A partnership between Austria-based semiconductor company ams and US start-up Mobeam is designed to make it possible for barcodes to be scanned from a mobile phone screen.
The companies claim they have technology which will enable laser scanners in store to scan 1D bar codes displayed on a mobile phone screen for commerce applications that use barcodes such as coupon redemption, loyalty cards, gift cards and tickets.
Smartphones use emissive displays from which a common POS barcode reader cannot capture barcode data.
Mobeam has developed a light-based communications technology which it claims can overcome the technical barrier preventing mobile phones from interacting with laser scanners.
The companies plan to use the ams TMD3990 module which combines a colour light sensing capability with proximity detection and IR LED barcode transmit function.
It uses the same type of proximity IR LED that is already used in smartphones today to disable the touch-screen display.
“The combination of Mobeam technology and ams sensors will give smartphone makers a single, accurate and powerful integrated solution to participate in the growing mobile couponing and mobile commerce markets,” said John Heugle, ams CEO.
Devices are currently being sampled by ams. Full production is scheduled for 3Q 2013.
