A tour through Ubiquitous Computing Showcase gives the visitors an experience of what ubiquitous computing can do, what applications are possible, and what are the computing mechanism behind such applications. During the tour, the visitors will operate ubiquitous communicator (UC for short) in their hands and visit various corners along the tour course, and use UC to experience the interesting applications.
When the tour begins, tour ticket is purchased, and then it is customized to one's preference. Then the following four corners are visited in turn.
- 1. Reading what objects can tell us.
- 2. Virtual Shopping.
- 3. Future House.
- 4. Ubiquitous ID center.

Tour members first buy tour tickets from the tour ticket vending machine. The ticket is an eTRON card, which can record value information such as electronic money and venue entry ticket, and also can record personal information of the card holder. The information is stored after encryption, which is one of the many functions which eTRON card offers. After the purchase, the ticket is customized. At a registration terminal, the display languages, either Japanese or English, is chosen. Also, the electronic money for the virtual shopping at the shopping corner is deposited. The purchaser also marks the corners that are interesting. When the customized tour ticket is placed near the UC, UC uses the chosen language for the display of information. UC also reads out the interesting shopping corners that visitor has picked up. Deposited electronic money is also transferred to UC from the eTRON card.

Reading what objects can tell us.

Many things that are in our surroundings every day are placed at this corner. Please place UC near the ucode mark on the objects. They begin telling us about themselves.

Virtual Shopping.

A visitor can experience virtual shopping using a specially made shopping cart. The ceiling is equipped with infrared transmitter from this corner to the next future house corner. Using the infrared signal from the ceiling, UC recognizes its current position and displays the relevant information. Shopping cart has ucode readers. When the visitor puts in a goods into the cart, the charge is automatically summed up. When the cart approaches the cashier's gate, the total sum is automatically sent to the accounting system. The visitor gives approval of the payment using the electronic money in the UC after verifying the charged sum shown on a display. If a visitor purchases more than the electronic money will permit, the payment can't be made, and the cart can't leave the gate.

Future House.

If a visitor has bought fresh food such as vegetable, please put it into refrigerator and see what happens. TV and lighting can be controlled from the UC.

Ubiquitous ID center.

Visitors can learn the mechanism that allows us to see the information from various objects using UC. Case studies of how ucode tags can be attached to various things are also shown.
This tour gives the visitor a quick overview of that ubiquitous computing can do in detail. If one is interested in the application of ubiquitous computing in one's business and wants to learn the tips, then this tour is for you. Please join the tour.

The tour is expected to take about 30 minutes. The tour must be reserved in advance. There is a fee for the tour. The reservation needs to be made at the reservation desk near the Ubiquitous Computing Showcase entrance. After you make a reservation, please come to the entrance at least 5 minutes before the reserved tour starts.

Entry fee for Ubiquitous Computing Showcase Tour.
1,000 Yen per person.