This physical world connection company has spent the last couple years marketing a disruptive technology, camera phones and barcodes. In the mean time they continue to build on their intellectual property portfolio.
New York, NY, February 8, 2007- Scanbuy, Inc., (www.www.scanbuy.com) a global provider of wireless commerce solutions today announced it has been granted two U.S. patents around a mobile device and a barcode.
The first patent addresses a method for decoding and analyzing barcodes using a mobile device to transmit and access information via WAP, SMS, or MMS. The second is focused on a system that provides an algorithm designed to enhance images of barcodes to facilitate the decoding process.
US Patent No. 7,156,311, describing a system for decoding barcodes using a mobile device like a cell phone equipped with a digital camera, uses software located on the mobile device to enhance the barcode image and subsequently decode the barcode information. The software uses the camera to read the barcode, transmit the decoded information to a server in multiple ways such as WAP, SMS, or MMS, and then connects the device via a wireless network to the corresponding media content and/or information.
U.S. patent No. 7,168,621 named “section based algorithm for image enhancement”, provides a process for enhancing images of barcodes that can compensate for many shortcomings of camera-equipped mobile devices, allowing many more images captured by camera-phones to be decoded, and as a result enhances users’ decoding experience.
“The patents we’ve been granted demonstrate the depth and strength of Scanbuys, ever growing, IP portfolio, and, more importantly, help to position Scanbuy as the partner of choice for handset manufacturers, carriers, content providers and advertisers” said Jonathan Bulkeley, Chief Executive Officer of Scanbuy, Inc.
Yesterday Nokia agreed to embed Scanbuy's barcode scanning application on their phones.
In my opinion, these guys are taking a close look at Scanbuy. I will elaborate why in an upcoming post.
The physical world connection puzzle pieces are coming together.
4 comments:
I guess I wonder what kind of important patents Scanbuy could possibly possess when, well over a year earlier than their provisional patent application was filed, Mitigo was demonstrating essentially the same sort of technology?
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/2002/02/13/baig.htm
I also find it strange in the extreme that the Scanbuy patent makes no reference to any work done at Mitigo. SEC records show that Mitigo was owned by International Wireless, and Scanbuy entered a deal to merge with International Wireless. How could they not have known about the previous ideas at Mitigo?
I just saw at http://www.ringnokia.com/
a comment that inform Scanbuy is not the author or propietary of their claimed 2D barcode solution.
I checked the information and is totally correct ! Incredible ! I generated 2D codes (the same codes used buy Scanbuy) http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/rohs/visualcodes/
and decoded it from the Scanbuy solution at my mobile...worked !
I could never imagine that was not a solution made buy Scanbuy staff. It´s free software !
Everyone can use it....it´s a GPL license project/software.
Is Scanbuy a software house ?
Does Scanbuy informe it to companies ? Not in the home page !
Regards.
Robney.
I also can't understand how they can patent this kind of a thing. It's been done before so they shouldn't be awarded the patent.
So what now? Other companies doing barcode detection and information retrieval must stop or pay them for it? Stupid.
Please, someone make a prior art claim and stop this madness.
Thanks for the nice post!
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