The humble barcode was first patented in 1952 and became widely used in
supermarkets in the early 1970’s. Barcodes are the ubiquitous little rectangles
filled with lines of varying degrees of thickness and numbers that are used to
track product stock levels at some stores and are used to ring up prices
virtually everywhere we do business.
The barcode has been around for decades now and some large retailers in the
U.S. are looking at a new type of barcode system that will allow consumers to
get more information on a product in an interactive way.
The new barcodes are called 2-D barcodes and the first
trial is currently underway with Sears. The unique aspect of these barcodes
is that by using a compatible cellular phone with a camera and a downloadable
application for the phone, a consumer can launch an applet to get more
information on the product.
The process would work something like this. A customer walks up to a product
featuring a 2-D barcode and snaps a picture of the 2-D barcode with their
mobile phone’s digital camera. An applet launches and the server identifies the
product and launches a web page with more information on the product.
Major retailers in the U.S. considering a trial of 2-D barcodes in addition
to Sears include Target, Best Buy, Gap and Nordstrom. Best Buy and Target are
working with a company called StoreXperience while Sears and others are talking
to a company with similar technology called ScanBuy according to eWeek.
The biggest problem with 2-D barcodes currently is that there are a very
limited amount of cellular phones that are compatible with the service. While
proponents of the service say this will be a short-lived issue, Sears is
tackling the lack of compatible phones with their service trial in an
interesting way.
Sears has equipped employees with compatible phones and the store employees
will scan the 2-D barcode and show customers the data when asked. According to eWeek,
in addition to the issue of small numbers of compatible phones, some of the
required downloadable applications for the cellular phones to work with 2-D
barcodes are sensitive to how the barcode is scanned. eWeek reports that
some of the applications won’t function if the scanned barcode isn’t in the
center of the LCD screen.
eWeek also says that Nordstrom announced last week that it was
shelving plans for its 2-D barcode trial citing the service put too much of a
burden on the customer. The fear is that customer’s will either not have mobile
web access, or simply won’t be comfortable or interested in downloading the
required application to their phones.
Microsoft has plans of its own for a new barcode system that consumers can
read with their cell phones. Microsoft called its new barcodes High
Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB). The HBBC barcodes have yet to make it to
widespread use.