Student project can scan your veal and scold you for it

Students at UC Berkeley are working on an experimental system called iBuyRight, which uses a cameraphone to send a picture of a product's UPC barcode to a server to guilt-trip the user on "social, environmental and health issues" related to the product. The idea, the students say, is to empower consumers at the point of sale to make more socially conscious decisions before they buy -- decidedly a different demographic than the conceptually similar Vivid/xobile barcode capture system. Something tells us, though, that if you're already at the Hummer dealer getting ready to sign the paperwork, you're not going to be swayed by a bunch of text messages telling you to buy a Prius.

[Via Reiter's Camera Phone Report]

[DonaldMick Posted May 24th 2006 7:12PM]

The only people who would subscribe to this are the people who already buy responsibly. I can't see this taking off.

I'd explain more, but I'm finishing up at work and waiting for my friend with the Hummer H1 to take me to McDonald's.

[(Unverified) Posted May 24th 2006 7:44PM]

OH NO!11!!1!! When you buy something "the man" wins!!!

Great implementation (barcode reading + referencing), poor usage.

[(Unverified) Posted May 25th 2006 8:47AM]

This could be great for those small products which no one knows where they came from. If it were simple enough and you just snapped a pic and it said weather or not something was made in a sweat shop by underpaid workers or workers treated fairly then it would sway people away from cheap purchases and maybe towards more humane purchases. This, in-turn could force the global manufacturers to work with more realistic wages for their workers resulting in a more even playing field for American manufacturers. Of course this would all have to be objective and not influenced by their investors. So it would be complicated, good idea though.

[Brian from Texas Posted May 25th 2006 1:03PM]

I like the idea.

Let's just not forget May 24th:

http://groups.sims.berkeley.edu/ibuyright/index.php
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[(Unverified) Posted May 25th 2006 1:16PM]

This would be a better tool. Searching for the cheapest deal. Let's say I go to Best Buy and snap a picture of the bar code. It would link to a price search engine and tell me where I can get it for the lowest price whether it is from an internet retailer or nearby CompUSA or Circuit City.

[(Unverified) Posted May 25th 2006 2:55PM]

This is identical to what Mark has been working with at Microsoft for the past few years under his Aura project...

http://aura.research.microsoft.com/Aura/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabName=Home

[(Unverified) Posted May 25th 2006 8:09PM]

I've been escorted out of grocery stores by security because I was using a camera. This type of rule could make or break such a product?