iphone: now with bar code reader.



Mashable has a nice piece on ScanLife, a service that allows brands to create barcodes that are readable by your mobile device. The video demonstrates how it could be used.

I can't wait until they work at retail. When the shelf-talker can give me a coupon for the item in my basket, and I hand my cell phone to the cashier to scan. That's the future that I want to live in.

4 comments:

streetstylz said...

A public release of the NeoReader iPhone application is anticipated very soon.

The NeoReader iPhone application is able to read and decipher all common non-proprietary 2D codes (Data Matrix, QR, Aztec, Maxi) as well as URL embedded 2D codes and all 1D UPC/EAN/Code 128 open source codes. The NeoReader supports direct and indirect code linking, which guarantees maximum interoperability with already existing platforms like 2D Data Matrix Semacodes, and Japanese QR links.

http://www.neoreader.com

Unknown said...

Viva CueCat part 2!

darryl ohrt said...

Oh, CueCat. I still have mine in a drawer, somewhere.

That's an important history lesson for these guys...

Carrick said...

Cam Clic claims to have developed a 1d reader (which is the difficult & typical UPC). Their plan is to develop a social networking type site (probably w/ aims of being incorporated into one of the big ones) around it where users can comment/review/rant/rave about products.

Sounds like they're trying to do the opposite of CueCat, by being user/consumer crafted. We'll see..

Either way, this (or a RFID equivalent) is the grand daddy of data mining - and a complete nightmare in terms of privacy and avoiding atomization.

What is way out there, is that two people can be walking down the street, aim their device at a RFID or barcode and receive totally different information (and similar targeted adverts or news all day long.) Person A scans something and gets info about her dog grooming obsession, and Person be gets info about his paranoid anti-government conspiracy theory obsession. Just like the world today, people seeing the same thing but with different eyes.

The difference is that today we think with some degree of independence (although heavily influenced by culture & identity) ... Tomorrow we're just being told what to think. If that's not 1984-ish enough for you, imagine a world where brain physiology and infant psychology tests determine one's strengths at birth and design your development to suit it - as an adult you don't consult your 'reading device', you just follow it. duh duuuun. sorry if you read that.

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