| Project Reference: | GHP/025/07LZ |
| Project Title: | Interoperability Technology and Applications for Container RFID and e-seal |
| Hosting Institution: | LSCM R&D Centre (LSCM) |
| Abstract: | Nowadays, 90% of the cargo shipments are conducted by means of containerized oceanic freights. China, in the recent years, has emerged in this world trend as the leader in such related industries, namely the container manufacturing, cargo shipping and trading. It is envisioned that the next generation container technology will be focused on smart container. Container RFID, e-seal, and the relevant standards will be the essential elements for the realization of containerized global supply chains and international green lanes across the world. 2006, the Shenzhen-Hongkong Green Lane initiative called for e-seal as the key technology to streamline the customs clearance and work flow for our cross-border trucking transportation. In a bigger roadmap, China is coining IP assets with innovations in e-seal, container RFID and the related IT infrastructures in the vision for the next generation smart container technology. Nevertheless, there is also a need for international standardization for these technology developments among different regulatory jurisdictions, vendor products and enterprise practices. Lack of interoperability will hinder the product development and industrial adoption. Today, technology proprietorship is still an issue for wide-scope implementation of the green lane at our Shenzhen-Hongkong border. Container tracking has not yet achieved interoperability among different tracking services and device vendors across the world. This project, based on Shenzhen-Hongkong collaboration, is proposed to develop the key technologies of container RFID and e-seal, in line with China’s vision of smart container. It is also to address the current application issues and cross-technology interoperability to help advance the e-seal capability of the local logistics industries and their integration with the worldwide market. Our Shenzhen partners will be responsible for the development of smart container with RFID, e-seal and the information platform system. The Hongkong team will take on the R&D for the related interoperable middleware and gateway technologies. This project can serve as reference work to the contemporary China container standards development as well as to the localized Shenzhen-Hongkong cross-border application standards. The result will give industry good understanding of the applicability of container RFID and e-seal in respect of different levels of cross-border, China and international logistics requirements. |
| Project Coordinator: | Dr. Frank Tong |
| Approved Funding Amount: | HK$8.49M |
| Project Period: | 1 Jun 2008 – 31 Oct 2010 |
