A2H GO
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Registered: 14th Sep 04
Location: Stoke
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Had an idea for a mobile phone app, well specifically iPhone 4(due to the front facing camera) but could work with other phones.
Basically its a supermarket app, that whilst shopping you scan each items bar code with the front facing camera and it 'logs' the product and keeps a total, so that as your shopping you can keep a track of how much you're spending. Basically a posh calculator.
But this could be built upon, such as every time you scan an item it gives you a cheaper alternative, ie. You scan cottage cheese, £1.59 and the screen shows 'Alternative Value Cottage Cheese £0.99.
It could tell you at the end of your shop how much you could have saved has you opted for the all the alternatives.
It could remember your shop, then next time gives you a completion % so when your're finished and it shows for example 91% you can click 'missed' and see if there are any items you intended to get but missed.
You could even have a little plastic holder(£0.99-£1.99 price range) for the phone that clips onto the bar of the trolley(possibly with a removable clip bit so that it doubles up as a protective case when not shopping).
These are just examples of how the app can be built upon, might be a bit overkill but.....dragons den anyone? 
[Edited on 19-09-2010 by A2H GO]
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DaveyLC
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Registered: 8th Oct 08
Location: Berkshire
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Couple of problems..
1) it requires an image recognition algorythm to decode the UPC/barcode. As of yet there isnt really anything out there that can reliably read a 1D (3of9) barcode with a shitty camera.
2) Where are you going to get the pricing information from? I'm pretty sure Asda/Tesco etc. wont let you access their stock database to lookup UPC's.
[Edited on 19-09-2010 by DaveyLC]
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Kurt
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Registered: 23rd Oct 05
Location: Hi
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There are similiar apps already, you scan a barcode of a cd or book and it tells you prices elsewhere, i.e hmv, play, asda etc
I dont see why it couldnt work, Paul J would probably be the best bet
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James
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Registered: 1st Jun 02
Location: Surrey
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I don't see why you need the front facing camera? The normal camera would work?
There are already apps like that but they only handle general barcodes for example a DVD and not a product that is specific to a certain shop.
I suspect the major supermarkets/shops will already have something similar in the pipeline.
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
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quote:
Originally posted by Kurt
There are similiar apps already, you scan a barcode of a cd or book and it tells you prices elsewhere, i.e hmv, play, asda etc
Yeah, there are already products which allow you to scan barcodes. The other thing is, there are some providers (Sainsbury's) for example that give you devices which scan items as you walk around and tell you prices / total etc.
- The problem is, where is the data coming from for a universal app? A product in Sainsburys will have a barcode on it and a price on their database related to it. A product in Tesco will have a barcode on it and a price on their database related to it.
How does the iphone app find this information? How does it know which is which?
Finally how does the iphone app make money? - a one off app price?
The app would be ideal for a supermarket to produce for internal use to promote shopping at their store. However, I'm not sure there is the opportunity for an individual to make an app that fills this gap successfully.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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quote:
Originally posted by DaveyLC
Couple of problems..
1) it requires an image recognition algorythm to decode the UPC/barcode. As of yet there isnt really anything out there that can reliably read a 1D (3of9) barcode with a shitty camera.
The android one has amazing accuracy, the iphone one is shit for some reason, phone cameras are more than good enough now though.
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oceansoul
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Sunbury, Surrey
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ShopSavvy on Android scans any bar-code and tells you the price and closest place to buy from. Not quite the same but it works and is pretty accurate.
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A2H GO
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Registered: 14th Sep 04
Location: Stoke
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I don't know the in's and out's of the tech involved, but I know similar systems exist for DVD's ect which has already been mentioned.
I specified the front facing camera of the iPhone 4 as you could clip it onto your trolley handle and swipe the product over the front and see the screen without having to take it off and turn it round each time you swipe, just for ease of use really.
As for the database of products, thats where it get's a little trickier as you would obviously have to work with the major supermarkets to obtain the data, and be fed new products/price changes/offer details so that you could constantly keep the database updated.
You could build something into the app so that whenever someone scans an item that isnt in the database the barcode is sent back to the developer to possibly add it.
If some research could be done to identify how much the average shopper spends a week in the supermarket on food, you could work out an average of how much they could potentially save and come up with something along the lines of:
'This £4.99 app saves shoppers on average £19 a week on their food shopping. '
Not sure how the supermarkets would feel though if the app was potentially helping people spend less in their stores.
Also, if sainsburys are also doing something similar allbeit something separate that you carry, I'm sure they'll naturally progress into this direction anyway.
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Rob_Quads
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: southampton
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quote:
Originally posted by DaveyLC
2) Where are you going to get the pricing information from? I'm pretty sure Asda/Tesco etc. wont let you access their stock database to lookup UPC's.
[Edited on 19-09-2010 by DaveyLC]
This this is the major problem. The supermarkets don't provide an API for this sort of things its all only through thier own site and they are not going to be recommending you cheaper products. If anything they would be recommending more profitable items.
Its not too hard if you use something like Google Shopping API but until the supermarkets open up thier interface this would be VERY hard to do. This is why there are all the other price comparison apps as they rely on someone elses API
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A2H GO
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Registered: 14th Sep 04
Location: Stoke
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Ah pants, I even just thought of a name for it, 'Snappy Shopper'
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noshua
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Registered: 19th Nov 08
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Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the main reason applications such as RedLaser (DVD, Book, CDs, etc) works is because the bar codes used are based on a standard such as UPC or EAN of which the information relating to the product is publicly available. Where as with the supermarkets own SKUs for each item isn't. The only option of this working would be do partner with a supermarket - which no supermarket will do as they'd rather you spend the extra £5 per shop.
If I was that concerned about saving x amount I'd rather shop online and save the hassle.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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The tech is all ready out there and as said it's getting access to the supermarkets product DB that will be the hard one. And to be honest, there isn't really anything in it for the supermarkets. They want you to spend money, not save money.
Plus i've seen similar threads on a few iPhone/Android dev forums and they tend to end the same way - nice idea but it won't/can't happen, certainly not for third party app developer. Supermarkets doing their owns apps will probably happen, but i think they'll be 'show current offers'/'save money using this app' rather than showing cheaper alternatives to products.
Going back to the product DB, you could potentially scrape the data from store websites and product comparisons sites (i'm sure there is one for comparing supermarkets?), but you'd have to collect the barcodes yourself and it'll be more of an arse ache than it's worth.
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Rob_Quads
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: southampton
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quote:
Originally posted by noshua
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the main reason applications such as RedLaser (DVD, Book, CDs, etc) works is because the bar codes used are based on a standard such as UPC or EAN of which the information relating to the product is publicly available. Where as with the supermarkets own SKUs for each item isn't. The only option of this working would be do partner with a supermarket - which no supermarket will do as they'd rather you spend the extra £5 per shop.
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Not quite - supermarkets are no different. Its a two staged process - The barcodes identifies the product, once you know what product you then use a comparison site API to produce the info.
A Supermarket one would be no different. The UPC/EAN of many supermarket items are probably recorded in a searchable API already
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DaveyLC
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Registered: 8th Oct 08
Location: Berkshire
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quote:
Originally posted by noshua
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the main reason applications such as RedLaser (DVD, Book, CDs, etc) works is because the bar codes used are based on a standard such as UPC or EAN of which the information relating to the product is publicly available. Where as with the supermarkets own SKUs for each item isn't. The only option of this working would be do partner with a supermarket - which no supermarket will do as they'd rather you spend the extra £5 per shop.
If I was that concerned about saving x amount I'd rather shop online and save the hassle.
UPC describes the content NOT the format.. The format is Code39. Books, music, newspapers and DVD's are a different kettle of fish to consumables. They have ISBN numbers and there are pleanty of free databases available to lookup the details.
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DaveyLC
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Registered: 8th Oct 08
Location: Berkshire
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quote:
Originally posted by John
quote:
Originally posted by DaveyLC
Couple of problems..
1) it requires an image recognition algorythm to decode the UPC/barcode. As of yet there isnt really anything out there that can reliably read a 1D (3of9) barcode with a shitty camera.
The android one has amazing accuracy, the iphone one is shit for some reason, phone cameras are more than good enough now though.
I didnt say it doesnt exist 
1D Barcodes arent so great being read on a camera unless the res and macro focus is very good, the trapizoid affect of looking at the barcode from an angle plays havoc with it too... For some reason 2D is much easier to read with a camera even though its more complex.
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by DaveyLC
Couple of problems..
1) it requires an image recognition algorythm to decode the UPC/barcode. As of yet there isnt really anything out there that can reliably read a 1D (3of9) barcode with a shitty camera.
2) Where are you going to get the pricing information from? I'm pretty sure Asda/Tesco etc. wont let you access their stock database to lookup UPC's.
[Edited on 19-09-2010 by DaveyLC]
There are apps there which read barcodes perfectly well.
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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And I think Tesco or Asda produce an app which does exactly this, but of their own stores.
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DaveyLC
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Registered: 8th Oct 08
Location: Berkshire
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quote:
Originally posted by ed
[Edited on 19-09-2010 by DaveyLC]
There are apps there which read barcodes perfectly well.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by ed
And I think Tesco or Asda produce an app which does exactly this, but of their own stores.
They're all for online ordering, so completely different.
Bottom line, this type of app would be great but it'd difficult to make any money from it and nie impossible as a third party developer to get any of the super markets on board unless they can make money out it too - which i'm not sure how they would considering the app is about saving customers money and highlighting cheaper alternatives.
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DaveyLC
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Registered: 8th Oct 08
Location: Berkshire
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You;d be better off trying to create and Market a 'global' supermarket API..
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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If you had access to the data already like www.mysupermarket.co.uk and www.supermarket.co.uk have, then it'd be fairly straight forward. Getting access to the data is the hard part.
Davey - What do you mean by a global API? An API that allows anyone access to supermarket products and prices?
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DaveyLC
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Registered: 8th Oct 08
Location: Berkshire
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An interface that all supermarkets could use (i.e. standardised) for looking up prices for particular UPC's.
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