Michael Turner wrote:
> From: "Jani PATOKALLIO" <jpatokal@iki.fi>
> > So what is the crucial difference between using a CueCat attached
> > to a laptop and using a scanner integrated into a mobile phone?
> > Sure, the mobile phone is smaller and more convinient, but it
> > would only seem to be a matter of degree.
>
> It's only a matter of degree, of weight - except that, oops, laptops
> are expensive. Yeah, that's only a matter of degree too, except
> that.....
But the basic functions performed by both systems are still the same,
yes?
> You must see where this is going. In fact, where it has already
> gone: people will put up with the obvious inconvenience of
> thumbtyping and tiny screens just to have something that will
> fit in their pockets.
Yup. But people are still surfing the Net with their old
clunky desktops. Why is nobody scanning barcodes with them?
* * *
You see, what I'm suggesting is that people are not particularly
interested in barcodes and their possibilities, and that this will
not change no matter how portable and cheap you make the technology
for reading them. You are of course free to disagree, and indeed seem
to be doing so quite loudly. =)
> > Eeyup. You see, I'm working with wearable computers, with a particular
> > interest in eyeglass-integrated displays and mobile networking.....
>
> Cool. I love this stuff. Always have. But tell me: have they done
> human-factors research on using this for ordinary reading matter?
> And what has the result been?
But of course. And the result is that at the moment resolution sucks
compared to good old paper. Fortunately I'm in academia and thus
won't have stockholders breathing down my neck if my product won't
be commercializable for 10 years...
> Keitai barcode-reading could probably skip this whole Wagnerian
> cycle, since it's such a negligible hardware hack, and the medium
> of interest (barcode) is already long established.
Negligible...? Compared to wearables, sure, but (despite what
a reader suggested) you can't just recycle IrDA for reading
barcodes. You'd need a laser and a scanner, which would be yet another
power and space drain for tiny machines that are already an (uneconomical)
marvel of miniaturization. (Although having a laser in my keitai is
definitely a feature I'd be willing to fork out a few extra yen for!)
> > Except that somebody has to enter all the barcodes into a database,
> > which is half the installation problem.
>
> Comparison shopping over keitai will probably bootstrap
> the same way that comparison shopping has bootstrapped itself
> since the invention of money: person-to-person, market
> by market. An economist might point out that this is how
> the whole price-signal system has always worked anyway.
> Going mobile with it would probably be only a second-order
> optimization, if that.
Ah, but this is a new idea. I still don't quite see the
incentive though: what do *I* get out of matching barcodes
and URLs myself? Even Napster and Gnutella are having problems
with people who download without putting up their own goods,
and in Napster/Gnutella all it takes to contribute is one click.
(Or less, as by default your download directory is available for
others as well.)
> The more marketing-oriented can take it from there. As well
> as those who patent business models - I *think* I've reached
> that level of detail by now. *Sigh*.
I'd suggest aiming the marketing at those people who actually
make the decisions, KEITAI-L seems to be populated by
cynical programmers and/or academic curmudgeons like myself
who are far more interested in The Right Way of doing things
than nasty little trivia like time-to-market...
Cheers,
--
Jani PATOKALLIO / jpatokal@iki.fi / +81 90 7722 3557
Sanpo Laboratory, Mechano-Informatics Dept., University of Tokyo
ヤニ・パトカリオ / jani@sanpo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp / 090 7722 3557
東京大学、工学系研究科、機械情報工学科、算法設計研究室
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Mon Nov 27 14:15:33 2000