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Adapting Mobile Phone Barcodes for Use by Existing Red-Laser Barcode Scanners
Published on:
Start-up technology firm, Mobeam says that it has developed a way to enable conventional retail bar code scanners to read bar codes stored in mobile phones.
The company says that legacy bar code scanners used in retail outlets struggle to read the display screens on mobile phones, so they developed an alternative idea.
A software application converts the barcode information stored in the handset into a series of light based pulses that can be transmitted by the handset's existing message waiting and battery charging indicators, proximity sensors or camera flashes directly to the red-laser based barcode reader in the point of sale terminal.
"Because no phones today can reliably display a scanable barcode that existing retail point of sale technology can 'see,' a major gap in mobile commerce has emerged," said Brian Kang, director of investment for of Samsung Ventures. "To fix this problem, the mobile commerce ecosystem has two choices: either retailers can replace their point of sale infrastructure with new scanners that can read existing smartphones, or smartphone OEMs can find a way to make their devices work with the widespread existing technology in use the world over. With an inexpensive firmware solution that won't change the physical designs of phones, mobeam is delivering the fastest path to universally available digital commerce."
Mobeam APIs are added to the firmware, allowing mobeam technology to utilize the LED light sources already planned for the device. These embedded APIs also allow application developers to create apps that leverage mobeam. Because mobeam is claimed to require no changes to handset component technology, it adds no incremental cost to the manufacturing of the handset. Mobeam works with any LEDs used in phones, including infrared LEDs often used with proximity sensors.
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