mytest

Hi Blog. Courtesy Mark at The Community. Comment is his. Debito in Sapporo

COMMENT
In partnership with Fujitsu, Hitachi and NEC. This trial is for the
expressed purpose to aid shoppers in locating stores and sales as
they pass retailers, but one has to wonder if the test’s application
and results might interest Japanese immigration regarding proposed
plans to put RFID chips [IC Chips] in gaikokujin touroku shoumeisho cards.

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Published Tuesday 2nd January 2007
The Register (IT news site)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/02/rfid_in_toyko/

The Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project has announced plans to blanket
the Ginza region of Tokyo, the most popular shopping district, with
10,000 RFID tags and other wireless technologies to provide shopper-
assistance and location-based services.

The trial starts later this month, and will feature a specially-
designed handheld equipped with RFID, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
connectivity. This handheld can rented by visitors, though the
vision is that the service should be available on compatible phone
handsets.

The thousands of RFID tags are used to identify where the user is;
each has a unique serial number which is sent to a central server
that responds with local information and directions if required.

The device will also automatically display special offers in nearby
shops, and give information about the various retailers in each of
the many buildings in the area.

The Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project is a joint venture between the
Japanese government and various high-tech companies including
Fujitsu, Hitachi and NEC, and has run smaller trials elsewhere as
well as developing technologies and usage models. These trials will
run until March.

In these days of GPS, Galileo and triangulation systems it might
seem a retrograde step to simply place numbered tags around an area,
but the technology has the advantage of being accurate and reliable,
as well as being ideally suited for a pedestrian population, and the
visitors who are so frequently lost around Ginza.
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ARTICLE ENDS

ADDITIONAL COMMENT FROM DEBITO:
Note how the trial uses an optional handheld device rented by visitors equipped with IC tracking technology. So how about future applications for nonoptional IC Gaijin Cards? Once business gets involved, this could develop very quickly indeed. Ends