RFID in Japan

About Mobile SUICA - not everyone is happy.

1. Some wallet phones (including DoCoMo D902i) can't be used for the Mobile SUICA service.

2. Users must have a VIEW card (JR East's credit card) to use the Mobile SUICA service. Consequently, many young students wouldn't be able to use the service.

3. Users must install 3 heavy-weight applications on their wallet phones.

4. Cumbersome to initially configure the software. Some design flaw in UI.

Still, it's a cool service, I think - I wouldn't mind using an RFID train pass with color display and wireless networking. Hopefully, these things will soon be fixed.

via ITmedia

Bangkok Hospital completed its RFID pilot project and now plans to fully implement RFID this year before expanding it to 13 hospitals in its group in Bangkok and provinces countrywide within three years. Patients wear RFID wristbands that carry basic information about patients such as name, sex, age, and possibly drugs.

via The Nation < RFIDblog.org < RFIDGazette

Digital video production company Ray Corp. set up a subsidiary to sell ColorCodes in Japan. ColorCodes can be read by camera phones from farther away (than QR codes.) So, the company intends to leverage this feature to promote the use of ColorCodes in television and commercials and DVDs. "Viewers will be able to simply point their camera phones at the screen to capture the codes and get directed to Internet sites where they can purchase goods or learn more about the programs they are watching."

The new subsidiary will work with television stations to adjust the ColorCode technology for use in Japan and begin active marketing in April once pricing has been firmed up.

via Nikkei.net

related:
Forget QR code, here comes the ColorCode

thanks, regine! (vote for wmmna)

picturephoning.com reports:

If all goes well, it is expected that the RFID leader attached cell-phonea will appear in the first half of 2007. To trigger the mobile RFID cell-phone boom, SKT, KTF, LGT are preparing the mRFID demonstration services by the end of this year, reports Digiens@u.City

[more]

[image: jr east]

JR East today started the Mobile SUICA service that allows people to use wallet phones as train tickets. This can be more convenient than SUICA, the popular RFID train passes in Tokyo, because users can download digital money into the phones' RFID chips over the air. Also, you'll never forget your train ticket/pass anymore (provided you always have your mobile phone with you.)

897 JR train stations in Japan now accept phones as train tickets. These stations are mostly Tokyo metropolitan area, but some are in Sendai, Niigata, and the Kansai region.

To start using your wallet phone as a train ticket, download "Mobile SUICA Appli" from DoCoMo's official mobile website.

via Asahi.com, January 28, 2006 and Keitai Watch

NTT DoCoMo announced on January 26 that the number of wallet phone users (i.e., DoCoMo subscribers with i-mode FeliCa phones) exceeded 10 million.

DoCoMo's wallet phones debuted in July, 2004 and the company was aiming at having over 10 million users by the end of 2005. Tiny a bit late but close enough.

via Keitai Watch
via NTT DoCoMo Press Release

[image: wikipedia/GPL]

Hankyu Department Stores and Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) co-developed a POP (Point of Purchase) Ad system. The system is in operation at the men's shoes shop on the sixth floor of Hankyu Department Store (Umeda) since January 18.

When a customer picks up an RFID-tagged sales item from a smart shelf, a nearby computer shows information about the sales item. Sales agents can easily create the contents (POP ads) for this system. Also, this system records the information about the picked-up sales item along with a timestamp. DNP may start selling this system to retailers in April.

via lnews

Jimei University Library is introducing RFID.

RFID inlay and label manufacturer UPM Raflatac is working with systems integrator Shanghai RFID System Technology Co. to deploy an RFID-based tracking system to the main Jimei University Library in Xiamen, China.

via RFID Journal