Coupons retailers can scan moves a step closer

Mobeam and ams have announced a partnership at MWC in Barcelona which they claim will greatly accelerate the ability of point of sale laser scanners to interact with barcodes on smartphones.

The partnership will provide an integrated solution consisting of ams’ industry-leading light sensors and Mobeam’s light-based beaming technology.

With this partnership, handset makers will be able to fully support mobile commerce applications that use barcodes such as: coupon redemption, loyalty cards, gift cards and tickets. For retailers, this will mean the end of manually sorting printed coupons, and waiting months for reimbursement.

The ams and Mobeam technology solves the problem that has limited the advancement of mobile couponing, namely that smartphones utilise emissive displays from which a common POS barcode reader cannot capture barcode data.

The partnership integrates Mobeam’s technology with ams’ digital light sensor optical module to provide smartphone vendors with a turn-key solution and differentiation without the need for additional components.

The ams TMD3990 module utilises the same type of proximity IR LED that is already used in smartphones today to disable the touch-screen display. This simplified approach will give handset makers the ability to capture all of the new opportunities taking root in mobile coupons and mobile commerce.

More than 500 million people around the world are expected to receive mobile coupons this year, a 30% increase from 2012. Efficient transfer of barcode data is essential to expand the mobile couponing market. Enabling consumers to use their smartphones to redeem digitised coupons will provide an eco-friendly solution, added convenience, and help to accelerate mobile commerce.