ShopSavvy: Save Money On Your T-Mobile G1
Last Tuesday T-Mobile unveiled a new application for the G1 (the first Android-powered mobile phone) and its going to alter the way we shop. What this feature does is essentially allow the user to compare prices for a product by simply scanning any barcode. You would think that this has been done before but it hasn’t on a consumer-in-your-pocket level.
As soon as you take a picture of a UPC label via the built in camera, ShopSavvy goes out and searches the web for a cheaper price and then displays it to you right then and there. Then as if that wasn’t enough, ShopSavvy also goes and looks up the price listed at actual (brick and mortar) stores nearby.
This was one of 10 winners among nearly 1,800 entries in the Google Challenge, a contest to build mobile apps for the Android operating system. Take a look at the demo video of ShopSavvy, formerly known as GoCart:
We feel that our readers may eventually take advantage of this in the event that the get a phone with this unique operating system. Why not let your cell phone find you a better deal?
Take a look at other Android videos.
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Comments
streetstylz, hmm thats interesting. Is T-Mobile out of patent regulations or did the do a joint ownership with NeoMedia?
Reminds me of when TiVo sued Dish Network for creating their own DVRs.
NeoMedia has a patent that covers this technology
Patent #6,651,053 — Interactive system for investigating products on a network
An interactive search system for use with a global computer network, e.g., the Internet, using a search identifying barcode to rapidly and effectively obtain a supply of related information for presentation to a user. A computer, either landline based or mobile, may be used to input a UPC code, taken from a package or advertisement or prestored in the computer, to an implementing server on the network. The server contains a database of product and manufacturer identifying UPC codes and uses the input UPC code and the database to identify the manufacturer and is programmed to then perform a search of the network to locate sites relating to or operated by the manufacturer. Also, the server may search the network on a product basis to locate other sites containing the UPC under search. Using “parsing” technology, the server “pulls out” the product description, transmits it to and places it in a random access memory (RAM) or storage of the computer, and proceeds to perform further searching relying on the product description to uncover relevant information. Accordingly, using a single input, a collection of product-related and manufacturer information is quickly assembled in the computer available for a user’s consideration all at once at any time.