In Japan, McDonald's is proving that they have nothing to hide nutritionally by putting nutritional information right on their wrappers. You need a cellphone to read that information, however. The QR codes are basically tiny bar codes that were originally developed to track parts in factories, but because they can be scanned with a camera phone, they can be used for just about anything. In this case, once the wrapper is scanned, you will be directed to a website (intended for mobile phone access only) where the code can be translated into fat and calories.
This technology doesn't seem likely to hit the US, or many other countries, yet, since the cell phone technology needed to it to be effective is not used as widely as it is in Japan. The rest of use will have to stick to old fashioned labels and ordinary websites for our nutritional information.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-18-2006 @ 10:42PM
Roger said...
Hi there,
It wasn't an instant success in Japan as well. But I believe that now barcodes are really getting traction. There are several barcodes now out there.
In Switzerland there will soon be some important companies starting to work with barcodes in print soon. And several companies like Swiss National Television, NZZ and Espace Media (two important publishers) use them already on their mobile enabled blogs.
If you want to try it out for yourself, download the Kaywa Reader on your Nokia phone (reads QR Codes and Datamatrix) at http://reader.kaywa.com
If you want to make your own QR Codes, go to:
http://qrcode.kaywa.com
PS: The Sony Ericssons and Motorola are ready to be put on the download site;)
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