The YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory announced on February 9 that it would be conducting verification trials in the middle of March of the world's first "ubiquitous airport information provision service" at the newly opened Kobe Airport, which is built on an artificial island just off the coast of the port city of Kobe in western Japan. These verification trials are part of the Ministry Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Autonomous Movement Support Project, also called the Free Mobility Support Project, and they involve putting ucode makers and tags in places and things throughout the airport. The YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory said about 1,200 RFIDs will be installed in the airport terminal, and there will be about 30 ZigBee access points using technology provided by Oki Electric Industry Co. The information provided by the system will be arrivals and departures, time to access parts of the airport, location information, airline service information, and emergency announcements.
The YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory announced on February 28 that it would be holding uID verification trials in conjunction with leading Japanese men's suit maker Aoyama Trading Co. at the firm's Ikebukuro store from March 9 through March 15, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. As previously reported on TRON Web, Aoyama Trading is introducing ucodes and ubiquitous computing technologies into its operations and those of its Chinese suppliers so as to enable complete supply chain management and provide better services to customers at its Japanese retail outlets. This includes documenting materials and work processes, monitoring and tracking shipping containers, and offering new services, such as suggesting neckties that go well with a particular suit. The verification trials in Ikebukuro, which will take place at Aoyama's outlet on Sunshine Ave. to the east of Ikebukuro train station, involve this last stage and will employ Ubiquitous Communicators and kiosk terminals for customers.
Personal Media Corporation announced on February 2 a new upgrade package, R4.202, for its BTRON3-specification Cho Kanji 4 operating system. This upgrade consists solely of printer drivers for Seiko Epson Corp. (the PM-A750, PM-G730, and PM-D800 models) and Canon Inc. (the PIXUS MP500, PIXUS iP4200, LBP5500, iR C2620, iR C3200 models) printers. The iR C2620 and iR C3200 models require an optional page description language expansion kit called LIPS.