Showa Denko (SDK) (TOKYO: 4004) has developed “SHOCARES™” bed sensors for care, and started to sell them in this October. SDK will exhibit SHOCARES™ at the “International Home Care & Rehabilitation Exhibition 2016” (H.C.R. 2016) which is to be held at Tokyo Big Sight from October 12 to 14, 2016.

SDK developed SHOCARES™ bed sensor by taking advantage of aluminum’s properties of high rigidity and light weight. When weight is added to a bed, SHOCARES™ converts changes in shape of its electronic sensors into electric signals, and measures weight. By sensing slight changes in weight and utilizing original algorithm, SHOCARES™ detects bed user’s states and motions including lying in bed, leaving bed, start of action, sitting up, and sitting at the edge of a bed. Through detection of bed user’s states and motions, SHOCARES^TM foresees bed leaving, informs that to nurses and caregivers, and help them reduce risk of bed user’s falling or plunging off from a bed. It also can measure bed user’s body weight, judge whether the user is asleep or not, and analyze the user’s life pattern on the basis of accumulated data.

While another type of SDK’s bed sensor has already been adopted as built-in bed sensor by a bed manufacturer, SHOCARES™ comes with new design to be put on the floor just underneath four legs of a bed, and can be easily used with existing beds. Nurses and caregivers can monitor bed user’s states and motions through PCs on a real-time basis. The system can be set to send e-mails to smartphones of nurses and caregivers when it foresees the user’s bed leaving^*. Moreover, it is easy for hospitals and nursing homes to introduce SHOCARES™ since they do not have to replace beds. SHOCARES™ can reduce burden on nurses and caregivers including patrols by enabling them to remotely monitor bed users’ states.

SDK has been striving to create new business that can contribute society through provision of products useful for customers in the market domain of “Living Environment.” Development and sale of bed sensors to be used in the nursing care and welfare industry is a part of this effort. We are making effort to enrich organism information measured by SHOCARES™, aiming to upgrade risk management and quality of care suited to the needs of care-service users. This time, we started to sell noncontact sensor to measure pulse and breath times of bed user as an option.^** SDK will continue improving SHOCARES™ in order to respond to requests from the nursing care and welfare industry and contributing to the development of the industry.

[Notes]

• * Making SHOCARES™ system to send information to PCs or smartphones requires a wireless LAN.
• **This optional product is not intended to be used for medical treatment.

For further information, contact:
Public Relations Office (Phone: 81-3-5470-3235)