{"id":1408,"date":"2016-12-08T12:47:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-08T12:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.com\/?p=1408"},"modified":"2016-12-08T12:47:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T12:47:00","slug":"lost-found-japan-tags-dementia-sufferers-barcodes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/2016\/12\/08\/lost-found-japan-tags-dementia-sufferers-barcodes\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost and found: Japan tags dementia sufferers with barcodes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Japanese city has introduced a novel way to keep track of senior citizens with dementia who are prone to getting lost \u2014 tagging their fingers and toes with scan-able barcodes.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A company in Iruma, north of Tokyo, developed tiny nail stickers, each of which carries a unique identity number to help concerned families find missing loved ones, according to the city\u2019s social welfare office.<\/p>\n<p>The adhesive QR-coded seals for nails \u2014 part of a free service launched this month and a first in Japan \u2014 measure just one centimetre (0.4 inches) in size.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing able to attach the seals on nails is a great advantage,\u201d a city worker told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are already ID stickers for clothes or shoes but dementia patients are not always wearing those items.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If an elderly person becomes disorientated, police will find the local city hall, its telephone number and the wearer\u2019s ID all embedded in the QR code.<\/p>\n<p>The chips remain attached for an average of two weeks \u2014 even if they get wet \u2014 the official said, citing recent trials.<\/p>\n<p>Japan is grappling with a rapidly ageing population with senior citizens expected to make up a whopping 40 percent of the population around 2060.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Japanese police started offering noodle discounts at local restaurants to elderly citizens who agreed to hand in their driving licences.<\/p>\n<p>The offer followed a series of deadly accidents involving elderly drivers \u2014 a growing problem in a country where 4.8 million people aged 75 or older hold a licence.&#8211;<em>AFP<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Image: Alamy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Japanese city has introduced a novel way to keep track of senior citizens with dementia who are prone to getting lost \u2014 tagging their fingers and toes with scan-able barcodes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}