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Honda Safety Map Unveiled at "6th International Auto Communication Technology Exhibition"


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TOKYO, Mar, 10 2015; Honda is exhibiting at "6th International Auto communication technology exhibition" being held at the Tokyo Big Sight. t

The exhibition will display Honda proprietary telematics technologies for the realization of a mobile society that connects people, cars and society and compassion. Honda will introduce their efforts that lead to disaster prevention and mitigation.


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Wi-Fi real-time communication system that utilizes the "V2X" and Honda's high-performance vehicle communication machine "V2X unit" is newly developed, car and social infrastructure in the Wi-Fi communication only, dedicated and establish a technology that pedestrian with a smartphone app will lead each other. Normal times, it helps to action with a margin by exchanging one step ahead of the action with each other. In the event of a disaster, each other even in a situation where a public line such as a cellular phone network is down is connected with Wi-Fi, it becomes possible to convey important information such as the evacuation information. 

-Services that utilize the V2X unit with introduction of (OMOTENASHI APP ※ 2, multimedia broadcasting wave and of cooperation), perform the test drive demonstration. ● Honda commitment to disaster prevention and mitigation by telematics Honda is also spread in the event of a disaster the use of floating car data beginning from 2003, has continued to disaster prevention and mitigation efforts. 2011 of the public and of traffic performance information at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, social map "SAFETY MAP" ※ 3 ·

-White-out prediction information. Honda has established a global safety concept as "Safety for Everyone", the pursuit of "society that it is not an accident", not car and motorcycle users only, further to safety and peace of mind to all of the people who use the pedestrian and other road will strive to innovation of technology to provide International Auto communication technology exhibition as part of the "demonstration projects of 2014 fiscal electronic Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry building business"

- Honda provides any organization app to foreign visitors, utilization application that is doing sudden braking hotspots data collected from Inter Navi, traffic accident information and danger spot information to be posted from local residents are posted on the map, social map for the purpose of being able to take advantage of the safety activities in the region. 

Honda Safetymap, service will deliver the poor visibility information in-vehicle navigation and smartphone apps caused by snowstorm.and fog.  For more information please refer to the www.honda.co.jp. Inquiries from customers Customer Service Center 0120-112010

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NEC Provides Disaster Control System with Crowd Behavior Analysis Technology in Tokyo

Detects changes in crowd behavior and promotes security -

TOKYO, Mar, 10 2015; NEC Corporation has won an order from Toshima Ward, Tokyo for a Comprehensive Disaster Control System construction project, which will incorporate one of the world's first(1) crowd behavior analysis technologies(2) that utilizes security camera footage to understand the behavior of crowds and to detect abnormalities. This system is scheduled to come into service in May 2015.

NEC's proprietary crowd behavior analysis technology analyzes changes in crowd behavior without identifying any individuals. Moreover, it estimates the degree of crowd congestion and detects abnormal crowding as well as flow abnormalities in groups of people using images captured with security cameras.

The Toshima Ward of Tokyo is characterized by concentrations of people in particular areas, especially surrounding Ikebukuro Station, which is used by approximately 2.5 million passengers a day. In such a busy environment, it is important to take immediate action in the event of a disaster and, even in ordinary conditions, to swiftly detect a situation that is likely to result in an accident.

NEC's system will detect abnormalities in real-time based on images of major railway stations and roadways captured with newly installed security cameras throughout the ward. In the event of any abnormality, the system automatically gives an alert in order to quickly identify where an unexpected event is occurring. This will help in providing assistance and distributing information faster and in preventing accidents in crowded areas. It will also reduce the workload of personnel monitoring crowd conditions.

"Amid its focus on the "Social Solutions Business," NEC pushes ahead with the development of safety solutions as a pillar of its global growth strategy. We have established a system of solutions called Safer Cities(3) based on our track record of delivering more than 500 systems in 40 countries around the world. This new system in Tokyo's Toshima Ward is an important part of NEC's ongoing contributions to the realization of safe and secure cities," said Kunio Kondo, senior vice president, NEC Corporation.

NEC's crowd behavior analysis technology supports the company's view towards building a safe and secure society and its vision for urban development leading up to and beyond 2020, including busy terminal stations, airports, theme parks, stadiums and event venues.

(1) Source: NEC, as of March 10, 2015

(2) Crowd Behavior Analysis Technology: http://www.nec.com/en/press/201311/global_20131107_02.html

(3) Safer Cities: http://www.nec.com/en/press/201311/global_20131107_01.html

TIE-IN- Fujitsu Develops Industry's First Technology to Recognize Flow of People from Low-Resolution Imaging

With concern for privacy, images where faces are indistinguishable are used for highly accurate detection of people's movements


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Kawasaki, Japan, Mar, 06 2015; Fujitsu today announced that it has developed the industry's first technology that provides highly accurate detection of people's movements and that can recognize the flow of people from low-resolution imagery incapable of distinguishing faces.

In existing systems that analyze video taken from surveillance cameras and recognize flows of people, the problem has been that the resolution may be high enough to identify individuals, rendering the footage unusable. Now Fujitsu Laboratories has developed technology that, even when the overall image resolution has been degraded from high to low resolution so that people's faces cannot be recognized, extracts multiple defining features of an individual, thereby making it possible to detect the person's movement with a high degree of accuracy.

This makes it possible to detect people in video with resolution low enough to mitigate anxieties about privacy, and thereby enable recognition of people's movement.

Details of this technology are being presented at the Information Processing Society of Japan's technical committee conference, "Computer Vision and Image Media", opening March 6 at Tohoku University.

Background

In recent years, data on the movement paths of people inside a facility or on the streets of a city have started to be used by stores, for example, to optimize the selection of a store location or the arrangement of merchandize or deployment of staff inside a store, in order to improve customer service. There are rising expectations about the use of data on pedestrian flows in cities to relieve congestion when there are events, to devise operating plans for public transportation systems, and to guide evacuations during disaster emergencies.

Issues

When video images from surveillance cameras installed on city streets or in commercial facilities are used to recognize flows of pedestrian traffic, the privacy of individuals whose movements are being recorded need to be taken into consideration. As the resolution of these cameras has improved, it has become possible to clearly recognize a person's face, which, although unproblematic from the perspective of crime prevention, raises privacy issues when third parties have information on a person's movements, such as what the person was doing at a particular time and place.

Typically, the following technologies are used to extract information on flows of people.

1. Person detection: extract a person-like shape from an image.

2. Person matching: using multiple cameras, determine whether a person detected by one camera is the same person detected by other cameras.

Because these technologies have used information detected from a person's face, build, gender, and other personal characteristics to determine if it is the same person, the problem has been that the person may be identified, causing the video to be unusable.

About the Technology

Using features that people have in common, Fujitsu Laboratories has devised person-recognition technology that extracts body-like shapes such as heads and torsos in low resolution images, and determines if the person is the same based on clothing colors. Key features of the technology are as follows:

1. Person detection using low-resolution images.

Fujitsu Laboratories focused on the fact that, even in low-resolution images, the head persists as a distinctive human characteristic that is unaffected by a person's posture or the angle from which the person is seen. Regardless of whether viewed from the front, back, left, or right side, the established characteristics of the head being a roughly elliptical shape and at the top of a person's body have the advantage of persisting even in low-resolution images.

The actual extraction process is as follows:

1.) Focusing on head-shaped characteristics in the input image, extract head-shaped candidates.

2.) Because many similar shapes were detected, treating the lower ones as torso shapes makes it possible to accurately detect people even from low-resolution images.

3.) Based on the people detected in Step 2, detect their relative proximity to the camera, beginning with the closest person, and update the image of more distant persons to compensate for partially obscured areas of a body. This makes it possible to accurately detect even multiple, overlapping people.

This technology can independently recognize the heads and torsos of multiple people.

2. Person matching from low-resolution images using clothing colors (Figure 3)

Matching a single detected person between multiple cameras makes it possible to recognize a person's movements between cameras.

The same color can be extracted regardless of resolution, but typically in low-resolution images, the colors of smaller areas are absorbed and mixed into adjacent areas, making good detection impossible. By selectively extracting only the distinctive colors of a person's clothing, Fujitsu Laboratories has been able to perform reliable person matching using low-resolution images.

Results

Until now, it has been difficult to perform person detection and person matching using low-resolution images in which a person's face cannot be identified, but using the technology it developed, Fujitsu Laboratories performed an indoor trial, in which it was able to detect, in the flow of people, the paths of approximately 80% of the people[1]. As a result, when arranging merchandise or deploying staff inside a store, for example, it makes it possible to use surveillance camera images that respect the privacy of the people whose images are being recorded, and enables the use of images that do not identify individuals to improve customer service.

Future Plans

Fujitsu Laboratories plans to conduct more practical testing to improve detection accuracy, and aims for commercial implementation during fiscal 2015.

[1] Paths of approximately 80% of the people: Tracking accuracy depends on the recording environment and camera positioning.

About Fujitsu Laboratories

Founded in 1968 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. is one of the premier research centers in the world. With a global network of laboratories in Japan, China, the United States and Europe, the organization conducts a wide range of basic and applied research in the areas of Next-generation Services, Computer Servers, Networks, Electronic Devices and Advanced Materials. For more information, please see: http://jp.fujitsu.com/labs/en.

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. By providing a combination of products and solutions that cross utilize the company's experience and global resources, NEC's advanced technologies meet the complex and ever-changing needs of its customers. NEC brings more than 100 years of expertise in technological innovation to empower people, businesses and society. For more information, visit NEC at http://www.nec.com.

Based on its Mid-term Management Plan 2015, the NEC Group globally provides "Solutions for Society" that promote the safety, security, efficiency and equality of society. Under the company's corporate message of "Orchestrating a brighter world," NEC aims to help solve a wide range of challenging issues and to create new social value for the changing world of tomorrow. For more information, please visit http://www.nec.com/en/global/about/solutionsforsociety/message.html.