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Taoyuan plans to build U-City

Taoyuan County unveiled a plan yesterday to build a ubiquitous (U) computing environment for residents and businesses to turn the county into the nation’s first U-City in line with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 12 “Love Taiwan Policies.”

“Imagine a city where all facets of a resident’s life are taken care of: food, healthcare, shelter, transportation, education and leisure. By creating an intricate digital Web connecting the government, businesses, institutions and residents, every person’s everyday needs will be met,” Taoyuan County Commissioner Chu Li-lun (朱立倫) said in a speech at the two-day “2008 Digital Cities Convention” that Taoyuan hosted yesterday.

COST

Chu said it would cost approximately NT$600 million (US$20 million) to build the hardware infrastructure for a wireless city which he hoped to finish in the next three years before he steps down.

He also expressed his hope that the project would be fully completed “before Ma’s second term ends in eight years.”

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which is on exhibit at the convention, is a key step in designing a U-City. It can be used to design an automatic identification method, which stores and retrieves data using devices called RFID tags, said Jason Ma (馬大康), director of Microsoft Taiwan Corp’s technology center at the sidelines of the convention.

These RFID tags can be applied to or embedded in a product, animal or person for easy identification using radio waves, he said.

Many countries employ RFID technology in their passports, which contain basic information on the passport holder and may include a digital picture of the owner.

Ma said he expected RFID technology application to expand and be adopted for use in EasyCards (悠遊卡) or perhaps even national identification cards to store basic information such as health records and bank accounts.

It can also be used to store private information such as places visited, daily transactions conducted, activities done, picture and sound recordings, Ma said.

EMPOWER

Former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has long advocated the creation of a ubiquitous city, defining “ubiquitous” as “empowering people through software, anywhere, any time, on any device.”

In 2003, Microsoft helped South Korea realize its dream of creating a U-City through a US$35 billion project to deliver technology and infrastructure and create a digitally connected and environmentally sustainable city in Songdo, South Korea.

Songdo is a 600-hectare landfill on the waterfront of Incheon, about 65km west of Seoul.

The Songdo International Business District development is being undertaken by an international joint venture led by Gale international and POSCO.

When completed in 2014, Songdo’s infrastructure will be a test ground for new technologies and the city itself will exemplify a digital way of life.

“And Taoyuan wants to follow suit,” Chu said.
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