There is a recent article in the New York Times worth reading regarding cell phones becoming barcode readers. the technology has been talked about for a number of years but when an article gets published in the New York Times about a new technology perhaps it puts the subject on the fringe of the mainstream. Unfortunately if you want to go out and start scanning today, you just can’t. You see, it will take a few years for cell phone-based bar code readers to be offered in the US due to our devices not being equipped to read these codes.
Japan happens to be one of the leading countries in terms of cell phone barcode adoption, allowing Japanese consumers to be able to scan things like the nutritional information on a hamburger in McDonalds or being able to use the cell as a way to board an airplane, without requiring any paper tickets In addition there are great applications for cell phone scanning technology such as being able to scan a billboard or a for sale sign near a house.
The scan could link to a mobile web page, photos, videos and/or a description of the object in question.
Whether this technology takes off in the US or becomes wider spread is unknown, but it seems like the ability to learn more information from everyday objects just by scanning them with your cell makes a lot of sense There are probably a number of mobile bar code applications around the corner we haven't even thought of.
In the next few years we will possibly see more and more of this technology becoming mainstream. As this happens the once single-function cell phone will become a more and more important part of our daily lives.
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There are, in fact, a few java applets that can take control of your phone's camera and read the codes for you.
Try Google next time. It works.