Panasonic tech is key to Expo 2025 Osaka’s smooth running
Panasonic Connect is providing a wide range of technology solutions for Expo 2025 Osaka.
The company’s facial recognition technology has been used to manage about 120,000 workers entering and exiting the construction site over the past two years. It is estimated that the 155-hectare site has been able to operate with about a fifth of the staff as would have been needed for the admission passes system that was originally planned.
At Expo 2025 itself, Panasonic will be teaming up with Dai Nippon Printing Co to deliver a system that combines facial recognition and admission credential cards using QR authentication to manage the entry of 100,000 people via 30 venue gates.
Panasonic’s KAIROS solution is supporting the production of remote broadcasting content via telecomms company NTT West’s IOWN APN, which is used by various broadcasting stations in Osaka.
A mainframe Kairos Core 200 (AT-KC200T) has been installed as a switcher in NTT West’s data centre, with a remote production environment provided by connecting the data centre, Expo 2025 site and the broadcasting station using All-Photonics Connect, which utilises IOWN APN technology.
Panasonic’s Acrosign digital signage system, meanwhile, is being deployed to provide passenger information at several points across Osaka’s Yumeshima Bus Terminal 1.
Panasonic System Networks Research & Development Co (PSNRD) – part of Panasonic Connect – is providing ITS Smart Poles to the Osaka Metro’s automated buses. The ICT infrastructure supports smooth driving by supplementing information that is difficult for the sensors of automated vehicles to detect in real time, such as blind spots and moving objects at long distances.
In addition, the company’s AI image sensing technology is being used to control the night-time lighting of the ‘grand ring’ symbol of Expo 2025, and to help with the staging of the Unlock Experience Area in the Panasonic Group Pavilion. The pavilion will also deploy Panasonic Connect projectors and entertainment systems.
In terms of improvements to the city’s infrastructure, Pananasonic’s facial recognition technology is being used at walk-though ticket gates at 130 of the 134 stations on the Osaka metro system.
The company is also participating in a field experiment on a new road traffic monitoring method in Osaka that is deploying image analysis technology and drones.
