NTT-ME launched a demonstration experiment for infrastructure inspections using the public utility pole photography game “PicTree,” titled “My Utility Pole Battle in Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Chiba,” on Saturday, January 31st. This is the first time the game has been held in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and it will run until Sunday, March 8th. Specifically, using PicTree, developed and deployed by DEA (Digital Entertainment Asset Pte. Ltd.), citizens photograph utility poles and manholes, aiming to improve the efficiency of equipment inspections.
PicTree is a location-based territory capture game. Users are divided into teams and search for and photograph utility poles and manholes throughout the city to increase their score and compete against other teams.
By photographing eligible utility poles and manholes, players can earn reward points, making it a fun way to collect points. Players can earn points worth between 30 and 100 yen per utility pole. Currently, the most popular point exchange is for Amazon gift certificates. Points can also be exchanged for Ponta and au PAY.

Hundreds of thousands of photos taken are collected by DEA, which provides them to NTT-ME. NTT-ME uses the photos for equipment inspections.

NTT-ME pays DEA a fee for the photos, which DEA ​​uses as reward points.

The equipment targeted this time is 310,000 utility poles in the Tokyo metropolitan area (90,000 in Tokyo, 90,000 in Kanagawa, and 130,000 in Chiba). Starting in mid-February, 1,000 manholes and handholes in the Kanagawa area will be targeted.

PicTree

A similar demonstration experiment was held in the Saitama, Nagano, and Yamanashi areas in October last year. At that time, 217,000 utility poles were targeted, of which approximately 90% were photographed, and 70% of those (130,000 to 140,000) were used for actual equipment inspections.
Atsushi Obokata, chief of the On-site Operations Center, Facilities Management Department, NTT ME, said, “If we were to complete the photography of 310,000 utility poles in the Tokyo metropolitan area within the 40-day demonstration period, we would need to devote around 300 of our employees to the task. From this perspective, we believe that citizen power is extremely effective.”
DEA’s Pictore was launched in 2024 in collaboration with TEPCO Power Grid. Since then, it has been rolled out mainly in eastern Japan. From February, an event is scheduled to be held in Okinawa in collaboration with NTT West Japan and Okinawa Electric Power Company.
The number of Pictore users is also on the rise, with the current number of downloads standing at around 80,000.

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