In Japan, a new cell phone information system is being developed to enable consumers to receive detailed information about tuna and other fish at retail stores, including where and when the tuna was caught and by whom, according to an NTT DoCoMo subsidiary.
The subsidiary, DoCoMo Sentsu, Inc., has undertaken the project in collaboration with a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Fisheries Agency, based on a new generation of bar code known as two-dimension quick response (2D QR) code, the company said.
Depending on the project's progress, the fishery information system will be put on the market in 2005, company officials said, adding that demand for the system was expected to be strong as consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about food safety.
The QR code technology was developed in 1994 by Denso Wave Inc., a manufacturer of satellite cell phone peripheral equipment, and has been used for various purposes, such as to make airplane and hotel reservations.
While the conventional linear bar codes encode information only horizontally, the Denso Wave has developed a two-dimensional QR system that contains information that can be read both vertically and horizontally.
The QR code can contain 20 to 100 times more information than the conventional bar codes in the same space or even less, according to Denso Wave.
DoCoMo Sentsu and the NPO, Fishing Boat and System Engineering Association, will test the system in a series of experiments next month on sanma (Pacific saury) caught off Kushiro, eastern Hokkaido.
In the experiments, on-the-spot information, such as the names of the fishermen, the cooperatives they belong to, and where and when the fishery operations were conducted, will be transmitted from fishing boats to a data processing center via telecommunications satellites.
At ports where the fish is unloaded, information from the fishing boats will be converted into QR codes so fishery certificates containing the information can be issued by the fishermen's cooperatives concerned.
After these certificates are printed, they will be affixed to boxes of sanma at the time of their shipment.
Copies of the certificates will be placed alongside the fish being sold at supermarkets and other retailers.
If customers being served the fish at restaurants are shown the certificates, they will be able to pick up the information on their cell phones, providing that they are able to pick up satellite-relayed information, DoCoMo Sentsu said.
Web site addresses and phone numbers of offices will be included so that customers can make inquiries if necessary, according to the company.