Corporate Fallout Detector

BandwidthHog writes "MIT student shows off Corporate Fallout Detector. Acts and looks kinda like a Geiger counter, but it's a UPC scanner with an internal, updateable database of corporate misdeeds, with both Pollution and Corporate Ethics modes. I want one."

Comments

In case of slashdotting

[Anonymous Coward]

here is a mirror of the movie

it was slashdotted before anyone even replied

[Anonymous Coward]

it was slashdotted before anyone even replied to the posting of this article.

movie mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

movie mirror

Google Cache

[Pinguu]

here

Google Cache

[wawannem]

Does really seem to show much, but the original site /.'d...

google cache

<article text>
Corporate Fallout Detector

The Corporate Fallout Detector reads barcodes off of consumer products, and makes a noise similar to a gieger counter of varying intensity based on the social or environmental record of the company that produces the product.

I came up with the numbers by correlating several online bardcode databases with a pollution database and a corporate ethics database. Of course the data produced by this approach is subjective and inaccurate at times, but that's part of why I built it: It's difficult for consumers trace corporate actions through the maze of corporate ownership, and find who is really responsible. This helps create an environment where consumers have difficulty making informed purchasing decisions.... without the use of "special tools"...

The case is made from a discarded steel computer case, cut on a waterjet cutter and bent with a metal brake. Inside is a SaJe microcontroller and a Wasp barcode scanner.

Click on the thumbnails at left for larger images.
</article text>

Re:No, it can work

[TopShelf]

And just how would it make the link to all those component suppliers? While some high-profile deals are public knowledge (i.e. Flextronics), most are private contracts between companies.

Re:No, it can work

[Trigun]

Open up an Xbox. You'll see all kinds of information goodness stamped on the semiconductors.

Not that it would be easy to do...

Re:Corporate Ethics? Says who?

[JulianOolian]

The article states that the instrument's response is based on a pollution database, http://www.scorecard.org/ and a corporate ethics database http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/research/corporate_ researcher.html

I think it's more of a (witty, IMO) satirical stunt item than anything that the guy thinks would actually be useful.

Re:Bruce Sterling thought of something like this

[cybermace5]

You mean kinda like this?

Developed by some people I know (well, only Anna actually) who graduated one year after me. It doesn't give you an environmental lecture about the product you're scanning, but I guess it very well could. Aimed at the blind to help them with shopping. Actually, make it remotely possible...not easy to tell 200 different soups apart, or cereal boxes, when you're blind.

Adbuster's greenscan

[morcheeba]

Adbusters is working on a design for an opensource version of this. It appeared in the previous issue & they've gotten some feedback.

CueJack

[edgarde]

You might mean the CueHack, a program for those free :CueCats we bummed off RadioShack. CueJack was previously reported on Slashdot a coupla years ago.

Re:Bruce Sterling thought of something like this

[netsharc]

Sort of off topic, but here in Germany some folks are planning a service that uses a scanner connected to your mobile phone to scan the barcode, send the code to a server via SMS, and it sends a reply that tells you where you can get the product cheaper.

Unfortunately the gadget doesn't exist yet, at the moment people can input the code only manually, though the system also searches using the product name (just type in "Philips 19" monitor", for example).

Saw it on TV, the hosts claim they managed to bargain a cheaper price from storemanagers after showing them the SMS.. great for customers, bad luck for the stores.