BigShinyThing

New 2D bar codes can hold much more information than coventional ones which are capable of storing about 20 alphanumeric characters. QR code, developed by a Japanese company in 1994, can hold up to 7,089 numeric characters, 4,286 alphanumeric characters and even 1,817 Kanji Chinese characters and full-width Japanese Kana characters in just one symbol. DoCoMo developed its first bar reading phone in 2003 and claims there are now about 20 million phones which are bar reading enabled.

According to DoCoMo:

Food traceability involves putting the address of production history information in bar code form and printing it on foodstuff labels. Consumers check this information by reading the bar code with a bar code reading mobile phone, thereby obtaining the name of the producer, the harvester date, shipping date and so on. In this way, the consumer gets to know immediately the route a certain item of food to get where it is, and can purchase it with peace of mind.

When the service was introduced, it was welcomed by consumers with comments such as ‘I’m glad I can check on the use of agricultural chemicals,’ and ‘It puts me at ease to know who the producer is.’ The system also drew comments from the producer side, such as, ‘Now we are being scrutinized by our customers, we have to make sure our food products have better than ever quality.’

Posted on smartmobs. The science bit is here.