RFID and Bar Code News: New Retail System using 2D Bar Codes also Offers Possible Insights for Industrial and Logistics Applications

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- January 15, 2007 -

RFID and Bar Code News: New Retail System using 2D Bar Codes also Offers Possible Insights for Industrial and Logistics Applications

StoreXperience Lets Users with Cell Phones Scan QR Codes on Signage to Launch Informational Web Pages; Why Not for Track and Trace?

SCDigest Editorial Staff

SCDigest Says:

A manufacturing work order could contain 2D codes that take operators to more detailed information or notes that might be available on a company intranet. Received materials for production could include a bar code link to quality testing or other material data for that specific lot.

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A new solution for retail using two-dimensional bar code scans to enable shoppers to get additional product and price information is interesting in its own right, and may trigger ideas by supply chain and logistics practitioners and solution providers on similar uses of the concept.

At the National Retail Federation show in New York this week, StoreXperience, based in Berkeley, California, announced it will soon have US customers for a retail application that enables shoppers to quickly access a variety of information through Internet capable cell phones.

The trigger is the imaging of a two-dimensional bar code in signage or other displays using a cell phone’s camera function. A shopper must first download a small applet to the cell phone, which decodes the bar code image picked up by the camera. The bar codes encode different URLs that will take a shopper with a Internet-enabled phone to a variety of specific web pages with additional info.

The bar codes encode two pieces of information: a product identification number (the equivalent of the UPC) and localization data (what store, what address, etc.). Together, the two numbers in effect provider different URLs that will take a shopper with a Internet-enabled phone to a variety of specific web pages with additional, contextual info.

For example, a bar code on signage on a downtown street might offer to show shoppers the nearest retail outlets where a manufacturer’s product is sold. In a store, one bar code might take shoppers to a web page offering more detailed product specifications; another might compare the features of various models.

The StoreXperience system for now is using the QR matrix-style symbology to encode the URLs. Company materials say that in the future, RFID reads may be used to trigger similar information look-ups. It may also support QR code, which is similar to Datamatrix and popular in some mobile applications in Europe and Japan.

CATEGORY SPONSOR: SOFTEON

Applications Outside of Retail and Advertising

European shoppers have been able to use cell phones and 2D bar codes in a similar way for some time. SCDigest also wonders whether the basic idea might not also have some interesting possibilities in industrial and logistics applications.

For example, suppose a consumer or business orders several items, only some of which are shipped initially. A 2D code on the package or packing list could take the recipient right to the page that shows the status of the remaining goods (password protected as needed).

Similarly, 2D codes on packaging could take consumers or businesses to assembly instructions or operating manuals; today, consumers generally have to go to a web site and search for the right documentation.

“The idea behind some applications envisioned for both two-dimensional bar codes and RFID has been the notion of a ‘portable database,’” notes SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore.

“Maybe there is a medium ground, especially when an item moves across software application boundaries, where a linear bar code look-up is not enough, but a web address in the code that provides easy access to additional information with no need for key entry and searching offers some real efficiencies,” he said. (See What Ever Happened to PDF417?.)

What’s your take on the StoreXperience system? Can you see applications for use of 2D codes with embedded URLs in industrial and logistics applications? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button below.