Elderly Dementia Patients' Way Home Aided by Shoes... Busan Police Agency Develops 'NFC Safety Shoes' Containing Family Information

Woo Cheol-moon, Chief of Busan Police Agency (third from the left), Park Hyung-joon, Mayor of Busan (fourth from the left), and Kwon Dong-chil, CEO of Treksta (fifth from the left), are signing the agreement.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Du-yeol] A reliable helper that looks after the way home for those suffering from dementia is being created. This guardian is not a person, but a shoe.

A project to develop and distribute shoes containing information such as the contact details of caregivers for dementia patients is being promoted in Busan. On the 21st, the Busan Police Agency signed a 'NFC Safety Shoe Development and Activation Business Agreement' with Busan City and Treksta.

The agreement was proposed by the Busan Police Agency as a measure to prepare for a super-aged society in advance, with the local shoe company Treksta developing the 'NFC Safety Shoe' and Busan City providing support.

The NFC Safety Shoe is a shoe embedded with an NFC tag in the 'dial' part that can store information such as contact numbers and addresses. Any smartphone user can input the necessary information into the NFC tag, and the police can verify it to prepare for cases such as missing persons.

The NFC Safety Shoe does not require a separate power source, allowing it to be used semi-permanently.

This business agreement was inspired by on-site opinions that it would be beneficial if shoes, which dementia patients always wear when going out, contained family contact information and could serve as a medium for handing over wandering dementia patients found on the streets to their caregivers.

In reality, when police officers or others find dementia patients wandering on the streets, they often cannot confirm the caregiver's contact information, and only 20.1% of dementia patients have registered fingerprints for identification, making it difficult to quickly hand them over to their caregivers.

The police expect that providing NFC Safety Shoes to dementia patients or individuals with developmental disabilities who are difficult to identify will allow immediate confirmation of contact information in case of missing incidents, enabling swift handover to family members.

After the business agreement, the police plan to conduct internal training to actively utilize the safety shoes in the field and share cases.

Treksta will develop, produce, and promote the NFC Safety Shoes as part of its social contribution projects, and Busan City plans to distribute the shoes free of charge to 300 people annually for three years through the Busan Metropolitan Dementia Center.

Woo Cheol-moon, Chief of Busan Police Agency, said, "This is a model business case where the police, local governments, and companies have joined forces for the safety of citizens," adding, "We hope that the efforts started in Busan will help secure the safety of all citizens along with existing missing person prevention policies."

Appearance of NFC secure shoes.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.