, Safie gives you an advantage of cloud computing, giving the people you have chosen accessibility to recorded videos and live streams from your camera regardless of where they are. Both network path and storage for video streams are encrypted to prevent unauthorized access.
Since Safie has connectivity with various BLE(Bluetooth Low Energy)-enabled devices as well as cameras, we can expect a use case where you will be notified when your child having a BLE-enabled key holder comes home from kindergarten. You can confirm the status with live video, which is more likely to give you a sense of security.
What triggered them to launch the product?
L to R: Safie co-founders Hidenori Kondo, Ryuhei Sadoshima, and Kazuma Morimoto
Safie was founded by former employees at Motion Portrait, an image processing technology startup carved out from Sony. Leveraging the connection with the Japanese electronics giant, Safie has fundraised a total of about 100 million yen (about $846,000) from Sony’s internet service-focused subsidiary So-net and angel investors. Safie was invented based on image processing and face recognition technologies used for mobile apps such as ZombieBooth: 3D Zombifier and ChouChou: Virtual Hair Makeover.
Safie CEO Ryuhei Sadoshima’s experience made a huge impact on the concept of the service. He elaborated:
We had been at the onset exploring scalable business which leverages the image process technologies we had acquired through developing apps at Motion Portrait. During the time, I built my house and tried to subscribe to a home security service but found that it costs more than 500,000 yen (about $5,000) initially. Furthermore, installation and monthly subscription fee will be charged. Then I came up with an idea of a smart home security system which is more affordable for average households to implement.
We have seen U.S.-based Dropcam offering a similar service, which was acquired by Google’s subsidiary Nest for $555 million in June 2014. In contrast with Dropcam manufacturing hardware devices, Safie focuses on providing an cloud-based video recording platform supporting cameras developed by partnering manufacturers like Nagoya-based Elmo. Hence, Safie provides a freemium app for using their cloud service in a form of bundle to camera products from these manufacturers, while obtaining monthly subscription fee from users for the cloud service.
Selfie plans to aggressively expand its target from households beyond to small businesses. It is said that about 3.5 million CCTV cameras are in operation all across Japan, but 99% of them records video locally but don’t upload to any cloud service. On the other hand, the number of connected cameras in operation grows by 1 million or 20% an year. Safie is entering the market with its affordable but high quality video solutions.
Launching crowdfunding campaign
Upon announcing the launch of the home security system, Safie launched a crowdfunding campaign for it on Makuake, a Japanese crowdfunding site by internet service company Cyber Agent. If one completes a pre-order, one can obtain it a month earlier than ordinary users for a 40% discount price of 11,800 yen (about $100). Safie will start manufacturing and selling the product online from this April, followed by expanding sales channels to consumer electronics stores. They also see an option of marketing the product combining with internet service packages from their investor So-net.
Sadoshima added:
Safie offers professional home security service for one-tenth the pricing of conventional service operators. While our partnering manufacturers develop hardware devices, we are focused on developing a network and a platform required for the service. So we can create the best product through this combination. We target sales of 10,000 camera devices in the first year.
While more CCTV cameras have been recently installed at apartments in big cities, they are limited to places like entrances or inside elevators. Safie’s smart monitoring system will give consumers an option in installing additional cameras in worrisome locations. The device will also help monitor the behavior of the pet or child at home during one’s absence.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by Masaru Ikeda and “Tex” Pomeroy
Junya Mori
Takeshi Hirano
Masaru Ikeda
Yukari Mitsuhashi
