RFID in Japan

Japanese companies NEC and Toppan Printing started a pilot test of RFID-based CRM (Customer Relationship Management) at The First Shanghai Department Store in Shanghai, China. It started on March 26 and will last till the end of June.

The system is deployed at the "Ladies Fashion Building". The companies distributed 10,000 strap-attached RFID tags to the department store's customers. Each shop has an RFID reader that reads the tags. The data captured by this hardware infrastructure enable the stores' PCs to display purchase histories and customer profiles of (scanned) customers. The information is viewed by sales agents.

The store plans to provide special discounts and point services for the customers and also intends to tailor sales floors by analysing the data captured using RFID.

via Enterprise Watch, March 28, in Japanese

KDDI is testing their RFID Reader phones (not commercial products yet) in Shinsaibashi, Osaka -- where there are many shops and many (young) people.

The phones read passive RFID tags and fetch relevant contents (maps, shop info, etc.).

via Keitai Watch, March 31, 2005, in Japanese

MATICS2004 is a group of 38 companies/organizations in Japan, which recently developed a system for managing industrial wastes using RFID tags. The system's objective is to strictly monitor wastes produced at hospitals and factries -- and find what can be reused. The group is testing the system at the Ibaragi factory of Asahi Beer company to commercialize it in the summer.

via Nikkei Shimbun, March 27, in Japanese

Because of the amount of work I've accumulated on my desk, RFID in Japan will be less active than usual during the next two weeks. Nevertheless, I'll write if I find something I believe is very important. -konomi

On Sunday, there was a major earthquake in Fukuoka, Japan.

There seem to be virtually no place in Japan that is not vulnerable to out-of-the-blue earthquakes.

Japanese government is keen to explore uses of new technologies for helping victims and people who help victims in disaster situations. RFID is not an exception in this respect.

For example, Japanese Fire Defense Agency has been testing location systems for firefighters since 2000. The system uses portable RFID readers worn by firefighters that obtain location information from active tags embedded in underground environments.

Riken's five-year project (since 2002) exploits RFID tags with large memory capacity for storing sound.¡¡Their ideas include embedding such tags in ceilings and walls in buildings. The sound stored in the tags include some messages for the victims and also messages recorded by the victims. If buildings are collapsed after an earthquake, some kind of flying machines will send/receive information to/from the tags.

NICT's five-year project (since 2003) uses RFID tags embedded in roadsides - they are used by rescue workers (perhaps including volunteers?) carrying RFID readers in order to share important information such as "if person X is alive or not " and other information related to a disaster.

Also - the city of Fukuoka and Kyushu University recently announced a new project that explore uses of RFID tags for efficiently managing victims' information. Here, RFID tags will be attached to paper forms that describe victims' information. (The earthquake hit the region before this system is actually deployed ...)

via
- Best Practices, Ubiquitous Networking Forum, in Japanese.
- Fire Defense Agency's report in Japanese
- Riken's project description page in Japanese
- Mainichi-MSN, March 7, 2005, in Japanese

On March 17, Kinki Sogo Tshushinkyoku released a 14-page report that describes their 2-week experiment of RFID-based tracking of children at Shinjo Second Elementary School in the Japanese city of Tanabe (Wakayama prefecture). Like other similar projects, they also hypothesize that RFID tags would be useful for providing school children with better safety.

The experiment started on Monday, October 25, 2004 and lasted till Friday, November 5, 2004. Two different kinds of UHF tags were used: 950MHz passive tags attached to kids' school backs that are read at the gate of the school to activate a digital camera that takes pictures of kids and automatically send them via email to parents' mobile phones. 300MHz active tags are embedded in wrist bands that are worn by kids. When kids enter a potentially dangerous area, the system also sends picture messages to parents. 92% of the schools' 172 students participated in the experiment.

An interesting part of the report is the result of a survey answered by parents. 82% parents checked email sent by the system every day. And 83% parents said the system increased their peace of mind. About 50% expects improved protection and management of personal information in the future. 80% parents think that the system should be deployed outside the school campus. 80% said they can pay some monthly fee for this service.

The report also says that they achieved 100% read rate for 300 MHz tags and 93% for 950MHz tags. But they think they can achieve 100% for 950MHz too.

Sometimes email messages were lost because of some problems with the email infrastructure. This made some parents nervous as it was impossible to tell if their kids were lost or the system was not functioning properly.

The Report (in Japanese) is here.

via Slashdot Japan

Someone reminded me of this event in Korea, which discusses smart cards and RFID as well.

The core idea of YRP Uniquitous Networking Laboratory's new project
is to embed a number of RFID tags in public venues and use them to
help people get around in a city.
Pedestrians use handheld devices that gets information from RFID tags
and say things like "You are at XXX in YYY town" "If you turn right, there'll be a train station" ...

A major pilot test will start in April in the Japanese city of Kobe.
Well, Kobe is a rather large city - here are specific locations where they plan to do this kind of stuff:
- between Shin-Kobe Station and Sannomiya Station
- Flower ROad, Kyomachi-Suji
- Meriken Park Passenger Line Terminal

In relation to this effort (by the way they are the guys
who are pushing non-EPCglobal RFID tag standard: ucode),
they initiated a committee that will discuss so-called
"Place Codes", which will bridge RFID tags' serial numbers
and location information.

via CNET Japan, March 17, in Japanese