Tag: qr codes

Geolocation technology in iBeacons may soon define London tourism

| October 5, 2015

If London Assembly member Tony Arbour has his way, mobile devices will be the key tool for tourists.

Conservative London Assembly member and mayoral hopeful, Tony Arbour, believes that there is a great deal to gain from the use of geolocation, QR codes and NFC technology when it comes to expanding the tourism in the city beyond the central area.

Many tourists miss out on some of the best features of the city because they never hear about them.

While Londoners would be able to tell you about the Horniman Museum, the Royal Air Force Museum, Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, and Richmond Park, many tourists are still visiting the core points of interest such as Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London. Essentially, tourists are missing out on some fantastic attractions and those attractions are missing out on the tourists. Arbour feels that if iBeacons using geolocation technology are combined with the use of QR codes, this problem can be rapidly resolved.

The key would be to use a Visit London mobile app which provides relevant information through geolocation tech.

Geolocation Technology - London TourismIn order to use it, visitors would simply need to load the app. Then, whenever they travel near iBeacons throughout the city, they would receive information that is relevant to where they are so that they will be more aware of the types of attractions and points of interest that they could be visiting but that they might otherwise have missed.

This will help them to see more than just inner London and to experience a great deal more of the city. It will also help the economic benefits of that tourism to spread outward toward other boroughs of the city.

Arbour has created a report that he has entitled “Unknown London”. He is hoping that Visit London, the tourist agency of the city, will change its current priorities and will use geolocation, QR codes, and other technologies to spread the benefits of tourism to new regions of London. As an example of the way it would work, he stated that “…a tour of London food markets could guide the tourist, via a series of codes or beacons, from one market to another, giving the history of each market, providing up to date vouchers and local dining and of course providing advice transport advice to the next stop on the route.”

QR codes allow milk cartons to provide product transparency

| August 17, 2015

Greatview Aseptic Packaging will allow consumers to trace their products back to the source.

Customers shopping for certain brands of milk will soon be able to scan QR codes printed on their cartons in order to be able to learn about the history of that specific product, right back to its beginnings.

These quick response codes are the result of a new program through Greatview Aseptic Packaging.

This company is the second largest roll-fed aseptic carton packaging material supplier in the world. It has made it possible to add traceable unique QR codes to its cartons by working along with other parts of the supply chain, WeChat (from Tencent) and RT-Mart (from Mengniu), the Chinese retailer. In this way, it has been able to add the Traceable+ feature to the “Selected Meadow” brand of milk.

Customers can use their smartphones to scan the QR codes to trace their milk products back to their origins.

qr codes and productsBy doing this, they will not only be able to learn about the specific milk carton that they have scanned, and its history, but they can also receive additional value added services such as price discounts. This effort by Greatview is meant to benefit both the consumer and the supply chain and producers by providing targeted advertising opportunities unlike those that are currently available.

The Mengniu COO, Bai Ying, explained that “Our partnership with Greatview, WeChat and RT-Mart has been inspired by China’s ‘Internet Plus’ strategy, which aims to integrate the internet with traditional industries. For consumers, our new offering means a more comprehensive user experience, while for us it represents a window for leveraging a fully functional big data platform.”

The Greatview CEO, Jeff Bi, also explained that the Food Safety Law in China now states that manufacturers are responsible for the creation of complete traceability systems for their supply chains. By implementing the QR codes on milk cartons, the company has been able to not only comply with this upcoming law, but it also makes it possible for producers and consumers to benefit from what it has to provide in terms of both information and advertising.