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Japanese City Tags Elderly Dementia Sufferers With Barcodes (japantimes.co.jp)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the scans-of-the-setting-sun dept.

"The Japanese city of Iruma has introduced scannable adhesive barcodes to tag fingernails of senior citizens with dementia who are prone to getting lost as a way to help concerned families find missing loved ones," writes HughPickens.com, citing this article from Japan Times: The adhesive QR-coded seals for nails -- part of a free service launched last month and a first in the country -- measure just 1 cm (0.4 inches) in size. "Being able to attach the seals on nails is a great advantage," says a city worker. "There are already ID stickers for clothes or shoes but dementia patients are not always wearing those items." If an elderly person becomes disorientated, police will find the local city hall, its telephone number and the wearer's ID all embedded in the QR code. Japan is grappling with a rapidly aging population, with senior citizens expected to make up a whopping 40 percent of the population around 2060.
The article describes Japan as "a country where 4.8 million people aged 75 or older hold a license... Last month, police started offering discounts for noodles at local restaurants to elderly citizens who agreed to hand in their driving licenses."

5 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why barcodes? by Kerstyun · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not when the all look the same.

    --
    Keep the whitehouse white, vote Trump & Palin 2020.
  2. How noble by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Last month, police started offering discounts for noodles at local restaurants to elderly citizens who agreed to hand in their driving licenses."

    Yeah, they're banking on most of the elderly forgetting about the discount...

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  3. Re:A permanent solution might be a tattoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    A tattoo on a wrist or other visible place would be pretty permanent but the data base connected to the tattoo must be kept up to date.

    I hear IBM has experience with that.

  4. Re:Won't be allowed in America by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Funny

    "And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand...."

    An obvious way to avoid this end-of-days prophecy would be to put these barcodes on the left hand.

  5. Re:Wut? by ASDFnz · · Score: 3, Funny

    >The adhesive QR-coded seals for nails
    Wut?

    THE ADHESIVE QR-CODED SEALS FOR NAILS