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3/19/2014

Slightly Wordy Wednesday



I went to a seminar, yesterday.  It was a multi-session extravaganza looking into the near future of computing - things that will affect the Enterprise, and things that will affect you and me.

Anyway.

The sessions I attended were interesting and thought provoking - so much so that I have a whole new bunch of ideas.  The one that "ordinary people" will like, however, is this:  A cloud application, running in your smartphone, that allows you to build an inventory of consumable goods in your home.  You know ... milk, butter, eggs, hot dogs, buns, etc.  Then as you use those goods, you can check them out of inventory, on your phone.  BUT.  The secret spice in all of this is the barcode on the receipt you get at the store when you replenish your supplies from the shopping list generated by the app.  Just scan the barcode and the inventory on the sales slip is added to your cloud inventory - and over time, everything will be properly categorized.  Of course, it will require the cooperation of food retailers like Jewel and Meijers, to open their system enough to capture the barcode info - but even if they dont, you'll be able to scan your stuff with your phone and add new good to inventory.

Neat, huh?

Ndinombethe, ubuntu.

2 comments:

PattiKen said...

You know that all the privacy fanatics will have issues with this. Heaven forbid that "they" know what brand of toilet paper you buy.

Tara R. said...

I would LOVE that. I am always buying pantry stuff that I already have. Having a convenient way to keep track of what I have and what I need would save me lots of grocery money.