RFID in Japan

On January 3, Japan's Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Ministry decided to seriously consider deploying RFID-chipped "Smart License Plates." RFID chips embedded in license plates will likely hold information about license plate numbers, types of vehicles, etc.

The ministry started developing RFID-chipped license plates around the year 2000. They hope to alleviate traffic jam problems and increase security by tracking precise locations of vehicles using antennas installed at roadsides etc.

This April, taxicabs in the city of Chiba will use smart license plates as part of a pilot test program. Lessons learned from this pilot test will be reported to a exploratory committee that will propose a plan for introducing smart license plates. This plan may be finalized by the summer of this year.

The ministry secured 20,000,000 Japanese yen (approx. 170,000 US dollars) for this year to conduct the pilot tests, etc. The taxicab pilot will take place in front of JR Chiba Station. Two RFID readers will be installed, one at the station and the other at the waiting area which is 1.6 km away from the station. When there is a space for additional taxicabs to park&wait at the station, the system notifies the drivers waiting at the waiting area.

Other envisioned uses of smart license plates include: vehicle access control at high-security areas such as airports and sea ports. Other ideas include a system that detects cars and alerts the elderly and visually impaired people to reduce traffic accidents. Such a system might be useful on some roads in business districts where there are many passers-by.

via Tokyo Shimbun, January 3 (in Japanese) < Akisa's cocolog Kichirogu

Posted by konomi at January 10, 2006 01:13 AM | TrackBack