Every time I read another thesis from Everyware I always get that “why didn’t I think of that” feeling. I can already see how beneficial a ubiquitous future can be for larger purposes that Greenfield mentioned earlier in the book like having your home sense where you are and being able to service you through spoken command, but I tend to forget how useful this technology can be for smaller things.
I never looked at bar codes as a way to link information together other than the price of a product which gets pulled from some database that links to a specific code. Half a year ago I was a little amazed when I saw that they sell a portable bar code scanner which you can use to scan all of your house hold items so that you can keep records of your belongings, or use it to scan items and look them up on your computer. But its really amazing when you don’t need to carry around a bar code scanner or even a computer anymore because you can just take a picture of these 2D bar codes with your camera phone and it will immediately bring up more information of the product.
I thought this was a little funny about the avocado with a 2D bar-coding, “An avocado, on its own, is just a piece of fleshy green fruit—but an avocado whose skin has been laser-etched with a machine-readable 2D code can tell you how and under what circumstances it was grown, when it was picked, how it was shipped, who sold it to you, and when it’ll need to be used by (or thrown out).” All of this information about a single avocado just from one 2D bar code….Three Cheers For Sweet Ubiquitous Technology!
4 comments:
But do we really need to have barcoded avocados? I mean really, has anyone ever gone to the grocery store and wondered, "hmm I sure wish I knew the circumstances under which this banana was grown. I hate when they've been in full sunlight" lol I guess I can see the idea behind it, but still. Most new technologies come from a need- somebody somewhere finds something inconvenient and develops a device to fix that 'problem'. I just don't see the need for the barcodes. At least not on fruit. I will admit, it probably has practical purposes, but maybe they're taking this just a bit too far with the fruit idea?
I had heard about these 2D bar codes many years ago from my best friend who now lives in Japan. He was always telling me about the neat things that Japan is doing with just their cell phones. The bar code thing had to have been 4 or 5 years ago when he mentioned it to me. I was really shocked! The last thing he was telling me about two years ago, was how the cell phones in Japan can become your DVRs. You can record shows straight from your cell phone at a quality that is good enough to upload to your computer and watch. How cool is that!? Anyways, the next level of bar codes is just another way for companies to give information to the consumers. The more we know about it, the better we feel about purchasing it. For me, I buy fuit and forget to eat it so it would be beneficial for me to find fruit that is not near being ripe so that I can have the chance to eat it. This kind of ubiquitiy I can live with. :)
Yeah, I'm reminded of a joke in which the punchline is "...and this tomato has a website." It's too dumb to post here, so moving on...
I was also pretty amazed by the picture of a bar code bringing up info. I agree that it would help having a CARFAX-like report about your fruit but if all your stuff is traceable, then they'll know everything about that avocado from sprout to guac. I personally am not a fan of my stuff leaving a trail, but people like me will always be looking with that bias.
I am extremely interested in this aspect of ubiquitous systeming. I was trying to organize a management system for a construction company over the summer and I was having difficulty managing the tools and materials used. I needed to find a way to monitor the warehouse. And because it is not a large warehouse there wasn't a bar code or labeling system set-up. It would have been nice to have used a portable bar coding system but it wasn't economical. So while these products and ideas will be highly affective and desired by business it needs to be economical for smaller things like described in the ubiquitous system of managing produce like the avocado. If business put all their information in there tools and products sent to the warehouse I would be able to set up a manager with one system coder to monitor all products going in and out. This would greatly help with managing misplaced and stolen goods.
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