A Rapid Prototyping Platform for Mobile Phone Based Services on Retail 
Products 

The mobile phone is set to change the way we shop in the future. Using its 
built-in camera to recognize the standard barcode present on virtually every 
product world-wide, consumers will be able to simply scan a product and access 
product-related information and personalized services while they are in the 
store. The creation of such mobilephone based applications that provide 
services and information to real-world objects is currently very attractive: 
for prototypes, technology demos, or user studies. But even though many 
components of such applications and prototypes are recurring, the creation of 
even simple applications currently requires a lot of time and know-how - both 
limiting the progress and development of new mobile-phone based applications 
and ideas. This document introduces a rapid prototyping platform that allows 
for the creation of easy-to-use mobile-phone based applications based on the 
robust recognition of 1D barcodes on retail products within minutes, 
without any sophisticated phone-programming know-how.