New Tech & Services
New Tech & Services

New Tech & Services

Toyota Announces New Telematics Service G-BOOK ALPHA

Toyota announced today that it has completely renovated its G-BOOK telematics service, which was initiated in October 2002, to create G-BOOK ALPHA. TMC will begin offering the new service on vehicles equipped with G-BOOK ALPHA-compatible navigation systems. G-BOOK ALPHA is a next-generation telematics service that takes safety, security and comfort to the next level. In addition to offering, as standard, the emergency call service known as HELPNET, which can alert the police or fire department to summon emergency vehicles in the event of a traffic accident or medical emergency, G-BOOK ALPHA also employs a car audio system that allows users to make on-the-go purchases of music they want to enjoy?when they want to enjoy it?through the use of G-BOOK ALPHA’s new digital rights management (digital copyright protection) system, called G-DRM.

Omron's Face Recognition for Mobile

OKAO Vision Face Recognition Sensor technology for camera-enabled cell phones and other devices is an alternative to passwords or fingerprint scanners for security and access control. “The technology detects 80 points on the face” explained Mr. Masato Kawade, Senior Manager of Sensing & Control Technology Lab. The sensor tests successfully more than 99 times in 100, and is fully Symbian, BREW, embedded Linux, and ITRON OS compatible. “We feel there is a large potential in overseas markets.” said Kawade.

Renting Skis with RFID

EM Microelectronic has developed in cooperation with Skidata and EC-Passage a transponder chip, the EM4026, which greatly facilitates the handling and identification of rented skis or snowboards at ski resorts. The battery-less transponder, which contains the chip connected only to a small antenna, is integrated into the ski at manufacturing time and powered by the reader field that can operate at temperatures down to -40C.

RFID Tags for Prisoners

NEC has signed a letter of intent to resell RFID identification and tracking system for prisons from Alanco in Asia. The agreement is non-exclusive in Japan but exclusive in other, unidentified, Asian markets. A definitive agreement, worth several million, will be signed in the next thirty days, said Alanco.

QR Barcodes Getting Colorful

Despite the date, this is no joke. Based on patented technology from ColorZip Media, those old 2D black & white barcodes are about to make a colorful splash into the Japan market. Evan Owens, director of ColorZip Japan, will present a brief outline of the company’s technology at MobileMonday in Tokyo, 18 April. WWJ is rather keen on this concept and we’ll file a report on Evan’s MoMo product demo as soon as MoMo is over.

Human Area Networking Technology

NTT DoCoMo have developed a technology they call RedTacton, “which it claims can send data over the skin’s surface at speeds of up to 2 Mbps — equivalent to a fast broadband data connection. Your body could soon be the backbone of a broadband personal data network linking your mobile phone or MP3 player to a cordless headset, your digital camera to a PC or printer, and all the gadgets you carry around…” Yikes!