A company called mobeam wants to overcome the technical barrier that prevents mobile phones from interacting with the laser scanners used at retail locations around the world. For that endeavor, they’ve closed a $4.9 million Series A venture round from yet2Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Mitsui, together with other independent investors.
The company will use the new money to establish its light based communications (LBC) technology as a new industry standard, and to accelerate business development efforts with major consumer and retail brands for mobile couponing and “other broad mobile commerce initiatives.”
The problem is that today’s mobile phone screens cannot be read by the commonly used laser scanners found at point of sale in most retailers. mobeam’s tech mambo-jumbo utilizes LED technology already used on the vast majority of handsets to transform barcodes into a beam of light that every laser scanner can read. As a result, users will be able to present coupons on their phones so they can be conveniently scanned and redeemed, without the need for retailers to upgrade their technology.
Sounds cool and considering Samsung’s venture arm is on board we may see this being implemented in the near future. We’ll see…