The eBay For Bar Codes

Can you see how using a camera phone to scan a barcode could create a powerful ecommerce site?

Next month, Boston-based entrepreneurs Greg Boesel and Mark Hexamer plan to launch Swaptree.com , a website to help consumers trade books, CDs, DVDs, and video games.

Using complex algorithms, the site immediately calculates what traders can receive after they create "have" and "want" lists.

Customers list what they have to trade by entering the product bar code, which allows the site to post a picture, third-party reviews, and to automatically identify details, ranging from the particular edition to whether a book is hardcover or paperback or if a DVD is in normal or widescreen format.

Brandmovers Selects Qtags For SMS Platform

Advertisers and consumers are going to look for one portal, or short code, if they want to make mobile info work.


qtags and Brandmovers create mobile marketing platform

Brandmovers, Inc., "The Engagement Marketers," and qtags , a short-code texting platform, have teamed up to offer advertisers turn-key solutions for text-message powered promotional campaigns.

Brandmovers will use qtags as its exclusive text-messaging platform for mobility-oriented advertising and promotional campaigns, and qtags will exclusively offer Brandmovers powered micro-sites that enable advertisers to engage their audience with community offerings and news, as well as deliver coupons, contests and instant-win solutions.

Physical World Connection Job

One of the companies on the Physical World Connection list is looking to hire.

In my opinion, this company is one of the top PWC companies, and this could be a great ground-floor opportunity.

Job Title: Lead developer

Description: Here are the basics:

******is a small and highly innovative company that offers an enjoyable and challenging work environment.

As a ******* programmer you'll exert a strong influence in the technical future of our product(s). You'll become responsible for achieving our technological goals and improving our software based on (y)our own and our customer's feedback. And ofcourse you'll be playing with/working with the latest mobile gadgets.

Your general profile should look as followed:

- Extensive experience in C++ and Java (more languages is a plus)
- Good understanding of server based technologies
- Experience with embedded systems is a plus
- Incredibly curious personality with a strong interest in new languages/platforms/challenges
- University level thinking
- Self motivated
- Organised (at least on your computer)
- Not afraid to communicate your own opinion on things
- Entrepreneurial
- Good sense of humor

If you're interested in the JOB, not just who is hiring, please email me and I will put you in touch.

Text Messaging Getting Traction For Mobile Marketing

USA Today has a good story on text messaging and the role it's playing in mobile marketing.

USA Today's parent company, Gannett, was smart enough to see how big this spade will be and acquired a stake in 4INFO

With readers fleeing newspapers and TV viewers zapping past commercials, advertisers are turning to the one device consumers can't seem to escape: their cellphones.

Mobile phones and wireless devices have quietly become the newest, hottest frontier for big brands from Pepsi to Nike, especially those itching to reach the coveted 18- to 34-year-old set.

Mobile marketing companies mentioned include Third Screen Media and JumpTap

TellMe Is a Physical World Connection Company

I have discussed the idea of the camera on your mobile phone being your "mouse" for the physical world, but your voice could too. A voice browser.

A camera can recognize machine readabale identifiers (barcodes, images, RFID tags) and act as physical world hyperlinks.


The concept of saying specific words that would link to specific sites, or offer targeted information is also a form of physical world connection.

From BusinessWeek TellMe tries a new trick

Rather than PCs and browsers, they'd use their voices to navigate the Net. Founder Mike McCue called his vision DialTone 2.0.

Imagine how easy surfing would be if you could speak your search query, instead of typing it on your mobile.

TellMe is in discussions with Web portals, search engines, and wireless carriers about melding its voice products with their services and distribution.

With more than 2 billion cell phones in use world-wide (many with Web browsers) and carriers and Internet portals looking for new ways to make money, Microsoft and McCue are betting that voice-driven Web information will become much more popular.

"Your voice can be the mouse of the mobile phone," says analyst Seamus McAteer at researcher M:Metrics.

To see how TellMe works, try these out.

1-800-555-1212
411 for Cingular
1-800-GOFEDEX
1-800-MERRILL
411 for Verizon home phones
1-800-STOCKS1
1-800-DOMINOS, and more

McDonald's Chooses Enpocket For Mobile Couponing

Mobile marketing leader Enpocket, lands a big one.

McDonald's chose a leading mobile marketing company, to introduce an innovative marketing concept.

They are targeting right demographic and I can see lots of advertising going into unique campaigns.

From Yahoo McDonald's selects Enpocket for late-night store traffic

Enpocket , the leader in intelligent mobile marketing, announced today that it has been selected by McDonald's to provide mobile couponing for a direct response marketing campaign.

The campaign will drive localized retail traffic during the traditionally slower late evening hours with a series of weekly mobile coupons for late-night offers.

In addition, the campaign will be supported by mobile advertising banners running across several popular mobile internet sites, where consumers are targeted by age and location.


Enpocket provides mobile marketing that works for hundreds of the world's largest brands, including:

Mobile Carriers: Cingular, Sprint, Alltel, Vodafone, Airtel

Media Companies: News Corp, CNBC, A&E, Clear Channel, Chrysalis, Internet Broadcast Systems, Sony Pictures, TNT, Trinity Mirror

Brands: Wal-Mart, Dunkin Donuts, Pepsi, Subway, Motorola, Samsung, Panasonic, BenQ-Siemens, Procter and Gamble, Sprite and GM

Big Media Invests In Physical World Connection

Was big media the first to adopt physical world connection?

I find it interesting that a major media holding company invested in probably the first physical world connection company.. They had the right idea, but the wrong device.

Do the major media companies see the billions of "CueCats" already on the market?

In a story that focuses on how the news is slanted by powerful interests, we see how Belo Corporation and their WFAA TV station tried to introduce PWC.

High-tech gizmos often have a special place on local TV news. Even more so when the TV station's parent company is behind the new invention.

The Belo Corporation invested $40 million in a company called Digital Convergence that manufactures a bar code-scanning device called CueCat. Those using CueCat on their personal computers can scan the bar codes on advertisements, calling up more information about that product.

According the Dallas Observer (9/21/00,) Dallas station WFAA-Channel 8 ran segments about CueCat three nights in a row in September on their news broadcast. WFAA is owned by Belo.

People can mock and criticize the CueCat, but the concept was way ahead of it's time and people couldn't imagine connecting the physical world to the Internet yet. Now some "visionaries" are calling it a killer app.

Daem Interactive Image Recognition PWC Player

Daem Interactive allows all camera phones to use images as physical world hyperlinks.

Their technology “augments” the reach of the advertisements supports, allowing users to capture images of products, adverts or logos to immediately receive relevant information on their mobile handsets, creating interactivity between users and advertisers

Every magazine, billboard, logo, poster, and product packaging will act as a link to the electronic world.



When the user locates a promo he takes a picture of the advertisement or logo and sends the image to a short-code or e-mail adress. Our image recognition technology identifies the image and sends related multimedia contents back to the user.
Works for all camera phones.

User receives multimedia content.

The system can be used to take part in promotions, buy tickets to a show, download contents, access consumer reviews…mobile visual searches are most efficient way to obtain information on demand.

Notice how big the LIST is getting to be ?

I expect the major players (Yahoo, Google, Microsoft) to enter this space shortly.

BaToo A Physical World Connection Player

Add Zurich based BaToo to the physical world connection company list .


BaToo is a freely available 1D barcode recognition toolkit that is intended to facilitate the creation of novel applications and services based on the recognition of EAN13 codes using camera equipted mobile phones.

We believe that the adequate performance of our recognition software, when compared with existing commercial implementations, the ease with which external data sources can be integrated, and the availability of our toolkit under an open source license will help to foster the the use of camera phones as mobile bar code scanners.

The idea of linking real-world products with virtual information has been around for quite some time. In 1998, Barrett and Maglio already described a system for attaching information to real-world objects [BM98] , while 1999 Want et al. expanded upon the idea and linked arbitrary items through the use of RFID tags with both information services and actions [WFGH99].

Obviously, using bar codes for linking real-world objects to virtual information has a number of drawbacks when compared to an RFID-enabled future with corresponding mobile RFID readers, such as NFC-enabled1 mobile phones

Many Functions Of A Physical World Hyperlink

All About Mobile Life has a good story on why physical world hyperlinks, in this case a QR code, will replace a lot of the other forms of electronic identifiers for communication.

The 2d code will replace the short code, phone number, web address, and email.

Space, ease of use and direct connect to Internet information are the most obivous.

A company doing that now in the States is NextCode with their ConnexTo application.


With Connexto you can generate codes that contain:

1. URLs to access WAP or web sites
2. SMS messages with
3. Phone numbers to auto-dial
4. Contact information

The Blind Are Using Physical World Connection

Scanning a barcode will offer other informative applications besides price comparison. I view this as a wirelessCueCat.

The CueCat might not seem like a bad idea any more.

Engineers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing affordable scanning systems to give blind people greater independence in daily activities, such as cooking, grocery shopping or riding a bus.

Their system relies on devices available in any electronics store, including a cell phone, Bluetooth wireless headset and portable bar code scanner.

Here's how the Trinetra prototype works:

The blind person uses a bar code-reading pencil to scan a grocery item. The information is sent via the wireless headset to an Internet-enabled cell phone.

The phone communicates with a public database, which translates the bar code into a recognizable product name.

This name is relayed to the cell phone, where text-to-speech software articulates it into the headset.

Using this technology, Rossi can shop for groceries without the help of a friend or store clerk. He also can distinguish between products in his own refrigerator and kitchen cabinet

Magnetic Physical World Hyperlinks

From AssemblyMag Device reads data matrix codes though paint

Researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (Huntsville, AL) have developed a way to read Data Matrix codes even if they are obscured by paint or coatings.

The technique requires that the Data Matrix code be printed on the part with a magnetic material. A specially designed scanner can then read the code either optically or magnetically.

The magnetic marks can be read under conditions that would render optical methods useless. For example, the scanner can read the codes through contaminants, in the dark, or under bright light that would wash out conventional markings. In addition, assemblers can use the technology to deliberately hide Data Matrix codes for security reasons

Fonaticket Launches Mobile Ticketing For Cinema

A new paperless ticketing system, which allows cinemagoers use their mobile phone in place of a ticket, has been launched in Dublin.

Cinemagoers logged onto the fonaticket.com website, entered their mobile phone number and then received a special text message containing a unique bar code, which was then scanned upon their arrival at the cinema

ScanBuy Launches WAP Search Site

Until camera phones are able to read 1d barcodes, a WAP site will kick start this enormous industry.

Scanbuy , a physical world connection company , launches a WAP search site.

Just go to http://search.scanbuy.com




I can see numerous applications that will be offered from this besides price comparison.

If Scanbuy is smart they will open this application up, or take suggestions and let users determine what kind of information THEY WANT from a barcode.

Scanbuy is doing everything right in promoting the physical world connection space.

TBS Very Funny Very Innovative

I think this is a unique idea and could be a platform for many other ways to interact with ads and shows on TV. All advertisr should be getting their own text message ads during the show.

I think TBS is on to something with this show, but I think it might be better to start with a free SMS concept first, then add the premium messaging.

TV station TBS will be airing a SMS-based interactive game show called "Midnight Money Madness".

A new show on TBS, premiering August 28th, will have viewers exercising their thumbs along with their brains as they text-message their way to cash and prizes.

Midnight Money Madness, created by the digital arm of production company Endemol, the same company that created Big Brother and Deal or No Deal, is trying to bring the live, call-in game show into the 21st century.

The show will be emceed by two comedians, and will feature man-on-the street interviews and celebrity guests. The show will have no on-screen contestants or studio audience.

Instead, viewers register as contestants online, through a premium SMS message, or by calling a 900 number. If the show contacts them, contestants participate in the show as it airs by answering trivia questions and solving puzzle games.

Participants who register via text message or the 900 number will get Madness-branded content sent to their mobile phones as the show airs.

2D Codes The Promise Of The Wireless Digital Revolution

A great summary about QR Codes (2D code) from Ogilvy & Mather and how they represent
promise of the wireless digital revolution.

It's nice to see a major advertiser recognize how big physical world connection will be.




North West Airlines is using 2d codes to make ads interactive and informative.

QR codes provide a machine link between print and online media advertising. It is the no-keyboard way to find and be connected to an internet address.

Billboards talk to phones

By looking at Tokyo, we can get a glimpse of what is in store for other early-adopting cities around the world.

The clear trend is that almost any object, machine or advertising space can be reacted to and be a prompt to the consumer. This is the promise of the wireless digital revolution.

Healthy Living Physical World Connection

There are more useful functions than price comparison when scanning a barcode with a mobile device.

Physical world connection helps patients track food intake, check nutrition

Food labels do not always contain the necessary information, and the patients needed a way to monitor their intake over the course of a day to make sure they did not exceed recommended levels of certain types of food and fluid, the researchers say.

Now the PDAs, loaded with programs that contain the food content information on the foods patients eat, could solve that problem. The handheld devices also will offer personalized information on how much phosphorus, potassium, sodium, calories, fluid and protein a patient should eat.

Right now the researchers are experimenting with using PDAs that can scan a product's barcode to learn the relevant nutritional information

2D Codes Used For M-Commerce

A member of QuickMark demonstrates a QR Code (2-dimension bar codes) software for selected Windows Mobile phones during a press preview yesterday to promote the upcoming Taipei Computer Application Show.




The software makes it possible, with use of the built-in cameras, to turn your mobile phone into a wallet. The software records an amount of money saved, and that data is transferred to the mobile phone, which can then be used when shopping.

Full story

Physical World Connection Soda Machines

It's not a camera phone, but think of the PWC possibilities if vending machines had barcode scanners attached to them.

PWC Vending Machine

Right now, the machine has attached to it a barcode scanner, a fingerprint reader, and a web cam for facial recognition.

Want a Coke? Stick your thumb on the reader so the machine recognizes you as having an account, take out the drink, scan it with the barcode reader, then walk way, never having had to reach into your pocket for change


The project, called SodaVision (sodavision.com), is the brainchild of UCSD engineering associate professor Stefan Savage.

Subway And MobileLime Do Mobile Marketing

MobileLime® , the first company to turn the mobile phone into a marketing, loyalty and payment device, today announced that 12 Subway® franchises owned by QSR Brands in Buffalo, New York are the first in the area to market to preferred customers in real-time by offering alerts and discount coupons via customers' cell phones.


With the Mobile Alerts Club, QSR Brands' customers will opt-in to the preferred program at the location(s) they frequent, allowing them to receive periodic coupons, last minute specials and event alerts directly on their cell phones

Subway's Mobile Alerts Club is available today and free to consumers. Consumers in the Buffalo area can sign up at any one of the 12 participating Subway locations or by sending a text message from their cell phone with the code "7299" (SBWY) to the number 35562.