Cabinet Office, Government of Japan

The Council for Science and Technology Policy that was established within the Cabinet Office promoted the "Ubiquitous Network — The Development of Electronic Tag Technology, etc." as one of the Collaboration Policies for Science and Technology from FY2005 to FY2008.
The ministry accelerated the promotion of technical components generated from the achievements of ubiquitous related policies by related ministries into "technical components which can also be used for other implementations, etc." or "modules" to be more specific. In addition, we created a CD-ROM titled "Technical Components Forming the Ubiquitous Network — Module Utilization Catalog to Support Building Ubiquitous Networks" to promote module utilization. The CD-ROM introduces the "method of connecting modules" and "module usage examples," etc. which help in system building, and was distributed at academic conferences on information communication technology.

 

　Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC)

MIC has begun conducting the "Research and Development Project of Ubiquitous Platform Technology" since FY2008. By using code technology that manages locations both indoors and outdoors in an integrated manner, we have been developing ubiquitous space-information technology infrastructure that allows us to obtain and use meaningful information such as the floor and room numbers, etc. as well as physical information such as longitude and latitude, etc. at any time and anywhere. This is part of our approach to realize the ubiquitous networking society.

 

　Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology conducted the 21st Century Center Of Excellence (COE) Program "Next generation ubiquitous information society infrastructure" at the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, the University of Tokyo, as part of our policy related to ubiquitous computing technologies from FY2004 to FY2008.
The goal of the project was the establishment of a broad interdisciplinary research infrastructure covering technology, society, and the economy with informatics as the core. By uniting digital archive technology and ubiquitous computing technology, and in particular real world tagging technology by RFIDs, infrastructure technology has been built which makes it possible to use the archive data in the real world and in the virtual world for applications in daily life and in society at large.

 

　Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)

In FY2009, METI conducts a project for creating new markets which builds "e-Space Platform," a location-based information service infrastructure using ucode, ucR (ucode Relation), and other technologies. Using this universal infrastructure, e-Space service “Puratto Plat” is conducted to offer customized service in Shibuya and Matsuyama to verify the effectiveness of the approach.
In Shibuya, advanced service models concerning information about stores and entertainment events are studied by taking advantage of the characteristics of the area, where today's fads are born.
In Matsuyama and Dogo area, sightseeing information service is offered, and sustainability as for-profit service is studied.

 

　Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT)

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has been conducting the "Promotion of Mobility Support" policy since FY2009. This policy promotes the dissemination and development of mobility support services utilizing ubiquitous technology, etc. with the aim of creating an environment where pedestrians can acquire information on their movements based on their need so they can move comfortably and safely without worry, and actively go about their daily lives. This year, in addition to the implementation of mobility support model businesses which provide support for efforts aimed at regional dissemination and development in seven locations across the country, service improvements such as navigation directions to evacuation centers in times of disasters and navigation information including real time public transportation information are being examined.
Furthermore, ucodes with latitude and longitude embedded are being disseminated as location information codes to identify location, which is the foundation of these services. By embedding common location information codes in many reference points and spatial features, location of one's current position can be read and automatic navigation to your destination will one day be possible.