2004

Two Types of RFID Tag Chips by Hitachi ULSI Systems Authorized as Standard ucode Tags

On Friday, December 3rd, 2004, the Ubiquitous ID Center authorized two types of RFID tag chips made by Hitachi ULSI Systems, Co., Ltd., the MWD6502 chip and MWD6503 chip, as Ubiquitous ID Center standard ucode tags (Interface Category 1, Security Class 1). They are ID tag chips used in the 2.45GHz frequency band and support Ubiquitous ID technology.
(http://www.uidcenter.org/english/press/TEP041203_u08e.pdf)

Images with Digital Watermark ucode Authorized as Printed ucode Tags

On Friday, December 3rd, 2004, the Ubiquitous ID Center authorized images in which ucodes are embedded using the digital watermarking technology, developed by NTT, as Category 0 ucode tags (printed ucode tags).
(http://www.uidcenter.org/english/press/TEP041203_u07e.pdf)

T-Engine Forum Chairman Sakamura Attends Meetings at RFID China Summit 2004 (Beijing)

RFID China Summit 2004, a conference hosted by RFID China, was held from October 11th (Mon.) to 12th (Tue.) in Beijing, China.
This conference was one of the biggest RFID conferences / exhibitions in China and attended by more than 350 groups this time. Not only the supplier companies but also many user companies and government officials attended the meetings and engaged in active discussions regarding RFID and its standardization. On the first day of the meetings, Chairman Sakamura made a lecture titled "uID: Open Global Standard for RFID tags." After the lecture, the Chairman participated in a panel discussion -"The Significance and Requirements of Realizing International Standardization", in which the Chairman discussed such matters as the current situation and future efforts regarding coding, wireless, and tag standardization for RFID application, with American, Chinese, and Korean panel members. This discussion is likely to have a great impact upon the course of decision-making regarding RFID in China.
Also, the ucode tag (RFID version)-attached admission tickets were distributed to the participants this time. Their registration and entrance/exit were controlled by a software from the Ubiquitous ID Center using UCs and were very popular among the participants.
(http://www.rfid-world.com/rfidchina/)

"Kobe Free Mobility Assistance Project" First Stage Feasibilty Experiment

First stage feasibility study experiment for "Free Mobility Assistance Project" of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure &Transport were conducted in the "Sanchika" underground mall and Kyomachi-suji in Sanmomiya, Kobe. In these preliminary feasibility study experiments, the recently released new UC models are used to enable the users to find their current location and barrier-free information and information about goods in a nearby shop, etc. via electronic tags installed in 350 locations, streets, Braille pavement blocks and other objects. This is the first stage of the feasilibity study experiment conducted in a public area and it will last for approximately two months.

Chairman Sakamura's Lecture at a Hokkaido Area Food Traceability Seminar

On September 28th, 2004, Chairman Sakamura gave a keynote speech, "Ubiquitous Computing and the Future of Our Food", at a Hokkaido area food traceability seminar held at the Sapporo Convention Center. This lecture, focusing on "Ubiquitous Technology", "Food Traceability Systems", "Verification Trials" and "The Future of Our Food", drew a great deal of attention from interested people in Hokkaido. The subtitle of this seminar, "Towards Secure Production and Consumption in Hokkaido - Meeting Ubiquitous Technology" showed high interest in and expectations for Ubiquitous computing. Also, the T-Engine Forum had a booth at the system exhibition and introduced their technologies and food traceability system that focuses on Ubiquitous ID Centers.

"Tsuwano/Ubiquitous Sightseeing Guide" Verification Experiments to start

A feasibility study experiment of a sightseeing system that utilizes Ubiquitous ID technology, "Tsuwano Ubiquitous Sightseeing Guide", will be conducted starting in October. On September 24th 2004, an opening ceremony and open demonstrations were held prior to the experiments at the Anno Art Museum with the Mayor of Tsuwano town and Chairman Sakamura. Within Tsuwano town, Plate-type electronic tags and infrared transmitters will be set up in 40 locations to enable the sightseers to acquire information about the spot and the facilities available in the vicinity in the forms of text, photographs or moving images by placing a UC over these tags or transmitters. High expectations are placed on this system as this is the first system to utilize the latest technologies for tourism in Japan.

New-upgraded Ubiquitous Communicator (UC) is released

At the YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory, it succeeded in development of a new style Ubiquitous Communicator, and a press announcement was made at this Laboratory on September 15th. In this announcement, the new model's higher quality and highly precision in all functions from the conventional model was introduced in detail through the over-one-hour explanation , and a demonstration.
(http://www.ubin.jp/press/pdf/TEP040915-u01e.pdf)

The First Ubiquitous ID (uID) Workshop Held

The first uID workshop (total 4 workshops) was held at the T-Engine Forum Annex on Friday, August 27th, 2004, with more than 100 members participating. At this 2-hour workshop, mainly targeted at newcomers, participants were introduced in detail to the uses and applications of the latest ubiquitous ID technologies. Future workshops will be held for topics including "Food Traceability Systems" and "A Ubiquitous System for Everyone".
The second workshop will be held under the theme of "Food Traceability Systems" from 10:00 to 12:00 on Friday, October 15th, 2004. All T-Engine Forum members are entitled to participate in the workshop. Please note that participation in the workshops is free of charge for the board/A/B members.
(Materials from the first workshop are available on the members-only web page).

Integrated Food Traceability System Verification Experiment started

T-Engine Forum announced that it will start "Integrated Food Traceability System Verification Experiment" using the Ubiquitous ID Technology in collaboration with MITSUKOSHI, LTD., KEIKYU STORE Corporation, University of Tokyo and others. This verification experiment will be conducted as part of the "2004 Food Traceability Development Activities" of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan.
(http://www.t-engine.org/news/pdf/TEP040623e.pdf)

T-Engine Forum's "Ubiquitous ID System" received an award "The Information and Communication Service System Prize" from the Chairman of the Council of Info-Communications Promotion Month.

On June 1st, 2004, T-Engine Forum's "Ubiquitous ID System" received "The Information and Communication Service System Prize" from the Chairman of the Council of Info-Communications Promotion Month (Chairman of the Council of Info-Communications Promotion Month: Mr. Shoichiro Toyoda), for our contribution to the application of communication in the future Ubiquitous Network Society - realizing a function to instantly display information related to physical objects such as commercial products, etc., and presenting the electronic tag usage/utilization models in conjunction with the application of high security technology, making our research achievements open to public, and the application of electronic tags in Produce Traceability System verification experiments, and so on. We believe that we owe this to the T-Engine Forum members who cooperate and contribute to T-Engine Forum activities at all times. We hope you will see this award as the appreciation of your activity by the society at large. We thank you for your past and future support and cooperation to T-Engine Forum activities.

The relationship with China has expanded greatly

On April 22nd , 2004, Chairman Sakamura made a special lecture on "IT TRENDS 2004" held in Beijing, China. At the subsequent meeting session, the concrete deployment plan in the future such as demonstration experiment using ucode within China was discussed. On the following day of 23rd, an agreement for mutual cooperation was reached. This includes the establishment of a new course on T-Engine at Peking University and Chairman Sakamura was given the title of visiting professor of Peking University. Also, the opening ceremony for "TRON Ubiquitous Technology Open Platform Laboratory" was held and the formal signing of the Business Cooperation with Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, which had been announced earlier took place.

Agreement on Ubiquitous-related Business Cooperation with China and Korea

YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory and Ubiquitous ID Center have announced that they have signed a comprehensive agreement, including joint research on ubiquitous networking technology with Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and another similar agreement with RFID Association of Korea. It is hoped that these agreements will lead to the establishment of Ubiquitous ID Center and T-Engine Development Center in each country, and will start the interoperability experiments among them.
(http://www.uidcenter.org/english/press/TEP040419e.pdf)

IC tag demonstration experiment in Ohi Logistics Center succeeds

YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory announced that it had conducted and successfully performed an IC tag demonstration experiment in Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) Ohi Logistics Center in collaboration with MTI, a subsidiary of NYK Line. In this experiment, ucodes, T-Engine, and ubiquitous communicators, etc. were utilized to demonstrate the cargo management and the highly accurate 3D cargo position management in the warehouse.
(http://www.uidcenter.org/english/press/TEP040414e.pdf)

"Committee for promoting project to support moving independently" created

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport decided to create "Committee for promoting project to support moving independently" of which aim is to establish an environment which allows "anyone, anywhere and anytime" to access such pieces of information as "routes", "means of transportation" or "destinations", as part of the project for realizing a"universal society", and appointed Ken Sakamura as the committee chairman, with the full support of YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory.
(http://www.uidcenter.org/english/press/TEP040324e.pdf)

Two Types of RFID Tags by Fujitsu Authorized as the Standard ucode Tag

Ubiquitous ID Center has authorized two types of RFID tags, "MB89R116 Chip" and "MB89R118 Chip", made by Fujitsu Limited, as Ubiquitous ID Center Standard ucode tags (Class 1). These tag chips implement non-volatile memory (2K byte) and reads and writes data at a higher speed than traditional chips do.
(http://www.uidcenter.org/english/press/TEP040319e.pdf)

TRON Project Announces Font Traceability System

TRON Project has successfully developed the font traceability technology that solves problem related to user-defined characters in the printing industry. By making use of TRON project research result that makes it possible to handle very large number of characters of the world, and Ubiquitous ID technology, the consistent character processing that Windows or Macintosh could not handle before will become possible on these systems.
(http://www.uidcenter.org/english/press/TEP040310e.pdf)

Food Traceability System in Experiment Phase

Produce Traceability System, tracing mechanism which applies a Ubiquitous ID technology in order to connect food productions sites with stores, has been in an experimental phase from January 8th, 2004. For a month, or until February 6th, about 30,000 vegetables with ID chips are on sale, at three branches of Keikyu Store. On the first day of the experimentation, the open ceremony was held for those who are related to this traceability project. It was our honour that the ceremony was attended by the journalists from more than 40 companies as well as the people from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Japan and Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts, and Telecommunications and was a big success.
(http://www.uidcenter.org/english/projects.html)