RFID in Japan

Wireless Watch Japan reports: NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and LAWSON, Inc. have just announced a business alliance that will result in customers using DoCoMo's Osaifu-Keitai (phones with wallet functions) for a variety of practical mobile services at LAWSON convenience stores beginning by April 30th.

Familymart and other companies announced an ambitious retail RFID project in December (see the entry "Here It Comes - Totally RFID Checkout"). At a Familymart conveniece store in Minato-ku, Tokyo, sales items are individually tagged and, at the checkout, the POS machine reads multiple tags at once. Customers can also use RFID payment cards.

This pilot test started on January 30 and will last till February 24. So far, the company seems to be satisfied with what they are seeing so far. They say the checkout processing is twice as fast and it now takes about 10 seconds for each customer. Even during the time when the store is very crowded, with this system, there are only about three people waiting in a line for the checkout.

via Nikkei Ryutsu Shimbun MJ, February 10, 2006 (in Japanese)

[From Cmod.jp]

CoCa-Cola Japan announced that they plan to upgrade 20% of their one million vending machines across the nation by 2008. The new vending machines will allow consumers to buy a coke using RFID-chipped wallet phones (and other kinds of digital wallets). The vending machines will also have networking capability to gather data from vending machines for inventory management purposes.

Someone estimated that introducing 200,000 of such vending machines will cost about 40-60 billion Japanese yen (350 - 500 million US dollars). Sounds like a serious commitment.

In the summer of 2004, CoCa-Cola Japan introduced a small number of Cmode2 (see a related entry "Cmode2"), vending machines that communicate with RFID-chipped wallet phones

For those who are interested, Cmode's website has a Cmode2 simulater (click on the bottom box in the left column)

via Cnet Japan, February 15, 2006. (in Japanese)

NTT Communications and Seijo will test a system that allows a customer to visualize what different shades of make-up look like on their face by just putting RFID-chiped beauty products on a magical pad.

Computer Partner reports:

The system resembles a traditional make-up mirror with lights placed either side but instead of a mirror there is a computer monitor in the center. On the monitor's screen are various panels showing details of different make-up and an image from a video camera mounted just above the screen.

The customer sits in front of the system and places the desired make-up on a pad in front of the monitor. The make-up samples are tagged with RFID chips and the pad includes a reader so the system can grab the RFID tag number and look this up in a database for product details. These details are then sent back to the system which uses visual recognition technology to determine the different areas of the customer's face in the video and then manipulates the image to simulate the desired make-up.

According to MYCOM PCWEB, this system allows customers to try out more beauty proucts since it's quicker and easier tha actually trying them out, which could lead to increased sales. Also, the system tracks which products are scanned how many times etc. so the store can easily know which products are the most popular etc.

(NTT Communications' press release in Japanese)

via Computer Partner < RFID Gazette; Digital World Tokyo < Popgadget ; Cnet Japan; MyCOM PC Web

thanks also to regine!

In the entry titled "RFID-driven Shopping Assistant Robot soon to be tested in a mall," I've reportend on a pilot test of RFID-enabled shopping assistant robots in Fukuoka. The pilot test started on February 9. PC Watch reported the opening event with some pics and Diamond City Lucle website has a video clip showing the robots.

It's a bit of work to view the video (the page is in japanese and it requires special plug-in that requires IE to install, etc.) So, I decided to make some screenshots.

This is the shopping mall (Diamond City Lucle) where the pilot test took place:

The robots:

Robot walking:

RFID tags under the floor:

Item-level tagging (only some products):

a shopper carrying an active RFID tag:

NTT Communications and Tmsuk will test an RFID-driven shopping assistant robot at a shoping mall in Fukuoka. The robot reads RFID tags embedded in the floor and get information about its location (it doesn't use GPS or other location technologies). The pilot test will take place on the 9th of February and lasts till the 15th.

The robot can assist in-store shoppers as well as remote shoppers at home.

[Helping in-store shoppers]
Shopper selects a destination (store) in the mall using a touch screen mounted on the robot. The robot then walk the shopper to the store, based on the location information obtained from about 5,500 RFID tags buried under the floor. When the shopper arrives at the store, the robot shows the information of the store. Some sales items in stores have individually RFID-tagged, allowing the shopper to get product information by holding a sales item near the robot's display. Shoppers carry active tags that announce who they are, and the robot reads the information from the active tags and responds only to valid registered shoppers. In addition, shoppers can put their valuable belongings in the robots security box and the active tags are used to lock/unlock the box.

[Helping home shoppers]
Shoppers use a browser on a personal computer to control the service robot. The shoppers can view the in-store environments through the robot's camera and communicate with (human) sales agents through videoconferencing. When a sales agents show a sales item to the robot, the robot recognizes the product and shows a relevant information on the screen of the remote shopper.

There are five different kinds of RFID tags used for this experiment.

1. Location marker tags (the ones embedded under the floor. passive RFID)
2. Store maker tags (similar to location marker tags but they provide information/ads from stores.
3. Tags for calling robots. (Shoppers have PDAs with embedded passive RFID tags. They can tell their robots where they are by showing the PDAs' tags to an RFID reader installed in a store.
4. Human identification tags. (Shoppers carry card-type active RFID tags for identification purposes)
5. Product information tags. (Tags attached to individual sales items. passive tags)

here's a slide that illustrates the ideas.

Source: NTT Communications News Release, February 2, 2006.
(in Japanese)

related:

• Shopper-Assisting Robots
  
• RFID Shopping Assistant Robot
  

Mitsukoshi is using RFID tags to provide a range of services for consumers. A pilot test started yesterday at their Ginza store in Tokyo, using 5,000 RFID-tagged jeans, smart shelves, electronic paper, RFID-capable PDAs, intelligent fitting rooms, and active tags for tracking positions of customers.

Photos available: Yahoo News!, Nikkei Computer, Nikkei Communication.

Mitsukoshi has successfully rolled out RFID systems at a shoe shop last year.

Akihabara News reports:

Fujitsu, Jusco, Dai Nippon and the Japanese government are testing the Shopping Navis Wagon, a shopping cart with LCD screen and RFID reader. This product will allow you to get a maximum of information on the products you see and buy while you shop. We won't get into the whole RFID debate here, but I quite like the idea of getting a lot of info on the products you're about to buy. Let's hope they make it available in other languages for foreigners for example or let you see what the total of your shopping amounts up to before getting to the cash register...

via Gizmodo

Additional Info

This cart was developed for one of the pilot tests of the Japanese Future Store Project. Twenty five of these carts will be used at Jusco Yachiyo Midorigaoka Store from February 6 till March 12.

Five hundred RFID tags are attached to shelves and customers use handheld scanners to scan the tags to obtain information about various products. For example, by scanning the tags, customers can immediately view information such as product features, manuals, TV commercial clips, ads. With some inputs on the cart-mounted computer, customers can also access recipes, floor guide info and product locations.

The company will also test a location-based information delivery service.

source: Fujitsu Press release