Photo by Chiarra Marra/Flickr Creative Commons

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been grocery shopping and while inspecting the product labels looking for information, spy the 800-number that every piece of merchandise seems to have, and I’ve wondered, “Does anyone ever call these things?”

Soon, it won’t matter. The numbers won’t really be needed.

Oh, people will still use their phones to get product information and give their feedback, but dialing will be the least of what they do. It’ll start with scanning.

And the scanning won’t be limited to items on the shelf in the grocery store. We’ll be scanning buildings, paintings in an art museum, billboards or posters for movies, and applications we haven’t even imagined yet.

These bar codes, however, will have three big differences from the bar codes you’re used to seeing:
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