The Utilization of Camera Phone Technology in Publication and Packaging Applications

It has been predicted that about one billion mobile phones will be sold in the world in 2009 – and that 90% of these phones will be equipped with a digital camera. So the emerging camera phone technology will be in everyday use for most people in the near future and this development will offer great prospects for the services based on this technology. Two of the most potential application areas of this multi-billion dollar industry of the future are publication and packaging products, because these items are extensively used in everybody’s everyday life.

There has been an increasing amount of projects both in publication and packaging at VTT, in which mobile phones with digital cameras have played a crucial role. In the publication area we have conducted several projects, in which we have for example developed and tested "printtointernet" demonstrations enabling links from printed media to updated information.

The largest packaging area project is called SustainPack, which is "Innovation and Sustainable Development in the Fibre Based Packaging Value Chain". It has been said that SustainPack is the biggest and the most important packaging research project ever undertaken, with a budget of EU36 m. The purpose of SustainPack is to establish fiber based packaging as the dominant player in the packaging area within a decade.

In this paper we describe the technologies and the operational environment, in which the new camera phone based applications are developed. We have for example built demonstrators where 2D bar codes can be utilized in information transfer, entertainment, anticounterfeiting and logistics for printed products. We have also developed special inkjet printed quality indicators, which can be used for example in checking the freshness of food supplies.