Yabushita Enesys’s new monitoring service “Sotto Netto” makes use of NILM technology

In these coronavirus times, remote monitoring is in the limelight as a tool for analyzing household electric appliance usage

Informetis Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Taro Tadano, hereinafter “Informetis”), engaged in the energy informatics business, is pleased to announce that its NILM technology has been adopted for use in “Sotto Netto”, a new monitoring service launched by Yabushita Enesys Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Sapporo, President: Tadahiro Mori, hereinafter “Yabushita Enesys”).

In addition to the increasing demand for watching over the elderly due to the declining birthrate, aging population and increase in nuclear families, doubtless there will be an even greater need for “remote monitoring” to keep track of the living conditions of distant family members while avoiding face-to-face interaction and contact due to the impact of coronavirus.
With “Sotto Netto” service, our original AI technology NILM, which analyzes electricity usage, is used in the service to grasp the habits of the monitored from their electric appliance usage. Unlike direct monitoring using cameras, this service takes an unobtrusive approach to keep a protective eye on people in their daily lives.

Besides displaying the usage status of home appliances on the application screen in an easy-to-understand manner, the service neatly keeps users (people watching over family members) informed via email reports and email alerts if something irregular is happening.
These user-friendly elements come from Informetis’ experience in developing services that use NILM.

■ About the “Sotto Netto” Web App
“Sotto Netto provides” a web app for use by users keeping an eye on family members. Informetis’ unique AI technology NILM analyzes the usage status of home appliances of monitored people and feeds reports to the smartphones of users, so that they can keep abreast of the daily activities of family members living elsewhere. Not only can users see the ON/OFF of up to eight types of home appliances (high-heat appliances, such as air conditioners, rice cookers, microwave ovens, heaters, dryers and kettles, as well as vacuum cleaners, washing machines, TV’s and IH cookers), but they also get alerts about the “risk of heat stroke” “late night use of home appliances”, “prolonged use of home appliances”, “prolonged non-use of home appliances” and other such issues.

■ Informetis Initiatives in “Energy Informatics”
Informetis conducts business activities based on the concept of “Energy informatics”.
Energy informatics is a term coined for a concept that aims at “ultra-efficient use of energy” and “improvement of people’s QoL”, through the development of methodologies, software, and applications using algorithms from the various “information” that electricity provides, such as current waveforms.

Informetis extracts various information from electrical data to transform energy infrastructures around the world into “smart living social infrastructures” that contributes to “ultra-efficient use of energy” and “improvement of people’s QoL”.