Companies to standardize RFID traceability data exchange
NTT Data, Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC agreed to establish a standardized technology of traceability -- they will discuss standardized methods for companies to exchange information (place of production, date of shipment, etc.) associated with RFID tags. They intend to encourage food manufacturers to use their standard.
The four companies will agree on a common information structure (i.e., data attributes) and protocols for information exchange. Such standardization is expected to make systems from different vendors interoperable.
via Nikke Shimbun, April 20, 2005, in Japanese.
UPDATE (April 20, 2005):
MYCOM PCWEB describes this as an effort to establish infrastructure for so-called "ID Commerce." This infrastructure would likely be based on standards proposed by EPCglobal and others. The company continue discussions on requirements and interfaces, which will be summarized this August. Then, design, development and technical testing follows in order to start pilot tests in January next year. Results of pilot tests will be summarized next summer when real deployments may start.