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Amazon Japan Offers Barcode Purchases via Camera Phone

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the disintermediation dept.

Zode writes "Jesse James Garrett reports that Amazon Mobile Japan customers can purchase a item with their camera phones. "Snap a photo of a product bar code using your cell phone, and Amazon Japan will give you a price check," according to Garrett, relaying from this article in Ketai Watch (Wireless Watch). Here's the English translation from Babelfish."

3 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. What about the bookstores? by lastninja · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How long until bookstores forbid the use of camera phones? I think many bookstore owners would be less than pleased if people only entered their store to be able to buy books from some other place.

    --
    John Carmack fan, browsing at +5 since 1999.
  2. All we need now.. by up4fun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    is standard barcodes and we could do price comparisons in the same way that shazam tags recorded music.

    Imagine sending a picture of a barcode to ebay to see if there's an auction for that item running.

  3. Indian patents ... by Gopal.V · · Score: 5, Informative
    > does patent law work the same way in India as it does in the US

    Introduction, Preliminary, Inventions not Patentable clearly mentions something about e-Patents .. so that post can be easily forgotten .

    Computer Programs
    1. Computer program is not patentable invention as computer program is
    a set of instructions for controlling a sequence of operations of a dataprocessing
    system. It closely resembles a mathematical method .It
    may be expressed in various forms eg. A series of verbal statements, a
    flow chart, an algorithm, or other coded form and may be presented in
    a format suitable for direct entry into a particular computer, or may
    require transcription into a different format (or computer “language”). It
    may merely be written on paper or recorded on some machine-
    readable medium such as magnetic tape or disc or optically scanned
    record, or it may be permanently recorded in a control store forming
    part of a computer. Thus it is evident that a program may be presented
    in terms of either software or firmware.

    India does offer Process Patents but explicitly prevents patenting naturally occurring substances or extracts there of. However you are free to patent your form of culturing or producing an anti-biotic or vaccine. Patent infringement can be enforced in India as is with any other country in the world. Interestingly , Prior art of Foreign origin are valid in India - unlike the USPTO .

    Get an OSS Loving, Nuke Missile Desgning President for your country too :)

    --
    Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur