RFID Tags Track Japanese Shoppers

from the everything-comes-to-Japan-first... dept

For all the hype and worries in the US about RFID tags in stores, over in Japan, they're moving forward with plans to use RFID in bookstores. While the article mentions that there have been protests about the technology around the world, though, they don't say anything specifically about Japan. The demonstration system talked about in the article would allow stores to see which books shoppers are picking up, how long they spend flipping through the book, and follow where they wander around the store.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2003 @ 5:07pm

    RFID tags before barcodes

    You may not realize it, but there is *NOT* wide spread acceptance of barcodes within Japan. I can thing of two examples right off of the top of my head:

    Saki

    and

    News Papers

    I know it seems unbelievable, but a friend recently ran into problems with warehouse inventory automation due to the fact that not every brand of saki uses barcodes on their product.

    Also, I have to tell the clerk at the local store how much the Japan Times costs each day because it doesn't "register" on her register due to the lack of a barcode.

    So, my guess is that RFID tags will have even lower acceptance than barcodes (besides, how are you going to put an RFID tag on a bottle of saki or a news paper?

    link to this | view in thread ]


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