Let’s create new "KOTO (services)" that can change the world with venture businesses!

"Omron KOTO Challenge, 2nd Period"
After 3 months of passionate days, "Demo Day" was held to showcase challenging development products.

3-month challenge for refining products and business plans and shaping wishes into reality.

Let’s realize "KOTO" by utilizing Omron's manufacturing power and shaping creative ideas into reality that can impress the world!

"Omron KOTO Challenge" is a venture program in which Omron supports hardware venture businesses sharing the same thoughts and focusing on manufacturing.

This year celebrating its 2nd period, 34 venture businesses consisting of various members including medical doctors and students made entries. Five teams selected from among them challenged making product prototypes and brushing up business plans.

For the 3-month challenge period, Omron's engineers and retired persons with numerous achievements as well as business planning staff gave advice called mentoring, while the company provided "Manufacturing Create Lab" established in Omron's Kusatsu Factory equipped with 3D printers and laser cutters, strongly supporting the teams' activities.

On July 23 (Sat), "Omron KOTO Challenge Demo Day" was held to demonstrate the teams' achievements. The teams were judged and awarded for their excellence.

Creating new values that can change the world through synergy with venture businesses

"Aiming to solve various social challenges, Omron has created world-leading products. As needs have become diversified and the market is changing with remarkable speed, however, it is getting harder for Omron alone to solve social challenges. We would like to create new technologies, products, and business activities that will change the world collaborating with venture businesses which Omron once was."

In the opening remarks Naoshi Ozawa, president of Omron Ventures, spoke to venture businesses that share the same ambitions with Omron which started as a venture business.

Even if a venture business has excellent technological seeds, there would be numerous challenges to nurture them as a business.

"In addition to Omron's funds, information related to technologies and applications fostered through research and development shall be utilized for manufacturing and marketing of venture businesses. We would like to invent new industries and technologies through such synergy", he said.

More remote medical care. A stethoscope supporting remote medical care that has been realized by doctors' passion

"Millions of people who live in remote islands or backcountry do not have access to healthcare they need, and some in urban areas may not, due to their occupations. We would like to develop "stethoscopes supporting remote medical care" to provide quality remote medical care."

AMI Company talked about its passion in the result presentation. They constructed a program that can detect specific acoustic wave (cardiac murmur) indicating irregular pulses in an electrocardiogram, aiming at automatic discovery of aortic stenosis.

Our challenge was to develop "a stethoscope supporting remote medical care" that allows a doctor to listen to patient's heartbeat in a remote place real-time by combining a smartphone and an electrocardiogram by applying this technology.

If a doctor can listen to heartbeats from a remote place, it would help specialists to give an accurate diagnosis and identify a disease in its early stage, and give patients a sense of security. Doctors who want to examine patients in remote places by themselves are not uncommon.

We want to link these doctors and patients.

We hope a time will come when every household has its own stethoscope supporting remote medical care like a blood pressure monitor. In this way, he talked about future medical care.

The company was awarded the Grand Prize for having a clear social challenge, and expectations to change the world by the technology. In particular, its zeal to expand remote medical care was highly evaluated.

Sensor technologies and knowledge cultivated by Omron played a role in product development

Medical Photonics focused on metabolic syndrome and developed a less-invasive device that measures postprandial lipemia as one of the sources which can affect QOL such as lifestyle-related diseases.

The technology the company developed is to measure lipid particles (blood turbidity) in blood by radiating light. It can eliminate conventional blood drawing and lengthy inspection and allow "anyone at any time easily" to find postprandial lipemia.

"The highest hurdle is to remove noise other than lipid particles to measure from the electronic circuit. The company reported that a new viewpoint of "utilizing light" directly led to its hardware development thanks to manufacturing artisans who gave us instructions on technologies and knowledge of Omron with its world-leading optical sensor development and manufacturing.

Ultimate hand authentication by "human body communications". Making "new technology" into "convenient services"

It was eNFC, a company that was highly evaluated as "the best by far among the five teams in the degree of technological achievement". The company was awarded a special jury prize set up especially as a result.

What was proposed by the company was "ultimate hand authentication" by "human body communications" that do not need a password nor any tools.

The company developed epoch-making technology that allows a short wave to pass through a human body by transforming it into an electric field. This was originally a short-range communication which works only in a restricted area of several centimeters, used in NFC (Near Field Communication). The company aims at a longer communications distance via a human body for authentication by hand with a smartphone or an IC card in a pocket.

eNFC remarked that it benefited from participating in KOTO Challenge by being able to focus on manufacturing of a specific "thing" required by its customer in addition to development of technology and principle.

"Through discussions with Omron's mentors and Omron Social Solutions, we were able to complete a demonstration machine that allows customers to visualize how they can use it and discuss specific applications with them. We will keep committing ourselves in materializing new technology into convenient services"

Wish for basic research to be helpful for the industry. Developing a device to sense the freshness of vegetables

iFACTory, the only team consisting of students among the challengers, developed a device that notifies with an alarm if there is a decline in nutrients through automatic sensing of the freshness of vegetables for people to get accustomed to cycles of eating fresh and nutritious vegetables.

"While working on basic research in our master’s and doctoral courses, our wish to put our research into use for the industry and society has become stronger. The challenge this time was a wonderful chance for us to experience processes to make our research into business", they remarked.

The theme attracted expectations on its growth potential and gained high evaluation through voting by attendees and visitors, and was awarded the "Audience Prize".

Pursuing a form of safe "water" as a business sector totally unknown to Omron

U.W.I, organized by Omron group employees, focused on water that is a global challenge in the 21st century, setting a goal of "discovering social challenges in an unknown region which Omron has never tried before and nurturing a new venture business source". The team developed an innovative water quality management system utilized in agriculture and fishing industries that have a big influence on society, as a way to pursue a form of safe water.

The system "visualizes" bacteria states in water through sensing, and automatically injects drug solution to reduce the increased bacteria. It has a potential use in plant factories and farms.

In the presentation, the team expressed its ambition of "constructing new technologies and knowledge utilizing Omron's sensor and control technologies".

Pursuing a form of safe "water" as a business sector totally unknown to Omron

"The world is changing at an unprecedented speed. In this time of rapid change, we would like to create new values and change the world through valiant trials and errors with venture businesses. We believe that "Omron KOTO Challenge" will be a small but sure step forward".

Koji Nitto, Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer of OMRON Corporation, concluded the meeting, with a fresh determination to lead the creation of a new world with venture businesses.

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