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Press Release -- November 22nd, 2010
Source: NTT Communications
Tags: Exchange, IPv6, Video

NTT Com, NTT Resonant and foo.log to Field Trial World’s First Cloud-based Mobile Service for Health Support

TOKYO, JAPAN – NTT Communications (NTT Com), its affiliate NTT Resonant Inc. (NTT Resonant) and foo.log Inc. (foo.log) jointly announced today the world’s first cloud-based mobile service that will analyze users’ daily eating and exercise habits and provide timely recommendations. A field trial is expected to be carried out around January 2011, prior to a commercial launch targeted sometime after next April. Three additional organizations, the University of Tokyo, Tipness Ltd., and L-NET Co., Ltd. also will participate in the trial.

The provisionally named Health Enhancement Assist Service will analyze photos of food taken with the user’s mobile phone to estimate the number of calories as well as the nutritional category and quantity of the food, following the guideline established by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forests and Fisheries. Using location information and acceleration data from the sensors in the mobile phone, the service will gauge how far and how fast the user walks each day to estimate their daily metabolism. Data generated by these analytical processes will be stored on a server in the cloud. The food image analysis algorithms have been developed by the University of Tokyo.

Based on such data, recommendations about meals and exercise will be provided via the user’s mobile phone on a timely push basis according to the person’s current location. The information will be tailored to the user’s personal health goals and provided in a rich, easily understandable format using videos and other visual content.

Before/after data and comparisons with the data of other people will help motivate users to maintain their diets and healthy habits. The service will also be linked to social networks and provide users with highly customized messages.

Data from digital scales, pedometers and other devices can be easily stored via the service. The service will be network-free and will support multiple devices, enabling access virtually anywhere and anytime.

Participants in the field trial will receive free smartphone-ready versions of the service application. Details about recruitment of participants will be announced later.

NTT Com will manage the trial headquarters, develop the service application and provide, maintain and operate related telecommunication facilities. NTT Resonant will be responsible for planning the health-management services and will provide access to customers using its existing healthcare services. The photographic-analysis system will be provided, managed and operated by foo.log, which currently offers a service named FoodLog that enables users to manage their dietary lives by storing photographs of the food they eat in a database.

Meanwhile, the University of Tokyo will contribute to research on food image analysis, Tipness Ltd. will provide exercise-related video content and L-NET Co., Ltd. will provide content regarding food recipes.

About NTT Communications Corporation

NTT Communications provides a broad range of global networks, management solutions and IT services to customers worldwide. The company is renowned for reliable, high-quality security, hosting, voice, data and IP services, as well as expertise in managed networks and leadership in IPv6 transit technology. NTT Communications’ extensive infrastructure includes Arcstar™ Global IP-VPN and Global e-VLAN, as well as a Tier-1 IP backbone reaching more than 150 countries in partnership with major Internet service providers, and secure data centers in Asia, North America and Europe. NTT Communications is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, one of the world’s largest telecoms with listings on the Tokyo, London and New York stock exchanges. Please visit www.ntt.com/index-e.html.

For more information
(Ms.) Yasuko Oka or (Ms.) Akiko Suzaki
NTT Communications
Public Relations Office
Tel. +81 3 6700 4010

Contact Us
(Mr.) Makoto Ogawa
foo.log Inc.
Tel. +81 3 5284 9047
e-mail: pr@foo-log.com

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