QR Codes and Shopping in South Korea - My Science Project for A Virtual Supermarket

A canner, exceedingly canny,

One morning remarked to his granny,

“A canner can can

Anything that he can

But a canner can’t can a can, can he?”

Carolyn Wells, The Canner

It seems that my blog article on QR Codes entitled “Daqri combines QR Codes with Augmented Reality - Ads and PR Minority Report Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is wildly popular as from the day of posting online, it has shot up to being number two (2) on my Top 5 Weekly Most Popular Blog Posts. Apparently, there is nascent but growing interest in QR (Quick Response) Codes among Jamaicans, who are just getting hip to this latest trend.

Not to be left out, here is the code for my blog, which I made at the Quick QR website:

I say “just getting hip” as this Sunday July 10^th 2011AD, while I was trawling the Sunday Gleaner Newspaper for job posting to apply to, I came across a curious one. It was a position for a Sales Marketing Executive (not in my field; I am Telecoms Engineering!).

But it was the advert’s use of a QR Code was what caught my eye, as it was the only information in the ad. Traditionally, only the Local Telecom Providers, such a Telecom Provider LIME and Telecom Provider Digicel, since last year, have been using QR Codes. So this employment post that featured ONLY a QR Code was quite an interesting surprise!

Apparently, the company advertising the position was effectively saying you had to have a smartphone or a Blackberry, as it might as well be a QR Code with an AR (Augmented Reality) Daqri script (sorry, I couldn’t check!!).

Holographic AR Job postings may be the future of Marketing and Public Relation Posts in the Sunday Newspapers. Heck, possibly even for Work in general in the future, as it is cheaper, being as it saves on advertising costs to just print a small QR Code as opposed to a full spread employment ad.

Human Resources Managers are effectively telling prospective employees that knowledge of Mathematics, the Sciences and Computing was no longer the preserve of Pure and Applied Sciences “Know-it-alls” at UWI, but was now necessary knowledge to even get a job. You have to know how to use a computer in much the same way a soldier is familiar with his M16, and not just sit in front of it, with your blouse open and breasts gulping air, playing Solitaire and typing Microsoft Word Documents all day!

After all, the prospective employees HAVE to be able to DOWNLOAD a QR Reader app to their Blackberry, a skill in itself to even READ QR Codes on your Blackberry or other phones considered smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone or Google Android smartphones.

Rather strange bit of coincidence, that job advert! This as it is the aftermath of not only my blog post that predicted the demise of Public Relations and Marketing by Social Networks above, but also my Geezam blog article entitled “Social Media Marketing – Advertising and Marketing in Ja on a Shoe-String” that spoke of the emergence of Social Media Marketing as the new Paradigm in Advertising and Marketing.

Within that article on Daqri, I also had also referenced another article in The Jamaica Observer on QR Codes entitled “Revolutionary Marketing - Creative ways to use QR Codes in business”, published Sunday, July 03, 2011, The Jamaica Observer. This article is the work of Internet Marketing Consultant Wayne Marsh (such people actually exist in Jamaica?).

More of his handiwork can be seen at his website E-Business Solutions Limited.

I made reference to it, as it was chock full of suggested implementations for QR Codes, the above posting in the Sunday Gleaner dated Sunday July 10^th 2011AD being a simple example. One of Internet Marketing Consultant Wayne Marsh mentioned ideas in his article was the use of QR Codes to grant Discount Coupons via a smartphone QR Code Reader. 

This sounds a lot like a suggestion I had made with regards to monetizing the Color Social Network, which is basically a Proximity Geo-Location Augmented Reality Photo Sharing Social Network (note to self: need to shorten that!!) as chronicled in my blog article entitled “Color Social Network & Valpak Virtual Coupons - Augmented View's True Colours” using ValPak Augmented Reality coupons sans QR Codes.

Heck, even the Newspaper itself, in its entirety, may be delivered via a single QR Code in an alternative Mash-up with Google News, a service I described in my blog article entitled “Geo-Location Rise and Google News - Vybz Kartel's News Minority Report Color-ing Book”

So what if instead of just coupons, be they virtual or printed, which in itself is an old fashioned concept, you could just skip to buying the product and possibly even getting the discount directly from the store via QR Codes!

Tesco, a British Supermarket Giant that has rebranded itself as Home Plus in face of sagging sales and stiff competition in South Korea, does just that, allowing subway commuters in South Korea to scan QR Codes of lifelike pictorial representations of products at Subway Stations as shown below.

South Koreans, often about their busy lives in the city, purchase their groceries via QR Codes and have them delivered to their house as stated in the article “South Korean supermarket chain opens virtual grocery stores in subways”, published JULY 7, 2011 JEFFREY VAN CAMP, Digital Trends.

Would something like this work in Jamaica?

Most definitely, as straight off the bat, this would be a clever business concept for a virtual Supermarket which delivers its products directly to its consumer’s homes in Jamaica. Possibly offering free local delivery of an equivalent nature to the free shipping offered by Amazon’s subsidiary Quidsi in their latest outing, Wag.com.

Which is similar, except it delivers pet related items as stated in my blog article entitled “Amazon's Wag.com Social Network for Pets - Quidsi in the Flight of the Navigator”

So my idea solidifies: A Virtual Supermarket, with only warehousing both room temperature and Cold Storage that delivers products to your doorstep with the aid of Robotics (wishful thinking there!!) for free and you only have to scan a QR Code and make the purchase right then and there on your mobile phone.

Possibly the purchase is done via Scotia Banks Mobile Banking Facility or even Mozido Jamaica Limited possible implementation of Google Wallet in Jamaica for Remittances as stated in my blog article entitled “Mozido Jamaica Limited and Mobile Payments - Plants and Zombies say the Gods must be Crazy”.

So to Local Jamaica Investors or any FDI (Foreign Direct Investors): Virtual Reality Supermarket powered by QR Codes, anyone, being as it is My Science Project (1985)?

Apple Television Set, a docking cradle for the Apple iTV - Super 8 A Gift for Christmas

Rumour is a pipe

Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures

Shakespeare, Henry IV, II, Induction

With a new Apple iPhone 5 on the horizon possibly to make its debut in September 2011AD, fifteen million (15,000,000) strong according to the latest rumour from Digital Trends as stated in the article “Report: Apple orders 15 million iPhone 5 units for September release”, published Tuesday July 5 2011, Digital Trends, its time to start thinking of new gadgets.

Like the much rumoured Apple Television Set as reported in the article “Apple Television Set Rumors Revived, To Launch in 2011?”, published Tuesday June 21, 2011 2:23 pm PDT by Arnold Kim, Mac Rumors and the article “That Apple Television Is Coming This August Alongside The iPhone Nano (And Santa)”, published June 21, 2011 by MG Siegler, Tech Crunch.

Note: NOT the Apple iTV from the 2010 refresh as described in the article “Apple Refresh and the US Economy - Chinese Dragon has a Jade Eye”, but a true-to-life honest-to-goodness Apple Television Set, as was rumoured back in September 2010AD in the article “Analysts predict all-in-one Apple Television Set in 2012”, published September 20, 2010 11:10 AM PDT by Don Reisinger, CNET News.

Please note the active word “rumour”, although to be honest, I like this one, as it makes sense, at least to hardcore fans of Apple such as yours truly! After all, if Apple Television Set was not possible, why would Apple make the recently refreshed Apple iMac, which now has the capability to act as a secondary screen? This CNET Reviews of the 27”Apple iMac points this out succinctly!

Clearly, if they can make something like that for US$1699 and people buy it because of its high quality specs and performance, then an Apple Television Set is not far fetched proposition at all. Such an idea only appears silly to non-Apple fans, due to the fact that once you have an Apple iTV, you can already stream to any HDTV set.

So why not make their own extremely high resolution Apple Television set, effectively a bigger version of the Apple iPad, turned sideways?

This as the Apple iPad is now in its second iteration with the Apple iPad 2, an excellent product as described in nice dulcimer tones in my Geezam Blog entitled “Apple iPad 2 – Dual-Core Easy Skankin’” and my blog article entitled “Apple iPad 2 and PC future - Doomsday in the Battlefield”.

The Apple iPhone, now in as many iterations for each of its four (4) years of changing the Silicon Valley gadget scene as pointed out in my blog article entitled “Apple iPhone and Hardware Quality - The Count of Monte Cristo Hard Knock Life”, is also looking a bit long in the tooth. So what is new on the horizon?

Thus far, the Apple iCloud is exactly as I had predicted it would be: a fancy synching platform as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple iCloud and WWDC - Iron Eagle to be Top Gun in the Dangerzone”.

iOS 5 and Mac OS 10.1 aka Lion for US$27.99 as stated in the article “Apple unveils Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud at WWDC (live blog)”, published JUNE 6, 2011 9:00 AM PDT by Josh Lowensohn, CNET News – Apple were the other highlights. No innovation there at all as stated in my blog article entitled “Sparky's Homemade Cicada Ice Cream - Yendi Phillips in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”.

But as usual, Apple’s products are solid and stellar and they shine. Especially the Apple iCloud, clever payback for Piracy by the Music Industry as CNET Editor Brian Cooley points out in this episode of CNET Top 5:

Now as I mentioned above, there are stories floating about, stating that Apple is planning to debut an Apple Television Set. Which from the sound of it, is basically an Apple iMac, but acting as a docking shell for the Apple iTV as described in my blog article entitled “Apple and the iTV - Back to the future”. Here is the lowdown from Brian Tong from the hit CNET show, The AppleByte:

The Apple iTV is yet another device whose design I had suggested to a bunch of Shurpower Engineers in April 2009AD while driving to fix generators – and possibly being filmed via an installed audio-visual device. Sinister, but clever, I suppose, as people are more likely to believe secretly revealed ideas than straight talking!

If such a full blown All-in-one Apple Television Set exists, or if Apple has plans to make a full blown Television Set, effectively a stripped down version of the Apple iMac dockable with the Apple iTV as opined in the article “Analysts predict all-in-one Apple Television Set in 2012”, published September 20, 2010 11:10 AM PDT by Don Reisinger, CNET News - The Digital Home, rest assured it will mostly do its work via streaming over the Internet.

This as Cable Television Set is also making the move to streaming as evidenced from the actions of Triple Play Provider Comcast and their launch of their 1Gbps Broadband service XFinity as stated in my blog article entitled “ComCast and 1Gbps Project Xfinity - Starship Troopers in Cable's Battle Los Angeles”. It is geared towards content streaming slated to go live in the Fourth Quarter of 2011AD in time for London Olympics 2012 on July 27^th 2012AD.

Locally here in Jamaica, Triple Play Provider FLOW is apparently looking towards streaming, with hints of a “video service” in the pipeline as stated in my blog article entitled “FLOW, IPTV and the coming of Net2Vu - Johnny Mnemonic”.

Whatever Triple Play Provider FLOW has got, they better roll it out NOW, as Netflix is coming to the Latin America in the Fourth Quarter of 2011AD, inclusive of the Caribbean as reported in my blog article entitled “Netflix coming to Latin America - Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer”.

As for Apple if Apple Television Set exists, I hope it will come with:

1. Retina Display (beat that Samsung!)
2. Augmented View or Augmented Reality as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple and Augmented View - The Future is now” and revealed to now be practically possible thanks to Daqri as stated in my blog article entitled “Daqri combines QR Codes with Augmented Reality - Ads and PR Minority Report Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”
3. FaceTime Video Calling and PrimeSense’s Kinect 3D Motion Capture Technology, as I had opined for the Apple iTV in my blog article entitled “Internet, Apple iTV and Cable - Pirates of the Caribbean”
4. iOS and Mac OS 10.1 Lion support, inclusive of the Apple Apps store, Apple iTunes and Apple iCloud content storage and streaming playback
5. 3D without the bulk glasses, based on technology Apple has been developing as mentioned in my Geezam Blog article entitled “3D HDTV – Next Big Thing or Next Big Niche”

The Apple Television Set, if made as suggested and launched come this Fourth Quarter of 2011AD, will be The Christmas Gift (TV 1986), Super 8 (2011) Style - along with the new Apple iPhone 5’s of course!!