A New Take on Barcodes and Technology: Connect With Packaging and Cell Phones

By David Luttenberger

Japan again takes the lead on packaging innovations, here linking a datamatrix barcode with cell phones and email.

Considering the fact that the venerable barcode's first commercial packaging application predates the Korean War, one would think the printed zebra stripes are about as cutting-edge as ring-pull tabs on two-piece steel cans.

But when I shared with my younger daughter, Morgan, an innovative new two-dimensional barcode application I found on a stand-up retort pouch of Heinz pumpkin soup sold in Japanese grocery stores, she actually paused her simultaneous I-M session and three-way cell phone conversation with best friends Esther and Emily long enough to mumble, "Phsst, that's soooo Chuck Norris!" This week, apparently, that reaction indicates a good thing in the lexicon of giggly 14-year-old girls.

I have no idea why references to Mr. Norris connote approval, but her reaction affirmed the validity of my latest package discovery. The fact that I share package technologies with my kids reaffirms my status as a packaging geek. So why do 14-year-old girls connect with a barcode printed on the back panel of a pouch of soup? Because it involves a cell phone and a computer—duh!

Fast-forward to the mid-1960s and early 1970s. Remember how Agents 007 and 86 (in TV's Get Smart) relied on second- and third-generation wrist and shoe phones with video capability and telescoping antennae, respectively, to notify HQ that the world had been spared once again from eminent doom? How cool it would be, we mused then, to have such cool gadgetry. Dick Tracy, as we all know, pioneered the use of cellular wrist/video telephone technology.

Today, our lives revolve around cell phones and computers to stay connected to world events and to be entertained in much the same way our grandparents gathered around the RCA radio on Saturday evening. When you combine our addiction to anything with a keypad and LED screen with our quest for convenience and independence—particularly when it comes to packaging with the convenience attributes we demand—the genius behind the Heinz package becomes immediately apparent. Heinz uses a decades-old printed barcode in tandem with wizardry of Japan's next-generation QR-coded cell phone technology to connect with consumers.

Alerted by graphics depicting a cell phone and an arrow pointing to a 2D "datamatrix" barcode, Japanese consumers simply position their QR phone's camera-reader over the barcode. The phone reads the code and links embedded preparation and alternative recipe information from the package to the phone to your home computer. Oh, and by the way, the QR-coded phone is also a debit card, so there's no need to scan packages to check out. You can also buy a soft drink from a vending machine or unlock your school locker by holding your QR phone to a reader.

I doubt my daughter and her friends will be downloading recipes from QR-coded packaging and posting them onto the "Hobbies" page of their MySpace websites. But the "Wow" factor of this package is definitely worth blogging about. Considering the minimal cost of the ink to decorate the package, the 55-year-old printed barcode technology is connecting consumers to packaging at the item level in a way that RFID technology still finds cost-prohibitive. Wow! That package is so Chuck Norris!