Honeywell Redesigned The Barcode Scanner To Fit On Your Finger Like A Ring Wearable

If you close your eyes and think of a barcode scanner, chances are you’re thinking of that odd alien space-gun-shaped object that emits red light when triggered, helping scan that vertical grid of lines on your Doritos packet. The barcode scanner is a great example of form following function – it’s ergonomic, and can be used comfortably for hours, making it a boon for employees who have to spend half a day scanning objects at check-out… but what happens when technological innovation makes the hardware smaller? Well, you don’t need that gun-shaped object anymore, right? The folks at Honeywell China took to redesign the barcode scanner by compressing it into something much more compact and wireless. In fact, it’s small enough to fit on your finger.

Designer: Huo Sheng Industrial Technology Co., Ltd. (Honeywell, China)

The Ring Scanner, a winner of the Red Dot Product Design Award, is a tiny finger-worn wireless wearable that allows people to scan barcodes simply by pointing at them. Point your index finger and the Ring Scanner lines up perfectly with the barcode, scanning it in less than a second. “As it consumes little power and offers IP66 protection, it is ideal for a variety of scenarios, such as logistics or production lines, says the Honeywell China team. “The ring is made of skin-friendly rubber and is very lightweight, so it can be worn for many hours.” The Red Dot jury was also impressed by how they shattered the archetype of the gun-based barcode scanner, creating a new innovative product design template. Just the way the desktop computer was made into the sleek, portable, and beautiful laptop, the Ring Scanner aims at doing the same for barcode scanners, making logistics, inventory, and checkout scenarios more streamlined.

The Ring Scanner is a Winner of the Red Dot Award: Product Design for the year 2023.

The post Honeywell Redesigned The Barcode Scanner To Fit On Your Finger Like A Ring Wearable first appeared on Yanko Design.

Amazon Dash Means to Innovate Grocery Shopping

Amazon Dash

Being the largest online retailer on the planet isn’t enough for Amazon, as the company intends to also become the world’s largest grocery store with the help of Amazon Dash.

We might not get a food replicator a la Star Trek, but Amazon still means to bring some innovation at least to the way we buy food, if not to the way we eat it. The magic wand henceforth known as Amazon Dash will provide quick access to the e-tailer’s grocery shopping service that was launched last Friday. AmazonFresh is currently invite-only, but the service will most likely expand to include more customers, as well as more areas of the US, currently being available only in Southern California, in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Seattle (this makes sense, since this is the retailer’s hometown).

Amazon Dash connects to your home’s WiFi network and enables you to create shopping lists simply by scanning the barcode of a product that ran out. If for some odd reason scanning barcodes is too difficult of a task for you, then Dash’s microphone will allow you to add items to the list verbally.

The barcode scanner-shopping list combo has been done before by tens of mobile apps, so this is definitely not the aspect that makes Dash’s take on grocery shopping revolutionary. What makes the magic wand that great is its direct link to AmazonFresh. All the items you’re going to scan with the Dash will show up in the AmazonFresh account. This feature could prove really useful for people who buy the same stuff all over again.

While Amazon claims that the Dash is that easy to use that even a child would know how to handle it, that’s particularly one of the things you need to pay attention to. There are cases when kids bought on eBay or on Amazon very expensive things using their parents’ cards, so if you decide to leave the Dash around the house, don’t be surprised if a truck full of groceries pulls in your driveway.

AmazonFresh will be offered as a subscription-based service, and people will have to pay $300 annually to access it. Whether that subscription will be recovered from cheaper groceries remains to be seen, though. If it makes any difference, Amazon Dash is offered for free to whoever buys a subscription to the e-tailer’s grocery shopping service.

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Amazon’s Flow augmented reality app comes to Android, makes shopping more entertaining

Amazon's Flow augmented reality app comes to Android, makes shopping more entertaining

The iOS crowd's been able to enjoy Flow's AR features since late last year, but fortunately for those on the Android side who've been missing out, this powered-by-Amazon app is now (finally) also available on Google's OS. It's simple, using augmented reality and A9's "continuous scan technology," the application allows users to buy, as well as get extra information on products such as video games, books, toys, DVDs and CDs through simply using one's smartphone camera -- much like Google Goggles does. Additionally, Flow will keep your scanning history on file, making it easier to find items by date, name, category or scan type. What's more, Amazon's Flow won't cost you a nickel, and it's up for download now via the company's own app shop and the Google Play link below.

Amazon's Flow augmented reality app comes to Android, makes shopping more entertaining originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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