Electronics developers and other technology companies in Japan are working to quickly roll out systems that may help stop a recent spate of summertime incidents involving children being left behind in dangerously hot vehicles.
Cybernetech, an electronics developer based in Nogata, Fukuoka Prefecture, is in the process of designing a system that can detect when a child has been left behind, as was the case last summer in the nearby city of Nakama, where a 5-year-old boy died of heatstroke after being left alone in a nursery school shuttle bus.
The prototype has a built-in sensor that can determine whether anyone remains on a bus, while also monitoring the temperature in the vehicle and whether it is in motion. Cybernetech began demonstrating its "left-behind detection system" at kindergartens in Nogata at the end of last year.