(Via O’Reilly Radar)

Marc Smith’s Aura project opened up the possibility of using mobile phones, bar codes, and intermediate information sources like search engines to find and filter information about objects in the physical world. iBuyRight, a prototype for turning a mobile phone into a kind of social responsibility scanner, is the Master’s final project of Kelly Bryant, Helen Kim, Shufei Lei and Lilia Manguy, second year Master’s students at the School of Information (formerly SIMS), UC Berkeley.:

iBuyRight is a mobile phone application that displays social and environmental information about a product, enabling consumers to make purchases consciously aligned with their personal values.

After a product bar code is scanned with a cell phone, iBuyRight retrieves relevant information from a social and environmental issues database, then displays it on the cell phone screen in an easy-to-read format. By turning the phone into an access point for product information at the point of purchase, the application aims to fulfill a consumer’s need to know where a product comes from, how it is made, and the impact these practices have on the environment and communities. By facilitating informed purchases, iBuyRight gives consumers the power to put their money where their values are.

(Via O’Reilly Radar)
Marc Smith’s Aura project opened up the possibility of using mobile phones, bar codes, and intermediate information sources like search engines to find and filter information about objects in the physical world. iBuyRight, a prototype for turning a mobile phone into a kind of social responsibility scanner, is the Master’s final project of [...]