MoVa Media – Tech Ramblings…..

Almost every item available in stores has a barcode for tracking, and sales purposes. A new idea involving mobile barcode technology could give the consumer instant reviews about any product they’re thinking of purchasing in real-time while holding the item in the store aisle.

The idea is that the consumer can simply take a picture of the barcode on the product, and the phone would automatically identify the product via an integrated java program, and search the internet for related blog posts, news reviews, comparisons, etc. and report them back to the consumer in real-time to read up on the product and make sure it’s really the right one. Consumers can see what other people who have bought the same product really though about it, and what problems may have occurred. Think about doing an instant price check on the product to see if it might be cheaper somewhere else, or maybe cheaper to purchase online. This could prove to be a valuable asset to price, and safety conscious people.

With the software and platforms that are already in development by MoVa Media Co. and the equipment that almost every single consumer in the world carries with them at all times, this will be a reality in the not so distant future. After the initial product launch, new applications and environments could emerge enhance the experience. A central server with barcode information linked directly to well organized product pages would make the process much quicker and more informative. Within one scan and read of a barcode, the phone could instantly display a one-page info sheet showing comments on the product, some general pictures, price comparisons, user reviews, etc. instead of having to wait for the java software on the mobile phone to scour the internet for all of the information in real-time. Having this information sitting a waiting would make the service much more usable in a real world environment. Creating such a database shouldn’t be as daunting task as it sounds. All items with barcodes have information already associated with it, a simple script could scour product databases to find product information and link it to product pages to automatically and continually update the central database of product pages. This central database could also prove to be a very useful resource.

Check back to see what progress we’ve made on this exciting new service.