Toppan’s smart city business is focused on the areas of digital government, environment/energy, industry, social infrastructure, mobility, information services, disaster prevention, tourism, education, and healthcare/sport. One of the main solutions on show will be IoT décor materials that make it possible for messages from family members or general information to be displayed on walls in a seamless and organic way while maintaining harmony with a space’s interior design. Information can be transmitted over a network from the cloud, and when nothing is displayed, the wall looks like any other.

Other Toppan solutions include a service that enables patients to get prescription medicines delivered to their home after consultation with a pharmacist online or via telephone and robots equipped with cutting-edge functions to recognize expressions, translate speech, and engage in natural conversation with a wide range of customers.

Toppan’s Speed Entry® Government service helps to drive efficiency by enabling application forms at local government offices to be filled out on digital devices, thereby eliminating paper and the need for data entry by staff. MyAnchor™, meanwhile, uses original technology to prevent identification and allow users to take advantage of the convenience of facial recognition while protecting their privacy and personal information.

The first part of Toppan’s seminar will address the question of why a printing company is taking on the challenge of smart cities. The second part will focus on infrastructure solutions enabled by ZETA technology. ZETA is an innovative Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) network protocol developed by ZiFiSense (http://www.zifisense.co.uk/) that enables communication in remote areas and in locations where other technologies might be affected by radio wave interference. Toppan aims to offer ZETA-based services using IoT technology to automate infrastructure monitoring and free up more time for people.

“The creation of smart cities involves a wide range of exciting challenges to find solutions for diverse stakeholders,” said Nobuhito Owaki, head of Toppan's Business Architecture Center. “The breadth of Toppan’s activities means that we can take a multifaceted approach and make use of our technologies and expertise to offer solutions from manifold perspectives, and we look forward to giving an insight into them during Super City/Smart City Osaka 2020.”