The Fair Tracing Project » Technology

Impact! Exhibition: media mentions

Apurba Kundu — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:25:01 +0000

The Impact! Exhibition (now closed) at the Royal College of Art included the Fair Tracing project design exhibit “Smells Like Fair Trade”, as well as other exhibits inspired by 15 other projects chosen from among thousands of EPSRC bids.

Media reports of the Impact! Exhibition — which, sadly, do not specifically refer to “Smells Like Fair Trade” — include:

George Barrow, “Impact! design exhibition explores medicine’s future” in wired.co.uk
Clay Dillow and Denise Ngo, “British “Impact” Exhibition Reimagines Future Technology” in popsci

and an audio interview by

Anthony Dunne,”Impact exhibition on scientific research: ‘They would start to manufacture chemicals to repair you” of The Guardian

Mobile phones are reading bar codes

Apurba Kundu — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:34:32 +0000

The 22 August 2009 edition of The Economist includes the article “Snap it, click it, use it” which describes how mobile phones are increasingly being used to read bar codes on products which then present detailed information to consumers. The article begins:

NEGOTIATING his way across a crowded concourse at a busy railway station, a traveller removes his phone from his pocket and, using its camera, photographs a bar code printed on a poster. He then looks at the phone to read details of the train timetable displayed there. In Japan, such conveniences are commonplace, and almost all handsets come with the bar code-reading software already loaded. In America and Europe, though, they are only just being introduced.

See the full article at http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14257721

New Fair Tracing publication

Apurba Kundu — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:05:47 +0000

The article “The Fair Tracing project: mapping a traceable value chain for Indian coffee”, by Ashima Chopra and Apurba Kundu has just been published in Contemporary South Asia, 17:2, June 2009, pp 213-223.

Abstract: This research note describes the second stage of the ‘Fair Tracing’, a research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom. The project aims to support ethical trade by implementing digital tracing technologies in value chains to provide consumers and producers with enhanced information about specific products; in this case, Chilean wine and Indian coffee. The genesis and first stage of the project—as it related to the India case study—was documented in an earlier research note published in Contemporary South Asia one year ago. This note goes on to describe the second stage of this case study which beings by mapping the life of the coffee bean in its current global commodity chain, and ends with proposing a traceable value chain for small growers of Indian coffee. It is argued that the use of tracking technologies will help increase the value chain ‘rents’ that accrue to farmers in developing countries by allowing them to charge more for differentiated products increasingly demanded by informed consumers, both in the West and in home markets.

This article is the second in a projected series of three following the India case study of the Fair Tracing project. The first in the series was “The Fair Tracing project: digital tracing technology and Indian coffee”, Contemporary South Asia, 16:2, June 2008, pp 217-230.

Fair Tracing’s demo at ICTD2009 in Doha, Qatar

Dorothea Kleine — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:34:20 +0000

Fair Tracing’s Research Fellow and Project Manager Dr Dorothea Kleine represented the project at ICTD2009, the international IEEE/ACM conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development held in Doha, Qatar from 17-19 April 2009, with over 300 delegates in attendance.

Our demonstration, “Understanding the Provenance of Ethically Produced Goods”, showed the early Fair Tracing computer screen version with the Google Earth map, and used the Upcode application to demonstrate the tool on a mobile screen. We were able to let people use the Nokia N70 or N95 to scan a barcode on a bottle (in Qatar alcohol is banned so we had to go for a water instead of a wine bottle) or a coffee package. The mobile could then go online and link directly to key information from our Fair Tracing data set. Information on offer included the pie chart of “Where does the money go?”, the producer’s website, and the YouTube videos which we have produced in partnership with the Chilean producers.

There was great interest the Fair Tracing demo stand which was up for two days. Over 70 people came to talk to us and try out the demo, including development practitioners from Ecuador, Pakistan, Australia and Egypt.

Using mobile phones to read barcodes

Ashima Chopra — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:54:44 +0000

Phones are close to cracking the barcode

Victor Keegan

The Guardian, Thursday 19 March 2009

I spent an agreeable half hour in my local Sainsbury’s last week. Not shopping but scanning. For some years, some smartphones have been able to read barcodes on products from cola cans to newspapers, but it always seemed like a technology looking for something to do. It is almost two years since I last tried it out on a Nokia N95. So when I discovered that an on-loan T-Mobile phone embracing Google’s Android operating system had a barcode reader, I thought I would give it another go. Some industry experts think barcodes have reached a tipping point and are about to take off in the west as they have done in Japan, where more than 70% of subscribers use them. I scanned lots of products simply by clicking on the phone’s barcode application, which produces a box with a line through it. After pointing the box at the barcode, it suddenly latches on to it without any need to click and connects to the internet to download data. This is mostly mundane. I clicked on one barcode and up came Old Jamaica ginger beer. Great, but I could find that out simply by looking at the can. It could have had more data, but the manufacturers have chosen not to exploit it.

Does this mean barcodes are dead? Not at all. The reason is they are now changing from being producer-led to consumer-led. The best example is ShopSavvy, which won Google’s Android Developer Challenge. Having scanned a conventional barcode, it not only searches for the best prices for the same product on the internet but is able to use the phone’s GPS function to discover nearby stores with a better price. That could prove popular with recession-conscious shoppers. If you search for ShopSavvy on search.twitter.com, you can get up-to-date information about current bargains even if you don’t have a barcode reader. I described it as a “conventional” barcode because they are often regarded as yesterday’s technology, having been overtaken by so-called 2D or QR (quick response) barcodes of a kind that have gone ballistic in Japan. As Mobile Entertainment reports this month, they are even on tombstones over there, enabling relatives to call up photos and other information about the deceased. Instead of having straight lines of various thicknesses, QR codes are small squares – with lots of data contained in even tinier black squares inside – which, when scanned, take your phone directly to a website or link.

For years I have thought that QR codes could help sustain newspapers and magazines, as you would be able to scan a code at the end of an article to link you directly with an update on it, a video clip or a relevant advert on the web. The Sun tried it over a year ago, and it attracted 11,000 people within a month. This was despite the hassle of downloading the software rather than having a one-click operation with the software already embedded in the phone – as happens with the Nokia and Android models. One of the reasons barcodes haven’t taken off in the UK is that, whereas in Japan the dominant operator in effect imposed a standard, here different companies are peddling their own in the forlorn hope of sweeping all competitors aside. How many times have we heard that before?

Barcode technology is not standing still. Scientists in Australia at Edith Cowan University claim to have developed “dense” barcodes with the capacity to store data for images, ringtones and even video within the barcode itself. So you could point your phone at a dense barcode on, say, the sports pages and “download” a video of a goal to your phone without even going near the internet. Phew. There is a (printed) magazine in Japan called Tada Gets that is composed overwhelmingly of QR codes in various shapes and colours that link to items on the web through your phone. It reverses the paradigm that gives newspaper owners so many sleepless nights. Instead of the web feeding off papers for nothing, punters pay for a magazine that battens off the web.

Fair Tracing presentation at BASAS Conference

Apurba Kundu — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:11:41 +0000

Ashima Chopra, a research student on the Fair Tracing project, will be presenting a paper on aspects of the project’s India case study at the forthcoming British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS) conference to be held in Edinburgh from 30 March-1 April 2009. She will also be hosting the panel in which the paper will appear. The full details are as follows:

Monday, 30 March 2009, 4.45 pm – 6.15 pm
“Technology and Development” panel
Convenor: Ashima Chopra (University of Bradford)

Vincent Bagiire (University of Bradford) Improving livelihoods in the south through technology: M.S.Swaminathan’s contribution
Bidit Lal Dey (Queen’s University, Belfast) An overview of the use and appropriation of mobile telephony in rural Bangladesh from the perspectives of farmers
Ashima Chopra, (University of Bradford) Is technological innovation necessary for socio-economic development? Designing a digital traceability solution for coffee growers in Southern India

For further information, see the BASAS website or the conference homepage, or contact Ashima directly at a.chopra@bradford.ac.uk

“10 Best Uses for RFID Tags”

Apurba Kundu — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:56:22 +0000

Wired magazine issue 17:03 includes an article on the “10 Best used for RFID Tags“. These include:

1. Saguaro cacti: On the landscaping black market, these succulents sell for more than $1,000. Arizona’s Saguaro National Park plans to use RFIDs to track hot cacti.

2. Indian elephant: The New Delhi forest department requires pet jumbos be chipped to prevent trafficking. No parades until implanted.

3. Surgical sponge: One out of every thousand or so intra-abdominal surgery patients “retains” a sponge. Oops! With SmartSponges, docs can find stowaways by passing a wand over the body.

4. Mexican: Security firm Xega uses GPS chips to track kidnapped people—a pretty big market in a nation where 6,500 were abducted last year.

5. Pirelli tire: A chip inside the new Cyber Tyre transmits info on road conditions and friction coefficients to the car’s computer.

6. Clubber: At Barcelona’s Baja Beach Club, VIPs are injected with RFIDs linked to debit accounts, making wallets passé. Handy when all you’re wearing is a thong.

7. Toky: The city aims to blanket itself with microchips—from bus stops to restaurants. Tourists may soon get maps, schedules, tips, and other info just by waving their cell phones.

8. Police badge: The Blackinton SmartShield badge hides an ID chip, preventing knockoffs. Good idea: Remember Terminator 2?

9. Inmates: Forced to release prisoners due to overcrowding, Britain wants to chip them. Cops would know if, say, a felon enters a school.

10. Cat door: Kitty flaps are great—until you find a possum hanging from your towel rack. The Pet Porte waves through only preapproved critters.

Call for papers: “Technology and Development” at BASAS

Apurba Kundu — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:53:42 +0000

Due to a late cancellation, there is now place for an additional two papers in the ‘Technology and Development’ panel at the forthcoming British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS) conference to be held in Edinburgh from 30 March – 1 April 2009. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE PAPERS MUST BE CONFIRMED BY FRIDAY, 6 MARCH 2009.

The panel on “Technology and Development’ may include a number of areas, such as development studies, computer science, HCI, networks, mobile systems, satellite and/or telecommunications, and multimedia. Topics might include:

new and emerging technologies (both hardware and/or software),
ICTs for development (including those used in education, governance, health or livelihood systems), or
web-based gadgets or applications that can be used by communities.

The paper/presentation should demonstrate the actual or potential application of technology/technologies for development scenarios within the South Asian context. Presentations must last no longer than 20 minutes. Both established academics and/or research students are encouraged to apply.

The panel will include the paper “Technological innovation and development: the case of Fair Tracing in India” by A Chopra (University Bradford).

Full details on the BASAS conference are available at http://www.csas.ed.ac.uk/BASAS2009.php?menu=3. Early registration is £95 (by 9 March 2009), and there are few bursaries available for postgraduate students – see website.

To discuss your papers/presentations, please contact Ashima Chopra (Fair Tracing project research student) me via email at a.chopra@bradford.ac.uk

New Fair Tracing publications

Apurba Kundu — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:18:49 +0000

Now available is the full text of two papers co-authored by Fair Tracing co-investigator Dr Ann Light; see

A. Dearden & Ann Light (2008) “On Social Function: New Language for Discussing Technology for Social Action“, Proc. DIAC (Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing) 2008 (California) June 2008.

A. Dearden & Ann Light (2008) “Designing for e-Social Action: An Application Taxonomy“, Proc. Design Research Society 2008 (Sheffield) July 2008.

Both the papers are also listed on the Fair Tracing “Publications” page.

Made-By “Track&Trace” technology

Apurba Kundu — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:41:54 +0000

The clothing company MADE-BY (based in Copenhagen) is “decicated to promoting sustainable clothing manufacture…You can recognise items produced…by the blue button…[Using its Track&Trace technology] you can even find out who made your T-shirt or skirt, and who picked, spun and wove the cotton”. (Source: “Track and Trace: Who made your skirt?”, Jackpot Magazine, Autumn 2008, p 77.)

“MADE-BY Track&Trace follows the trail of your clothes. With the MADE-BY code in your garment you can find out where your garment was made and by whom. In this way, MADE-BY brands open up the doors to the production process…MADE-BY Track&Trace is the very first system to trace the origin of clothes.” (Source: MADE-BY Track&Trace page at http://www.made-by.org/tracktrace.php?lg=en.)

Track & Trace is a database system…for manufacturers that was developed by MADE-BY in collaboration with Organic Exchange and the English IT company Historic Futures. Every link in the production chain enters production information into the database and forwards it to the next link. This gives the brands as direct access as possible to production data from the other suppliers in the chain. Consumers can enter the code found on the clothing label into a simplified consumer page to see who was involved in the production of their clothing”. (Source: ”Track&Trace: what is it?” at http://www.made-by.org/downloads/TrackTrace_EN.pdf)