A few weeks back, I wrote a piece on 2D barcode scanning and the possibility behind them. Also known as “quick response” (QR), they’re vastly underused in the US. That may be changing soon as San Francisco has been testing them out on around 500 restaurants.
More than 500 restaurants, shops and businesses reviewed by Citysearch are placing printed bar codes in their windows. People who have special software from Scanbuy Inc. loaded on their cell phones can simply take a picture of the code and their phone’s Internet browser will immediately take them to the restaurant’s corresponding Citysearch page.
Users will be able to decide, based on the Citysearch reviews and other information, whether to step inside for dinner or keep walking down the street.
It’s good to see people finding the benefits of such a handy utility. Check out what the senior editor for Citysearch says about it.
“I think it’s the next step for both consumers and businesses,” said Michael Peck, senior editor for Citysearch’s San Francisco guide. “It forms a bridge for window-shopping people. They’ll be walking by a shop or restaurant and want to know what it’s about, but they don’t want to commit to a conversation to find out. This is an easy way to find out.”
Aside from restaurants, we could see this happening with night clubs, hotels, and landmarks and other attractions. How convenient would it be to snap a picture from a movie poster and get the trailer downloaded/streamed to your phone? Playable demo’s from games and other mobile software could be made available by taking a picture of the back of a box or out of a magazine. I’d love to see this type of software implemented into Android as a standard application.
Download the free ScanLife software here and start looking for the quick response codes!
