'Excuse me, Are You Snapping Pictures of Bar Codes with That Cell Phone?'

If it were April 1st I wouldn't touch this story because it's just so out there -- in a good way -- that it could be a joke. But apparently it's true. It's from Toshiba... you know, the company that as this newspiece states rather sarcastically is a Japanese electronics company that makes DVD players, laptops and nuclear power plants...

Basically, they've developed a system that allows cell phone users to snap pictures of product bar codes, upload them to Toshiba servers, and within seconds Toshiba will check what is being said worldwide on blogs about the product. The consumer gets a call back with the product's rating.

Just use the phone’s digital camera to snap a photo of the bar code of a product you’re thinking about buying. The technology can tell if the blog chatter is positive or negative and tallies the count to show if a product is getting rave reviews or being trashed by consumers. That’s useful if you’re in a store about to buy an item. Some of the more frequently visited blogs will also show up on the screen.

Amazing!