NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[lesnshawn]

I see it your way, ruden. Having never actually used PaperClick before, I would imagine that to use PaperClick, one would have to "set" the phone to take a "picture" of the barcode but the "picture" isn't an actual picture at all but rather a "reading" of the URL information tied to the specific barcode which would then take you (your cellphone) to whatever internet location the owner of that barcode wants the "PaperClicker" to go to.

This Virgin thing appears to be actually taking a "physical" picture of the barcode where upon redemption at checkout the image of the barcode is pulled up on the cellphone screen by the customer who then would hand their phone to the cashier where the barcode is then scanned for the "coupon" value redemption just like any other paper coupon is scanned at checkout.

That would seem to be a tedious prospect if you walked around a store and took pictures of a multitude of barcode "coupons" and then had to retrieve them one-by-one, handing your cellphone to the cashier to scan the each image separately.

I wonder if they could organize many barcode images on one screen shot and then have them all scanned at once by the cashier.

Interesting concept although on the surface, I don't think it's related to NeoMedia's patents at all.