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UK's Royal Mail Launches First Intelligent Stamps

Posted by Soulskill on from the stamplons-were-created-by-man dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Royal Mail on Friday issued what it called the world's first 'intelligent stamps,' designed to interact with smartphones using image-recognition technology. The Royal Mail's latest special-issue stamps, devoted to historic British railways, are designed to launch specially developed online content when a user snaps them using an image-recognition application available on iPhone or Android handsets. 'This is the first time a national postal service has used this kind of technology on their stamps and we're very excited to be bringing intelligent stamps to the nation's post,' a Royal Mail spokesman said in a statement. 'Intelligent stamps mark the next step in the evolution of our stamps, bringing them firmly into the 21st century.'"

6 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Stamps for how long? by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Informative

    Except for philately (marketing to collectors is a somewhat lucrative way to raise money for postal services), are not stamps with nice designs on the way out? Go to the post office in many countries today, and what you'll get on your letter is a simple sticker printed by a computer with a bar code or other machine-readable images. The recipient of your letter in another country no longer gets an exotic representation of some facet of your country's culture.

    1. Re:Stamps for how long? by Jesus_666 · · Score: 4, Informative

      In Germany we still have stamps (although they're self-adhesive now). However, business mail often uses either barcodes (for packages) or alphanumeric codes or DataMatrix barcodes in the envelope's window. I think that's a good split; you still get nice stamps for personal mail but business mail can use much more efficient ways of franking their mail.

      Oh, we do however have stopped putting stamps on packages; those have a standardized adhesive label and are paid for directly at the post station. But at least the letters remain.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    2. Re:Stamps for how long? by KingAlanI · · Score: 2, Informative

      the fancy word for "stamp collecting", nothing more.

      --
      I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
  2. Cute idea, but... by Freddybear · · Score: 2, Informative

    Why not incorporate a QR-code symbol in the stamp? That would work on almost any phone without requiring special apps.

  3. Re:Cool but self-marginalizing. by dissolved · · Score: 2, Informative

    I am not a postman but come off it, they're not "randomly" going on strike they are fighting for their working practices (whether you agree/sympathise or not is another matter altogether). Also how is it the Royal Mail's fault for what happens when packages go outside of the United Kingdom? They can give best endeavours tracking but are totally at the mercy of La Poste or whoever it's gone to.

  4. Re:Personally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Before you rant at your postman about this, you should realise that the sorting office are responsible for this sort of mistake. postmen pretty much just look at the number on the envelope as they have to average 5MPH or something to do their rounds on time.

    The problem lies with Royal Mail outsourcing their mail sorting to employment agencies who employ temp workers. Temp workers on minimum wage don't really give a toss about sorting your mail properly.

    The whole system sucks, and it's ridiculous that they're spending money on gimmicks like this when their service is so unreliable. Our company use UPS or TNT whenever possible.