Barcode Replacements: They’re Pretty Impressive!

American researchers have been looking into the possibility of alternatives to the blocky, stripy black and white barcodes that we now find plastered onto just about every product we buy, with a sleek and tiny technology that could see an end to the current traditional barcodes we have now.

Bokodes are 0.1 inches in diameter and have the ability to hold thousands of times more data than the barcodes we currently find on our products. Research has been carried out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and some involved in the project have already suggested numerous reasons and possibilities as to why this technology is better than the traditional barcodes and how they could be incredibly helpful to us.

It has been suggested that the Bokodes, which can be interpreted by a mobile phone camera, have the ability to store nutritional information of edible products among other uses. The researchers claim that this is a better alternative to the usual barcode, as not only does it take up much less space on the product packaging, but it can also convey information to the human being, rather than just to machines.

The technology uses light, a tiny LED embedded onto packaging of products, and all I can say about this concept is it is very impressive. If you were to stand in front of a product and take a picture of its Bokode, then you would receive the information that Bokode conveys (for example, nutritional information) but taking a picture of it from either up close or a distance, and when that picture goes out of focus, the information becomes clear to the camera.

However, what is really impressive, is that if you’re standing from a distance, then all of the nutritional information of all the products you take in one picture will be visible, and if you stand at a different angle, other products will give you recommendations on price, conveying to the customer that the product that it is attached to is cheaper and is for their consideration.

However, at present, the units are expensive to make, at almost $5 each. However, the researches say that Bokodes they are developing that require no energy and are simply reflective rather than in LED form, will cost about 5 cents, making the venture much more possible. The company also say they are looking into Street View possibilities, meaning that Bokodes could be placed on stores and when Google Street View vehicles picture them, menus and prices could be taken by Google automatically and placed on the website with the store, rather than Google having to manually enter this data.

The reason that this post is so long is entirely down the fact that this is such a great concept, that it’s getting me quite exited about the future of this technology. We’ve seen similar things like this, such as the QR Codes, which in some countries, such as the United Kingdom, and in many parts of the world, didn’t catch on very well. For example, hardly anybody in the United Kingdom (and trust me, I live here) was asked what a QR Code is and have they ever used one, would probably tell me that they had no idea. So my only worry about this concept is, will it ever catch on, or will the non-technologically minded people in a country boycott the idea and so it could never take off?

I mean, the possibility of going to a set of library shelves, taking a picture of the area where you know the book must be because of the author’s surname or the Dewey Decimal  Number, and instantly being told where the book is, I find a great piece of technology either way. But will it every catch on? I’m not sure. Let me know what you think, in a comment. I’ll be delighted to hear your thoughts.