A new generation of grocery bar codes, known as GS1 DataBar codes, is being implemented across grocery stores in an effort to both speed up the checkout process, as well as prevent cashiers from ringing up pricier organic produce as their cheaper, non-organic counterparts.
[via Consumerist, image courtesy of RetailWeek]

A team of scientists at Edith Cowan University have developed an amazing new kind of color bar code that can hold large amounts of data. It’s called  the Mobile Multi-Colour Composite 2D-Barcode, and they are apparently able to hold images, video or any other kind of data which can be literally “downloaded” by camera phones.
Uses with appropriate software could take a picture of the MMCC code with their phone, and the embedded digital content would be transferred to the device. And since the codes don’t connect to the internet, they will work even where there is no kind of cell [...]