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Release SATO Starts Testing NFC Wristbands at Ginza Mitsukoshi - Offers hospitality service targeting visitors from abroad

Feb 07, 2015

SATO, a global leader in barcode printing, labelling, and RFID solutions, announced today its plans to conduct testing at Ginza Mitsukoshi from February 18 to 22, 2015, to test its multilingual information service for visitors from abroad. NFC-equipped*1 wristbands will be distributed to international tourists to simplify and enhance shopping experiences, as well as motivate purchases.

The system obtains information on the visiting tourist, including their nationality, gender and what they are looking for, and offers recommendations in multiple languages. The system then guides visitors to where products are sold within the store. Visitors need only scan an NFC wristband to enjoy this service.

Testing was made possible after the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) adopted SATO’s proposal for The FY2014 Electronic METI Project: Project to Verify Business Models Using Platform to Test the ID Coordination Trust Framework*2, which had sought ideas from the general public.

Identity checks for visiting international tourists take place at a variety of scenes and situations – checking into a hotel, buying duty free items, or loaning out a communication device. They cause troublesome data-entry procedures and long wait times for individuals, as well as a burden on stores and business operators.

To resolve this issue, SATO aimed to develop a system/service that uses data from a single registration procedure to provide optimal information to both visitors and business operators in a variety of contact points that include hotels, transportation, restaurants, sites and shops. The system can also a keep log of where visitors traveled and what their preferences were.

Ginza Mitsukoshi will distribute NFC-equipped wristbands at its Chinese New Year Special Booth on the 9th floor. Visitors wearing the wristband can scan it at a stationary terminal to view multilingual information in Japanese, English and Chinese, to learn about recommended products and obtain a print-out map showing where the products are displayed. Information terminals are located on the 1st, 8th and 9th floors.

  • *1NFC: Near Field Communication technology that is approved as international standard. Communication is limited to about 10cm, and its most characteristic feature is easy data communication for anyone simply by scanning a device.
  • *2A project to develop a system that, under individual consent and safe, reassuring environment, enables personal authentication between organizations and coordinates identity information (ID) over multiple online services.

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