NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[in4it]

http://www.garnercitizen.com/2009/12/technology-corner-prediction-for-2010-cell-phones-and-barcodes/


Great predictions. Another genius! 1,2, - 6 years later.

I’d like to add a little more to that Gartner prediction. There is a technical add-on I expect will catch on soon to cell phones in North America that will provide some new and explosive capabilities: the barcode.

This UPC code is on virtually every product, and pricing and checkout in stores have never been the same. This barcode has also improved supply chain and material handling. Those codes are on cases, cartons and pallets in warehouses. Airlines use them for baggage handling.

Because almost all cell phones have cameras now, it is not hard to put a barcode reader in that same packaging.

And if that could be done, what might be the application?

A camera captures the code, sends it up to a computer via a wireless Internet connection, and a related application or appropriate data stream is sent back to your phone.

In Japan, with a cell phone, you can scan a barcode at the train station and get the latest train schedules displayed. No need to congregate around a screen and squint at a list, hoping it has the latest info.

Just like barcodes are put on products for retail purpose, largely for price lookup and inventory management, a barcode that your cell phone could read could trigger your device to go to a related Web site, with product or promotion information, without you having to key in anything more.

That is also already occurring in Japan.

A for-sale sign for a house could be scanned to get the asking price. Menu items at a fast food outlet could be scanned for nutrition information. Self-checkouts in grocery stores have introduced us to self-scanning. Scanning a barcode with a cell phone would be much easier than typing something into it.

So there you have it, my prediction of the next big change to mobile applications: Devices will be advanced with barcode readers, and our lives will be enhanced even more with applications based on that technology.

And I hope we’ll see that in 2010. I hate that tiny keyboard on my smartphone. It makes me feel dumb.