Investors: Press Release
GeckoSystems' Elder Care Robot Trials Result in More Japanese Interest
CONYERS, GA, -- March 11, 2010 -- GeckoSystems Intl. Corp. (PINKSHEETS: GCKO) -- announced today that their Japanese representative, Hajime Yasumatsu, has reported recently regarding his initiatives for GeckoSystems with another Japanese firm, in concert with Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). This is in addition to the previously announced discussions with the Japanese Export Trade Organization (JETRO) and a major Japanese mobile service robot developer, tmsuk Company, Ltd. GeckoSystems is a dynamic leader in the emerging mobile robotics industry revolutionizing their development and usage with "Mobile Robot Solutions for Safety, Security, and Service™".
"During my upcoming trip to Japan late this month, I have made an appointment to visit a small sensor company in Tokyo which makes miniaturized sensors for blood pulse rate and electrocardiograph (ECG) data to be worn by the care receiver. They are one of the team members of NICT to develop non-invasive vital sign monitoring systems.
"Since I am planning to be in Tokyo from Mar. 29-31, I wish to visit JETRO's world headquarters at that time. Besides our ongoing discussions with JETRO, I am visiting tmsuk Company, Ltd. and now this medical sensor company, too. They are very focused on cost effective health care delivery using mobile robots," commented Hajime Yasumatsu, Chairman, Yasu, Inc., a Missouri Corporation.
Martin Spencer, President/CEO of GeckoSystems stated: "As all of us here at GeckoSystems are excited about this development, due to the delicacy of these past and future discussions, I feel it is in the best interest of all parties to not reveal the identity of this new entity and their heightened interest due to their being one of the more advanced non-invasive vital sign monitoring companies in Japan. They are sponsored by another Japanese government entity, NICT.
"I believe their interest in us is due to not only our flagship product, the automatic self navigation software, GeckoNav™, but also the reality that we have a complete multitasking personal robot, the CareBot™, with verbal interaction capabilities, GeckoChat™, and the ability to routinely follow a designated family member with GeckoTrak™ employing numerous sensor fusion systems, whether on board, off board, or a combination of both, for lower costs and increased reliability," noted Spencer.
"Reliability and higher system performance are the main factors driving sensor fusion," notes Frost & Sullivan research analyst, Praveen Chandrasekar, in the firm's report early last year, "Developments in Sensor Fusion, Technical Insights."
"GeckoSystems has been a top pioneer in the field of sensor fusion technology. We were extremely pleased to learn a year ago from Frost & Sullivan's report that our internally developed sensor fusion technologies have application in many significant markets other than the mobile service robot marketplace. These important insights will allow us to license our proprietary sensor fusion technologies to many firms outside of the emerging mobile robotics industry and increase ROI for our investors," observed Spencer.
According to Wikipedia: "Sensor fusion is the combining of sensory data or data derived from sensory data from disparate sources such that the resulting information is in some sense better than would be possible when these sources were used individually."
Everyday we use "sensor fusion" in our routine activities. For example, we smell smoke and then look for a grayish cloud to determine the source of the smoke, its proximity, and consequent degree of danger to us. In noisy crowds when we talk with someone, we use lip reading to enable us to understand what we don't hear clearly. Humans use sensor fusion every day to make choices based on data that is interdependent, or incomplete, versus using only one of our five senses. The better the sensor fusion, the better the choices and the more "actionable" the "situation awareness" is.
Since the CareBot presently uses multiple on board sensor fusion systems, the inclusion of off board, non invasive vital sign monitoring sensor systems is a straight forward and well understood process by GeckoSystems. Their advanced sensor fusion competencies enable the intelligent merging of off board sensors such as pulse rate, ECG, etc. using their proprietary expandable, extensible GeckoSavant™ technology architecture.
"Our recently announced 'Mobile Robots in Motion' conference and on going world's first in home elder care robot trials have garnered many inquiries for us regarding our business model, technologies (many employing sensor fusion) available for licensing, and interest in joint domestic and international ventures. We continue to expect technology licensing revenues to precede revenues from product manufacturing and sales. This augurs well for increased ROI and shareholder value for our investors," observed Martin Spencer, President/CEO, GeckoSystems.
This "Mobile Robots in Motion" conference will be held at GeckoSystems' new 4,000 square feet R&D and manufacturing facility in the Honey Creek area, just south of Conyers, Ga. Attendees, perhaps some from JETRO, will witness not only our flagship product, but also our proprietary automatic self-navigation software, GeckoNav™, and the reality that they have a complete multitasking personal companion robot, the CareBot™, with verbal interaction and 'command and control' capabilities arising from GeckoChat™, verbal reminders from GeckoChat and GeckoScheduler™ and the ability to routinely follow a designated family member with GeckoTrak™. This personal companion robot, the CareBot, has been in limited evaluation trials for over three months now.
The Japanese have their own eldercare crisis because of the size of their WWII widow population. Due to their understanding of the high costs of sufficient and appropriate eldercare, the Japanese government has spent one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) in grants (to Sanyo, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC, etc.) over the last eight to ten years to develop personal robots for their own eldercare crisis, yet no viable solutions have been developed by them to date.
The cost saving benefits of GeckoSystems' suite of mobile robot technologies will generate multiple revenue streams for GeckoSystems in the form of licensing, royalties, training, and sales of various hardware systems and subsystems. I expect the synergies in our cooperation to result in distribution into the Japanese market and enable significant cost reductions in the systems and subsystems we import from Japan. As one would expect, licensing revenues and a more competitive cost structure will increase shareholder value and ROI for our stockholders," opined Spencer.
About Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT):
NICT is an incorporated administrative agency of the Japanese government. NICT was established to carry out research and development in the field of information and communications technology, which supports the upcoming ubiquitous network society in an integrated manner from basis to application and also provides comprehensive assistance to the public and private organizations working in this field.
The results of research and development in NICT will be utilized for the international standardization and the technical transfer to the industry, and they are also in broad activities such as the research and development mobilizing the industry and the academia in order to put the technology to practical use, the research commission to universities, companies, etc., the venture support and the advanced support for infrastructures to accelerate the business planning.
In this way, NICT, as the sole national research organization, will continue to make efforts towards realizing a vigorous society and a wealthy life by supporting the national policy as for Information and Communications from the technical side in the field of information and communications.
NICT's information in English can be found at: http://www2.nict.go.jp/pub/whatsnew/press/h21/090511/090511_e.html
About tmsuk Co., Ltd.:
tmsuk Co., Ltd. was founded on January 4, 2000, to create a safe and comfortable society in which people and robots can coexist. They are located at 465, Eguchi, Munakata-City, Fukuoka,811-3502 JAPAN
About JETRO:
The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is a government-related organization that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world. JETRO is contained within the Japanese Ministry of Trade in their executive branch of their government. Originally established in 1958 to promote Japanese exports abroad, JETRO's core focus in the 21st century has shifted toward promoting foreign direct investment into Japan and helping small to medium size Japanese firms maximize their global export potential.
"Medical Equipment: How U.S. Companies Are Positioned to Get Ahead of Two Upcoming Shifts in Japan" http://www.jetro.org/content/515
About Frost & Sullivan:
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan's Growth Partnerships, visit http://www.Frost.com.
For more information regarding their report, vis a' vis GeckoSystems, visit http://www.geckosystems.com/investors/