In physically demanding work environments such as manufacturing and construction, accident prevention and early incident response is more critical than ever due to an aging workforce and labor shortages.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT East) of Japan has decided to use an Israeli technology to help keep its workers safe and healthy.

In a strategic partnership aimed to enhance workplace peace of mind, NTT East is integrating proprietary technology from Israeli company Binah.ai into its “Wearable Connect” device.

Wearable Connect utilizes IoT sensors to measure individual employees’ heart rate, location information, fall or stagnation detection and other parameters. The data is processed and stored in the cloud, enabling centralized and effective management of employee conditions as well as alert notifications for administrators and employees.

Binah.ai’s technology combines signal processing and AI to achieve continuous high-precision measurements of vital signs and provides the Binah Wellness Score, a comprehensive evaluation index of health status and risk level. The solution also enables spot measurements using smartphone cameras.

In addition to Wearable Connect features like heart rate, acceleration, and location information, the integration with “Binah Connect” enables the acquisition of vital signs such as respiration rate, HRV, and stress levels.

Alert notifications are triggered for individuals or administrators in case of abnormal data, allowing early detection of worker discomfort or incidents and swift initiation of first-response measures to prevent workplace accidents.

NTT Innovation Laboratory Israel in Kfar Saba initiated and facilitated the partnership, which will begin with NTT’s employees in Japan. 

NTT East President and CEO Naoki Shibutani and Binah.ai cofounder and CEO David Maman said that in the future, the two companies want to add features such as fatigue detection and sleep monitoring to enhance safety and health management solutions for employees using wearable devices.

Meanwhile, in another project facilitated by NTT Innovation Laboratory Israel, NTT Group entered a strategic collaboration with global Israeli company SparkBeyond, a developer of enterprise AI, to deliver comprehensive generative-AI solutions for NTT’s global customer base.

In its first project, with one of the world’s leading medical devices companies, SparkBeyond’s AI engine was used to identify specific customer groups to help inform product pricing, with creative yet precise ideas from its AI-generated hypotheses.

“The NTT Innovation Lab in Israel was established to promote and find startups for collaborations and investments.” said Noa Asher, CEO of the NTT Israel Innovation Lab. “SparkBeyond is an excellent and innovative company, we are excited to expand our partnership and keep introducing their technology to more companies around the world.”