Universal Product Code barcode will be supplanted by 2027 | Hacker News Reader

Universal Product Code barcode will be supplanted by 2027

axios.com

20 pointspgrote18 comments

Not a fan. The good thing about UPC is it shows a human-readable serialized representation: it shows the UPC number. So I can pick up an item off the shelf and know exactly what it is: I can cross-check the UPC number against the shelf label's UPC number to verify the price. The QR code has no human-readable element to it. It's a usability issue.

Valid GS1 QR codes are still required to include a Human Readable Interpretation right next to the code preferably below it, in similar fashion to UPC/EAN. See https://www.gs1.org/docs/barcodes/HRI_Implementation_Guide.p...

In those examples they print the text too close to the QR code, it is in the "quiet zone" and could disturb the read.

Good things about classic barcodes is that their numbers can be used in online searches to identify specific products, and they are short enough to be typed by cashiers, in case the bars can't be scanned.

The way I see the new 2D ones, they are really unique per item encoded URLs that will identify the person who buys the product through card account number cross referencing (like it's done already). In an incresing survellance economy, I see a market for:

1. Apps that will decipher future 2D codes and spill out all their secrets

2. Anonymizing payment solutions through customer data obfuscation, like analog to VPN for credit cards

What companies have been trying to get us to accept for ages now is making consumers scan items using their personal devices to get a price that will be tailored to them individually based on their income level, their purchase history, their personal/political views, their "customer loyalty", etc. I'm guessing that assuming anonymizing payment solutions aren't outlawed they'll be a lot less effective when they're collecting your personal information just to see a price or view product information.

> What companies have been trying to get us to accept for ages now is making consumers scan items using their personal devices to get a price that will be tailored to them individually based on their income level, their purchase history, their personal/political views, their "customer loyalty", etc.

Bringing the complexity and obscurity of internet pricing tricks all the way down to the shelves at the corner shop.

There is a lot of marketing bullshit in there.

QR code are still hard to read correctly for reader if not the good size (ie huge) and contrast.

We will be able to add more bytes of data inside, but it stays small. Like the size of a medium/long url.

So, what we will get in the end is the same barcode value plus an url for the product...

GS1 plans to put useful stuff in there as an extension to the UPC such as information about expiration dates and such.

I would like very much to have the expiration date there. That would be great for managing home and fridge inventory. But space is still limited and UPC are usually part of the packaging that you would not print directly I think.

I, for one, am thrilled for a bar code to "take you on an experience that the brand wants you to have"

You future mileage may vary. And the potential for abuse is quite real. For one, the fact that they could instantly bind serial numbers to idividuals upon purchase is scary. Corporations could limit the right to resale and impose warranty limitations, for starter.

Just pay cash. If you're serious about avoiding having your purchases tracked and analyzed, you're already doing that anyway.

Cheap UPC readers are slow and unreliable, QR codes got their name from “quick response” because they were designed to be read by industrial robots moving 40 mph with the image processing technology of 1994.

Our local “reuse center”

https://ithacareuse.org/

uses QR codes for what other stores use UPC codes for with great success.

The first 3 numbers show the origin country for a product. Good if you want to prefer some and avoid others.

I'm sure they'll find a way to confuse consumers with that the way they have with "Made in USA", vs "Manufactured in USA", vs "Assembled in USA", vs "Distributed/Produced by" labels or even worse the "designed by" labels (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Made_in_...)

Cool, I guess? Can’t all this be done without throwing a bunch of scanning equipment into the landfill?

Much of the stuff purchased in the past few years will support this. Smaller retailers will have the most trouble with this since they are more likely to defer periodic technology refreshes.

I'm thinking about the scanners I see in every supermarket in the USA. They're all very clearly one dimensional scanners.

I feel like supermarkets will just make us scan our shit with our phones and do away with large static scanners.

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