Automated Journeys—
Automated Connections
Lars Erik Holmquist
Swedish Institute of Computer Science | leh@sics.se
I’ve rarely felt more urbane than
the last time I arrived in Tokyo.
I had the foresight to bring my
SUICA (Super Urban Intelligent
Card), an RFID-based smartcard
already loaded with yen left
over from my last trip. Card in
hand I swept through the gates
of the JR transit line at Shinjuku
station to the nearest automatic noodle restaurant, where I
selected my meal from pictures
on a vending machine positioned at the entrance. I touched
my card to the machine and
received a ticket that I handed
to the staff at the desk,
where the hot noodles were
already waiting for me. Meal
eaten, I proceeded to check
out which bottled water was
No. 1 at ranKing ranQueen
(a local chain of stores, where
items are ranked), and again
paid using a simple gesture with
my card. The only thing that
could have made the experience
more complete was if the RFID
chip had been integrated in my
keitai (mobile phone). Although
the SUICA is now at least seven
years old, and many similar systems are in use in Hong Kong,
Seoul, London, and elsewhere,
it still is a remarkable example
of how ubiquitous technologies
such as sensing, networking,
and data access can be used in
everyday applications.
It is interesting to note how
most of this technology is cur-
rently used to increase convenience—and reduce human contact. SUICA eliminates the fumbling with coins at shops and
subway gates, which could lead
to embarrassing lines. But it also
cuts down on interaction with
other people, especially when
combined with various vending-machine services. In ubiquitous
computing research, on the
other hand, we have seen RFID
tags and other near-field communication technologies such
as Bluetooth often being used
with a view to increase human
contact. Projects such as Meme
Tags, an interactive nametag
that communicates the wearer’s interests to act as an icebreaker [ 1], or Ticket2Talk,
which presents a person’s
interests on a public display
to initiate conversation
[ 2], or tunA, a system for
listening to other people’s
music [ 3], all promote a vision
that technology can and should
encourage communication, especially among strangers.
In fact, it seems researchers
more often than not want to
imagine a utopia, where everybody loves everybody and wants
to hang out with everybody else.
“Wouldn’t it be great,” we say,
“if a device on my body could
broadcast my interests to everyone around, so that I could strike
up exciting conversations during
[ 1] Borovoy, R., F.
Martin, S. Vemuri,
M. Resnick, B.
Silverman, and C.
Hancock. “Meme
Tags and Community
Mirrors: Moving
from Conferences
to Collaboration.” In
the Proceedings of
CSCW 1998. Seattle,
Washington, 1998.
[ 2] McCarthy, J., D.
McDonald, S. Soroczak,
D. Nguyen, and A.
Rashid. ”Augmenting
the Social Space of an
Academic Conference.”
In the Proceedings of
CSCW 2004. Chicago,
Illinois, 2004.
• Images of the SUICA penguin, well-known mascot for Japan’s Super Urban
Intelligent Card, can be found throughout
Japan where a quick, contactless swipe
allows cardholders to pay for mass transit tickets and many other purchases.