Responding to
the Digital Divide
Working to enable information
access for everyone
- Safe and comfortable smartphone solutions for people of all ages
- Supporting youth with special needs
- Using AI to create an environment where everyone can talk smoothly
- Expanding opportunities of those facing challenges in daily life
- Supporting the use of technology in teaching leadership to youth with special needs
- Supporting hearing-impaired people's “Right to Know” through mobile phones
- Promoting ways to resolve the digital divide through providing information communication devices for free
To meet the diverse needs of customers, SoftBank offers several brands with different features: ‘SoftBank’ for users actively using smartphones, ‘Y!mobile’ for light users, and ‘LINEMO’ for online-only services.
In response to the increasing demand for online services from customers who have difficulty visiting shops and from digital-native generations, we have also developed our online shop. Additionally, in the fiscal year 2023, 13% of our total customers used our online services for contracting.
Safe and comfortable smartphone solutions
for people of all ages
With the popularity of smartphones, we offer various seminars on smartphones for beginners. Regardless of the cell phone you use or the communication carrier you have a contract with, you can participate in these seminars by dedicated smartphone specialists who have been independently certified by SoftBank all over Japan.
In July 2020, we launched online smartphone classes using Zoom for customers who could not go outside due to COVID-19. Providing in-store services online is well received as a new option particularly by seniors who worry about going out and those who are not comfortable remaining in shops for extended periods of time.
Major Courses | |||
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Seminar Course Name | Target | Estimated time | Contents |
Smartphone experience class before you buy |
|
60-120 minutes (negotiable) |
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First time to try Zoom |
|
90 minutes |
|
My First Smartphone Payment +How to use a smartphone |
|
120 minutes |
|
Drawing class with iPad |
|
120 minutes |
|
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We offer courses in addition to those listed above. Please use the application form to inquire about other courses.
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We have established our own guidelines for infection prevention measures.
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Instructors may not be able to be dispatched depending on the region.
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Supporting youth
with special needs
Since 2009 SoftBank have been working with the University of Tokyo Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology to jointly conduct the Magic Lamp Project, a case study project utilizing mobile device functions for children with special needs.
We aim to increase children's social participation opportunities by lending tablets and humanoid robot ‘Pepper’*1 free of charge for a certain period to schools participating in the project, and providing support using technology.
This research has generated substantial results, such as cases where children who found it difficult to communicate verbally with others in words becoming able to better express their feelings and desires in their own words through conversing with and programming Pepper.
Through the use of ICT, children are able to do things that they previously could not, raising their level of motivation. We plan to expand our activities to enable children to discover even more of their inherent capabilities.
As an educational initiative for children with special needs, the Magic Lamp Project has received high praise.
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*1
Provided at no charge in connection with SoftBank Group Corp.'s Pepper Social Contribution Program.
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*1
Using AI to create
an environment
where everyone can
talk smoothly
SureTalk is a communication tool jointly developed by The University of Electro-Communications and SoftBank Corp. that uses AI to facilitate communication between users of signed languages and users of spoken languages.
By tracking body movements captured by a camera-equipped device and extracting sign language features, the AI recognizes signs and converts them into text in real time. Sign language recognition requires a large amount of sign language video data to extract the unique characteristics of individual sign gestures. By quantifying and training AI models with this data, it becomes possible to recognize it as a unified sign language.
Using SureTalk, we aim to build social infrastructure to enable people with hearing disabilities to communicate freely in all kinds of situations.
Expanding opportunities of
those facing challenges
in daily life
Assist Guide is an app that allows users to make a visualized list of things to do and how to do them for use in daily life. With smartphones, users can photograph each step of a task, add explanations and arrange them in order to make it easier to understand the activity as a whole.
Assist Guide can help children, seniors and those with other difficulties in daily life (including those with intellectual or developmental disabilities) broaden the scope of their activities in daily life.
In November 2021 and July 2022, Kagawa University and the city of Takamatsu, Kagawa, carried out demonstration tests applying the app to using trains and buses.
Participants used Assist Guide, in which the steps to get from point A to point B were laid out in photos. With the app, participants who previously had difficulty using trains and buses, including individuals with intellectual and developmental disorders, were able to travel on their own.
We will continue to help remove barriers in society using Assist Guide to create environments that allow users to exercise their full abilities.
Supporting the use of technology
in teaching leadership to youth
with special needs
Since 2007, SoftBank has been supporting DO-IT (diversity, opportunities, internet working and technology) Japan (run by the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology) to help youth with special needs enter university and find employment.
This program supports students from elementary school through to university who have difficulty reading and writing, with the goal of enabling them to be future leaders in society.
SoftBank will continue to support communication for participants with special needs or suffering from illness, and to foster openness and diversity by identifying barriers in society.
Supporting hearing-impaired people's “Right to Know” through mobile phones
SoftBank is examining how mobile phones and the Internet can help youth with special needs learn and gain independence. Since fiscal 2008, SoftBank has been lending mobile handsets to the non-profit organization (NPO) Nagano Summarize Center to help them develop an experimental system where interpreters in remote locations summarize the content spoken in public speeches in real time. This content is then displayed on a mobile phone. Through collaborations with universities and NPOs, SoftBank is committed to securing equal rights to information for the hearing impaired (“The Right to Know”)* through the expanded use of the Mobile Remote Information Assurance System.
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Refers to the provision of information by alternative means to ensure equal rights to information.
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Expanding the use of the mobile remote information relay system
Since fiscal 2009 we have conducted introductory experiments towards practical implementation of the Mobile Remote Information Assurance System jointly with universities, including the Tsukuba University of Technology, and NPOs. Since fiscal 2012, with the cooperation of partner universities and institutions, we have sought out universities that wish to be involved with long-distance information assurance, and conducted further experiments of the Mobile Remote Information Assurance System. The knowledge and experience we have gained will be published as a collection of case studies and manuals.
SoftBank is committed to expanding the use of the Mobile Remote Information Assurance System as a means of achieving widespread adoption of an effective long-distance information assurance service.
What is the mobile remote information assurance system?
The Mobile Remote Information Assurance System is a system derived from a business started by the NPO Nagano Summarize Center (in fiscal 2008) and developed and proof of concept tested by a joint research group consisting of the Tsukuba University of Technology, Softbank, NPO Nagano Summarize Center, Gunma University, The University of Tokyo Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, and MCC HubneT.
When a hearing-impaired person attends a class or other similar event, two interpreters working in concert summarize the speaker's words and add them in the form of captions on a PC screen. In a conventional system, interpreters use a networked PC, summarize the speech, and type captions on the PC screen. However, because the interpreters need to be present where the PC is located, there are constraints on the places and times the service can be used.
Under the new Mobile Remote Information Assurance System, the interpreters' summary of the speaker's words is entered on a mobile phone and displayed in real-time on other mobile phones. With this new system, interpreters no longer need to be physically present. They can also use the system while on the move, which widens the opportunities for the hearing impaired to obtain information.
Promoting ways to resolve
the digital divide through
providing information
communication devices
for free
The number of services and devices using Internet communications is increasing every year, and IT has developed into an important lifeline which supports QOL (quality of life). At the same time, it is said that a digital divide is being created due to differences in Internet accessibility according to factors such as living environment and income. When the volume of accessible information is low, this leads to lost opportunities to connect to convenient lifestyle services and new information, which definitely has an impact on academic ability, employment, and income level as well.
As part of our efforts to address the digital divide due to income, SoftBank provides smartphones, tablets, and other information communication devices for free to children who are unable to receive learning opportunities due to poverty and nonprofit organizations that support orphans and other children. In addition, we also provide a system to deliver donations to such organizations through the “Charity Smile” program in which we match every 10 yen monthly donation by customers who use SoftBank services. We will promote the realization of a society in which anyone, regardless of their living environment, can experience the convenience of the Internet through ICT.