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"Pull" Barcode Scanning Could Be Android's Killer App

Posted by timothy on from the be-a-frugal-gourmet dept.

Seor Jojoba writes "The release of T-Mobile's G1 Smartphone is shifting focus away from push-based barcode scanning, where embedded URLs send you to locations of a vendor's choosing. There is now more interest in pull-scanning, where product information is retrieved from user-specified sources. It may be that QR-Codes and other 2D barcodes will have their thunder stolen by 1970s-era linear barcodes. On the iPhone, scanning a 1D barcode is slow and unreliable. But the G1's improved optics and Android's improved access to image scans has made 1D scanning quick and useful, opening the gateway for killer apps that help people make spending decisions."

2 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Re:iPhone slow and unreliable because of 2M camera by Sentry21 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The submitter is quite right. I have an iPhone, and the biggest challenge with doing as the camera suggests (a coworker of mine had the same idea) is that it uses a fixed-focus lens, set to 'infinity', which means that it cannot focus on near objects - so the barcode has to be far enough that it's within the focal range, but big enough that it can be seen from there.

  2. comments from someone who has used it by rbrome · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was at the T-Mobile/Google launch event last week in NYC, and had a chance to try this. I also have an iPhone.

    First, this is not a Google-made app, it's called ShopSavvy and it's from a third party. It will come preloaded on the T-Mobile G1, though.

    It's neat. It's very easy to use and returns simple links to product reviews and prices from multiple online sources.

    vs. the iPhone:

    Barcodes on the iPhone are NOT slow. They ARE unreliable, because the iPhone has a fixed lens that simply cannot focus on something up close.

    The G1's "improved optics" is an auto-focus lens that can focus on things up close. That's why this works. It's very slow, though.

    "Improved access to image scans" is bullshit. It's the same in Android as the iPhone or any smartphone, at least for something like barcodes.

    MANY smartphones have a high-res camera with auto-focus lens and can run third-party software like this (which has existed for a while). It's nothing new. It's only in the news now because Google chose to feature it during their press conference and demo session at the event in NYC last week.

    Also, the whole 1D vs 2D thing is beside the point. 1D is the type that's printed on all products at any SHOP, so of course it's the type that a SHOPPING application is designed to scan.