Electronics giant Panasonic Corp. has put into practical use a camera-based system to automatically detect people who fall from platforms at train stations and immediately report the incidents to station staff.
The company plans to start selling the system to railway operators in October.
Under the system, cameras installed in facilities such as platforms and ticket gates will be used to detect passengers who fall from platforms and notify station staff of the incidents through their smartphones and other tools.
The system can also automatically recognize which persons nearby need assistance -- including wheelchair users -- and accurately distinguish personal traits such as appearance and posture, as a result of improved image recognition technology.
Moreover, the system is capable of automatically detecting people with wheelchairs or strollers and visually impaired people with white canes, and spotting passengers who stand on braille blocks of the platform for a long time or those who enter the train tracks, according to the company.
The system -- which costs 1 million yen per camera excluding tax and construction expenses -- is expected to reduce the burden on station employees as many railway operators in regional areas suffer from a shortage of staff.
The number of cases in which people fall off platforms at railway stations in fiscal 2016 was 2,890, down by 628 cases from the previous year, according to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry. Among them, the number of cases involving people with impaired vision stood at 69 in fiscal 2016, a decrease by 25 from the year before.
The overall decrease in such incidents can be attributed to factors such as the installation of platform safety doors, but fatal accidents also occur.
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