Education

Non-contact, Remote Solution Supports High-level Hygiene Management and Detailed Hands-on Instruction in a Food Science and Nutrition Department

Organization: KINDAI UNIVERSITY

Location: Nara City, Nara Prefecture, Japan

Customer need: Remote monitoring

Nara City, Nara Prefecture, Japan, 2022

Integrated video and audio system solves operational efficiency for a better educational environment

Issues

With an educational policy that emphasizes practical learning, the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, KINDAI UNIVERSITY, located in Nara City, Nara Prefecture, focuses on hands-on training so that students can have realistic experiences. To realize this goal, the use of the latest technology was considered essential, and IT equipment and systems were renewed when the culinary training building was constructed. The biggest challenges were how to maximize the capabilities of the limited number of teaching staff and how to provide high quality training while maintaining high hygiene standards. To meet the strict hygiene management standards compliant with HACCP, which is mandatory for hands-on training at the department, it was necessary to manage eight rooms set up for each cooking process, each with a different hygiene rank, while taking an overview of the entire flow. Therefore, the department wanted three teachers to remotely check and instruct students in other rooms while actually instructing students in their own rooms.

Solution

At the request of KINDAI UNIVERSITY, a system for remote confirmation of video images and voice call guidance by tablet computer, the first of its kind in the industry, was deployed. A total of 16 AXIS P3245-LV/LVE fixed-dome network cameras were installed for each of the cooking processes in the eight rooms. In addition, S1116 recorders with built-in AXIS Camera Station software for centralized management of cameras and speakers were installed and connected in the preparation corridors so that each room can be remotely monitored from the teachers’ tablet devices, which were installed with the AXIS Camera Station app. Additionally, AXIS C1410 and AXIS C2005 network speakers were installed in the rooms and the cameras and speakers were linked on AXIS Camera Station so that guidance and instructions from the teachers can be delivered individually to students engaged in hands-on trainin

Results

The introduction of this system means teachers can now provide individual guidance and instructions as needed without having to move to each room, enabling more efficient hands-on training and guidance than in the past. Despite the constant noise from kitchen equipment in the cooking rooms and the high humidity caused by cooking, the necessary audio reaches the students, and the teachers are also satisfied with the clear images. Although the number of teachers is currently limited to three, the department has met strict hygiene standards in accordance with HACCP by utilizing the latest technology, and is able to provide detailed instruction to students in a mass culinary training program divided into eight rooms. As a pioneer in the use of IT in education, KINDAI UNIVERSITY has been one of the first to introduce a non-contact remote solution using video and voice, and is expected to continue to bring even more realistic experiences to students through these advanced initiatives.

With the help of the latest IT technology, we are very pleased to be able to efficiently realize strict hygiene management compliant with HACCP and provide students with a realistic hands-on training environment.

Keiko Tomita

Associate Professor, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, KINDAI UNIVERSITY

Background and details of system introduction

The Department of Food Science and Nutrition in the Faculty of Agriculture at KINDAI UNIVERSITY specializes in the three fields of clinical nutrition, dietary education and food products, and trains dietitian specialists with wide-ranging knowledge through education with an emphasis on practical learning. Particularly with collaboration with the university hospital and the Faculty of Medicine, KINDAI UNIVERSITY is fortunate to have a comprehensive educational environment from kindergarten to university that is ideal for nutrition education and a curriculum that integrates all aspects of production and distribution through affiliation with the Faculty of Agriculture.
Regarding the strict HACCP-compliant hygiene management standards, which are indispensable for the department’s hands-on training as it involves food handling, Associate Professor Keiko Tomita, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, says “It takes a lot of time and effort in terms of both hardware and software, and the larger the facility, such as a university, the more difficult the overall management becomes. To devote more resources to actual education, we wanted to utilize the latest IT systems to efficiently meet operational standards that comply with HACCP.” While individually managing eight rooms divided by hygiene rank, such as washing, pre-treatment, and cooking, a system was needed that would also provide an overview of the entire process to ensure that nothing gets omitted. Therefore, the most important issue to be addressed in this project was to enable the limited number of three teachers to constantly move around in their rooms while also checking the work of the students in the other rooms and providing them with guidance in real time.

After discussions, TOENEC CORPORATION proposed a system in which AXIS Camera Station was installed as centralized management software to link the AXIS P3245-LV/LVE fixed-dome network cameras installed in each room with network speakers. While maintaining an overview of the images, it is now possible to call out by voice from the speakers grouped with the network cameras. The AXIS Camera Station app was installed on each teacher’s tablet computer to enable them to view video no matter which room they are in. Although there are systems in other facilities that enable teaching staff to view video of every classroom from a centralized control room, this is the first attempt at such a system.

For this reason, Masato Ota, Deputy Manager of the ICT System Group, Information and Communication Department at TOENEC CORPORATION said, “The most difficult part was that we had to start from the very beginning by setting up the system because there was no precedent.” He continued, “After Associate Professor Tomita told us about the hands-on training methods and environmental requirements to comply with HACCP, we thought about an operation flow using tablets, and decided to use AXIS Camera Station (ACS) because it was the easiest to use and has an application that can run on a tablet.” Cameras shaped to prevent dust accumulation and ceiling-mounted speakers were selected to create a hygienic environment compliant with HACCP. Furthermore, the installation site was achieved through trial and error in selecting and setting up models that could be used stably by teachers hurrying around in various environments noisy with fans and cooking utensils.

Now that the new system is in place, three teachers actively move around carrying tablets and teaching more students both in person and remotely everyday. Associate Professor Tomita continued, “The operation is easy to understand, and as long as the tablet is disinfected, non-contact, instruction in different rooms can be given instantly and hygiene control maintained, which I find very attractive.”
This system was originally introduced primarily to provide guidance and communication from teachers to students, but once it was put into actual operation, it proved to be useful in unexpected ways as well. Although teachers who are usually visiting the rooms to give instructions are rarely in the same place, they are now able to instantly collaborate via the tablet tools even when they are far apart and share information about teaching and work that needs to be done in real time. This is a unique advantage of the new system, which cannot be achieved with a conventional system that entails monitoring situations from a centralized control room. Students receiving hands-on training also get positive effects from the tension of having the instructor’s eyes always shining behind the camera and the sense of security of being watched over. While introducing the latest equipment, KINDAI UNIVERSITY’s non-contact and remote solution with its emphasis on system scalability and long-lasting use from the perspective of SDGs is leading the future of education and food hygiene management.