In a bid to encourage the local development of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, the Telecommunications Research and Industrial Development Institute (TRIDI) of the National Telecommunications Commission is funding a Bt3.8-million pilot project at the convenience-store chain 108Shops. The pilot project started early last year and finished at the end of last month. TRIDI provided the Bt3.8 million in funds to the King Mongkut Institute at Lat Krabang University to develop software and systems for the internal logistics of the SUN108 company.

The private company IE Technology provided hardware, including RFID tags and readers.

Visit Hirankitti, head of the Intelligent Communication and Transportation, Department at the institute, said the programme consisted of two main parts: RFID tag and reader implementation in SUN108′s warehouses, and active RFID tag and global positioning system (GPS) implementation in the company’s trucks.

RFID implementation in crates kept track of the flow of empty crates when they were returned from its 700 outlets to the warehouse. The system cut losses, which were running at around 25 per cent of total crates. It also served basic logistics functions on the products in the crates. Meanwhile, the RFID implementation in trucks helped the company to more efficiently manage its logistics.

The tags replaced bar codes. They contained product details such as the name of the item, its lot number, the item quantity and details of their destination.

“We implemented passive RFID tags in 2,000 crates and tag readers at 10 stations at the warehouse, with three types of readers: a desktop reader, a hand-held reader and a stacked reader,” said Visit.

The pilot project was part of TRIDI’s strategy to encourage the local development of telecommunication devices. TRIDI director Supot Tiarawut said that under TRIDI’s four key focus areas – broadband access technology, short-range communications technology, optical communications technology such as fibre-to-home, and next-generation network (NGN) technology – only two had completed the first pilot project. These are NGN and short-range communication technology. “RFID is an important area that we are interested in,” said Supot. “It has good growth potential.”

According to a report from the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre, the total market value of RFID-related industry last year was worth around Bt1.8 billion. This year the industry is expected to grow around 26 per cent. Supot said that TRIDI had a total budget of Bt200 million this year, of which around Bt30 million would be spent on pilot projects like the RFID project at SUN108.

“We hope to have a lot more pilot projects across the four key focus areas in the near future,” said Supot

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/30102393/RFID-helps-108-Shops-keep-tracks-of-merchandise

Internet bookstore trade growing rapidlyBangkok publishing firm Nanmee Books plans to provide digital book downloads in the near future and is expanding its business based on online transactions.

Deputy managing director Kim Chongsatitwattana said that the company was studying the provision of digital book downloads because it was a major trend in the market.

The firm entered the world of e-commerce last year when it began allowing customers to make purchases via its online bookstore at www.nanmeebooks.com. The company has since been able to generate about 10 per cent of its total revenue from online transactions.

“I think that online business transactions offer a new opportunity for companies to expand their business bases both locally and internationally,” Kim said. “We believe that online transactions will generate 15 per cent of our total revenue in the near future.”

Nanmee Books has now expanded its online business by joining Sanook Shopping to open an online bookstore at www.shopping.co.th/nanmeebooks.com.

Veerawat Hongsitthiwong, vice president, search and marketing, for Sanook Shopping, which operates Shopping.co.th, said the new online bookstore was an alternative channel to address the needs of new-generation readers. It also aims to create new opportunities for Sanook’s business partners.

“This year, demand for books is continuing to grow, especially in health, encouragement, psychology and self-improvement. We have also found that more readers are shifting from traditional bookstores to online bookshops, generating 30-per-cent growth per year,” Kim said.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/30102665/Nanmee-Books-expands-online-business

Time, cost savings for families and relatives The relatives of prisoners in Thai jails have begun visiting them via an online video-conference link from their homes.

Correction Department director general Nathee Chitsawang said this week that the department had developed and was currently expanding a video-conference project called the Correction e-Visiting from Home service.

Information technology is being used to allow the families and relatives of prisoners to make “visits” from computers at home or from call centres, rather than travelling to distant jails. Prisoners located at any of the department’s jails will be accessible, as long as the new e-visiting service has been implemented in the relevant institution.

For those without computers at home, the department has created call centres in the Correction Department in Bangkok and at Chiang Mai’s central prison as points from which relatives may establish a video-conference link with prisoners in 43 jails around the country.

The service costs the “visitors” a service fee of Bt100 for 18 minutes.

The video-conferences allow up to five people to “visit” a prisoner at one time. Families must register their intention to make a conference call with the department and reserve a suitable time. This can be done by telephone, letter, or by logging on to www.correct.go.th.

Bookings for online “visits” must be made at least 10 days in advance to allow time for official checks to confirm that applicants are, in fact, family members or relatives.

At present, the Correction Department offers a limited e-visiting service about 40 times per month.

Nathee said eight more call-centres would be set up, as points from which relatives could make the video-conference “visits”. Within a few years, these will be able to connect with 130 of the department’s 143 jails around the country.

“We believe that e-visiting will create benefits for families, relatives and prisoners because they will be able to maintain contact by visiting online without spending time to travel to prisons or the Correction Department. It will also help relatives to save the costs of making prison visits,” Nathee said.

Meanwhile, the department is also implementing an Image Identification System so that its officials and jails around the country can access and search a prison database via the Internet.

As well, the department is developing an e-marketing channel to display a catalogue of products made by prisoners at jails around the country, effectively creating a showroom of prison products. Customers will be able to contact prisons directly to purchase products.

Nathee said that as a next step, the department was planning to provide for e-commerce transactions.

Thailand currently has about 200,000 prisoners in jails around the country, and 10,000 jail staff.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/30102178/Video-visits-to-prisoners-in-jail

Some 30 schools have been reported to have not given parents cash for school uniforms and stationery, but instead have handed out coupons for designated uniform and stationary shops instead.

In addition, parents have lodged a complaint against eight schools, a service centre at the Education Ministry said.

An official at the centre said the complaints lodged via the 1579 hotline were mainly about schools making parents pay tuition fees and the premium for life insurance; as well as giving low-quality stationery that did not match the budget allocated by the government.

Meanwhile, the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) secretary-general Kasama Varavarn na Ayudhya said the schools would be investigated as soon as possible to see if school officials were pocketing the money meant for parents and students.

So far, 85 per cent of the elementary and secondary schools under Obec have already given parents funds for uniforms and stationery, she said, adding that Obec will follow up on the operation via teleconferencing with educational services.

A grandmother of two Prathom 2 students in Khon Kaen said teachers at her granddaughters’ school had said each student would be given uniforms and stationery instead of cash.

After a parent-teacher meeting, a college in Lamphun decided to provide the stationery and give money to students studying tailoring to make uniforms.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/30102041/State-schools-to-be-probed-over-graft

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To screen passengers for swine flu and other contagious diseases, many airports around the world – including Thailand’s main international airports – are using thermal-imaging cameras to see whether travellers have fevers, without having to stick thermometers in their mouths.

The devices are just like regular cameras, except that instead of recording light reflected by various objects, these cameras are sensitive to heat. They can even work in the dark.

Recordings from these cameras show up on video screens with hotter objects looking brighter. The systems are very sensitive, measuring temperature down to a fraction of a degree Celsius, said Andrew Sarangan, an associate professor in the electro-optics programme at the University of Dayton in the United States.

Thermal cameras were rolled out during the Sars outbreak in 2002 and 2003, and airports in Singapore and China have been using them continuously ever since, said Alan Thomson, regional sales director of UK-based Irisys, a maker of thermal imaging devices.

The manufacturers have now been deluged with new orders. “The phone hasn’t stopped ringing,” Thomson said.

Mexico – the origin of the current swine flu outbreak – has 10 such cameras, but transportation secretary Juan Molinar, said last week that 40 more were being bought for the country’s eight largest airports.

While the cameras can detect higher temperatures, they can’t screen for swine flu itself. Someone running to catch a flight can have a higher body temperature, as can someone who’s just had a drink. A fever also does not necessarily mean someone is sick with swine flu, so airports need to do further screening once they spot passengers with high temperatures.

Cameras made by Irisys, which cost about $3,000 (Bt105,763), merge visual and thermal images to create a “heat picture” of a person. This image shows up on a screen on the back of the camera. A pointer automatically shows the hottest area in the picture, which is usually a person’s face, mainly because it’s not covered in clothes.

A US-based maker of thermal-imaging cameras, Flir Systems, reports increased orders not only from airports, but also from factories.

Flir’s senior vice president Tony Trunzo said his company’s cameras had improved significantly since the Sars outbreak. They now have higher resolution, for example. They’ve become cheaper as well, although the company’s cameras still range from $10,000 to $15,000.

Flir also finds that it’s best to screen one person at a time, instead of scanning a large crowd.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/30102020/How-thermal-imaging-cameras-pick-out-suspects