New information technology for food products developed
and mobile camera phone system that communicates product
information, according to researchers in Finland. Potential uses of
RFID technology are also being investigated.
The trial stage of TIVIK, a Finnish project applying interactive computing to convey product information to consumers, is set to start in October 2004 and will include 100 consumers in order to test the prototype system. The trial will run for three months and will involve participants that are either on a weight-loss diet or are lactose intolerant.
Consumers with special dietary needs are being targeted first because they have a bigger motivation to use the technology.
The participants will be given Nokia mobile camera phones to take with them when they go grocery shopping. They will be able to take a photo of the product's barcode with the mobile phone and information about the product will appear on the phone's screen. The system allows the shopper to set-up a unique profile on a home computer or will be able to choose from a variety of pre-programmed profiles set-up on the phone.
The system works using Finland's standard electronic article numbering (EAN13) barcodes on most packages. Product information, similar to that supplied by the manufacturer to the retailer, is stored on a main database.
The project's research director Caj Sodergard says the software used in the trial could work just as well with radio frequency identification (RFID) codes using the same product database. This view is supported by a recent research paper published by Wireless Healthcare, which identifies a number of customer services that could use RFID tags.
These services, says Wireless Healthcare, would employ mobile devices fitted with RFID scanners to provide information relating products on sale in stores and could be run over conventional mobile networks. The UK-based consultancy believes that RFID technology can therefore be used to open up a product to a range of on-line services.
In any case, the Finnish trial finishes in December 2004 and the parties involved will then evaluate the system and decide if it is a feasible service to offer with the technology available.
Sodergard suggests possible downfalls of the system could be the screen on the mobile phone being too small for reading the information. The standard barcodes may not be able to provide enough information. RFID labels could overcome this problem because they have the capacity to store more data.
The project is funded by the Finnish government and has the backing of well-known companies in the food, telecommunications and research industries. As well as Nokia other leading Finnish companies include Valio, the large dairy foods provider, Fazer, a bread manufacturer, Synebrychoff, a beer and soft drink supplier, Finnish research organisation VTT and telecommunications provider Radiolinja.
