Kyoto, Japan--OMRON Corporation (Headquarters: Kyoto, Japan; President & CEO: Yoshihito Yamada; hereinafter referred to as "OMRON") announced today that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Yahoo Japan Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "Yahoo! Japan") to reach a basic agreement for considering the development of services connected to the "myThings Developers Beta Version¹" platform for business use (hereinafter referred to as "myThings Developers") to be provided by Yahoo! Japan. Through this agreement, OMRON intends to reinforce its IoT services using the "Human Vision Component Kazoku Mesen (HVC-C2W) ²" (hereinafter referred to as "HVC"). HVC is a network camera sensor built with OMRON proprietary facial image sensing technology.

Based on the terms of the memorandum of understanding, OMRON will begin researching developments aimed at offering the following services listed below in conjunction with the "Yahoo! Disaster Alert Service," one of the web services provided by Yahoo! Japan.

• In the event of an earthquake, HVC will receive earthquake information provided by "Yahoo! Disaster Alert Service" via "myThings Developers" and send out the information through a built-in speaker.
• Once HVC receives earthquake information provided by "Yahoo! Disaster Alert Service" through "myThings Developers," HVC's camera will automatically record images of family members at home and the condition of their neighborhoods after an earthquake. These images will then be sent to a user's smartphone to confirm the safety of the family and the extent of damage, if any.

Additionally, the user can also benefit from HVC's built-in function to automatically record and notify users of any suspicious persons intruding into a user's house that becomes unoccupied after evacuation. This will also be sent to the user's smartphone for realtime monitoring.

OMRON has developed IoT services by drawing on its HVC technology, which is capable of detecting faces and recognizing people in images. For example, one service allows monitoring of a baby asleep or a pet in the house when the users are away. The user can also keep in touch with an elderly relative living alone or monitor the conditions of the house when the user is not home.

OMRON is also planning to offer an app for using various HVC-based services, such as monitoring or care of elderly people. Going forward, OMRON will strive to further expand the scope of HVC's applications in conjunction with services from other providers, in order to create services aimed for protection monitoring, as well as services optimized for each user. By so doing, OMRON aims to help build a society that is safer, more secure, and more comfortable to live in.

¹ On the "myThings Developers" platform, more than 40 different application programming interfaces (APIs) are currently available for web services including "Yahoo! Weather" and IoT products. By using this platform, developers of IoT products or services can easily connect and combine their products/services with services available from Yahoo! Japan--which has one of the largest user bases in Japan--as well as many other web services and IoT products from other companies. This helps companies create new services, improve the value of products through extended functions, and reduce worker-hours for development.

² The "Human Vision Component Kazoku Mesen (HVC-C2W)" is a network camera sensor that recognizes facial expressions, gender, age, line-of-sight, and various gestures by drawing on OMRON's proprietary "OKAO&rweg; Vision" facial image sensing technology. It is able to transmit the results over a wireless network to a smartphone or tablet, and offers easy app-based controls, all fitting in the palm of a user's hand. Released in September 2015 as a protection monitoring sensor, the HVC-C2W allows users to continuously monitor their families and maintain a safe and secure living environment. Whether it's a sleeping baby or a pet while the user is away from home, the HVC-C2W monitors their conditions and movements, and when necessary, provides timely push notifications to a smartphone or tablet. At CEATEC Japan 2015, Asia's greatest leading-edge information technology and electronics exhibition held in October 2015, the HVC-C2W won the Lifestyle Innovation Category second prize in the CEATEC Awards 2015. Concurrently, it became a recipient of the Health & Household Innovation Category prize in the Innovation Awards as Selected by U.S. Journalists. Since its launch, the HVC-C2W, as an IoT device, has been highly acclaimed both inside and outside of Japan.