RFID Goodness: Digitizing the Ginza
The All Points Blog links to a report in PC Advisor about a new program to outfit Tokyo’s high-end shopping district, the Ginza, with 10,000 RFID tags and other digital beacons. The project, led by Ken Sakamura, a professor at the University of Tokyo, will bring location-based information to people carrying prototype readers developed for the trial. From the article: “Bringing the terminal close to an RFID tag on a street lamp will pinpoint the user’s location and the system will be able to guide them to the nearest railway station, while walking past a radio beacon in front of a shop might bring up details of current special offers or a menu for a restaurant.” This is more of the kind of thing we were jawboning about at the Metaverse Roadmap summit. This is the metaverse all around us, the physical-world extension of the metaversal computing power we think of as residing mostly on our desktops or laptops. The Ginza project should be an interesting test of just how useful such technology can be at the moment.
Feeds
Walker, this is reminding me of somebody else’s projet like this that involved people registering their emotions in differing parts of a city. Was it Dublin? And the project director was able to gather all these entries at data points and make up a map that showed sort of the “blue” or “happy” parts of the city or something. I can’t recall where I saw this.
I wonder how much people will the want this not to be push, but pull. So that their own restaurant review goes into the tagger, not just a push of a coupon from that restaurant.
The project you are looking for is talked about here: http://smartspace.squarespace.com/smartspace/2006/5/30/emotion-maps.html
Also similar ideas here:
http://smartspace.squarespace.com/smartspace/2006/12/7/visualizing-the-visitors-eye.html
This is an significant project combining Wi Fi, Bluetooth, Internet and RFID technologies in a lifestyle application for the general public in with multi-lingual support for tourists. It’s a bold effort to push the envelope and test knowledge from lab to a real life scenario outside of normal supply chain and manufacturing environments. Worth a look at. The trial ends in March. If you’re serious about RFID and would like to find out about the results and meet the man heading the project, Professor Ken Sakamura from Tokyo University will be presenting this case as a distinguished speaker at the RFID World Asia 2007 executive conference. RFID World Asia 2007 is the region’s largest gathering of RFID practitioners and related professionals coming together to promote responsible RFID adoption and development with an emphasis on achieving quick ROI and sustainable business value. This premier conference and expo will be held in Singapore - April 25 - 27. To hear from the movers and shakers of the RFID industry from Asia and beyond, visit:
http://www.terrapinn.com/2007/rfidwa_SG/