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Gaurav Raghuvanshi

Forget your wallet but not your `mobile wallet' when you step out. Here's a company using 3-D bar code technology to help you do lots more with your mobile phone.

OUTINGS with your mate or family may soon become a no-wallet affair. Movie tickets? Flash your cell-phone. Settle the restaurant bill? Flash your hand phone. Fill petrol in the car? Flash the mobile.

And what happens if your loved ones are in another city? Well, you can flash your mobile phone to even get aboard the airplane!

With mobile phone subscribers topping 60 million, ConvergeLabs, a start-up based in Gurgaon, believes that India can become the hottest m-commerce market in the world.

For the user, the concept is rather simple. The tickets can be bought on the Internet and are sent to the customer's cell-phone as a unique three-dimensional SMS. The SMS can be read by a special bar-code scanner to verify its authenticity.

The SMS can be sent to any mobile phone and can be forwarded, copied, sent as a JPEG image or even printed on paper. Using 3-D technology results in tremendous saving of mobile phone space, real estate, as it is known in technical lingo. A lot of information about the customer can be packed in the image, thanks to mapping of pixels on both the X and Y axis, says ConvergeLabs promoter Amol Patel, an alumnus of Stanford and Kellogg.

ConvergeLabs is using the 3-D bar code technology developed by Denso Wave, a Toyota Motors company. The Japanese company had developed the technology for its internal use to mark components and ConvergeLabs has taken a licence to develop m-commerce applications around the system.

And, the concept is already a reality. After two pilot projects of selling cricket match tickets in Bangalore, ConvergeLabs recently rolled out m-tickets for `Deep Multiplex', a popular hangout for youngsters in Vadodara in Gujarat.

The customer has to initially register at the ConvergeLabs Web site and obtain a unique M-Pin. With the help of the M-Pin, the user can find out ticket availability and even book tickets by sending a simple SMS to a designated number.

The ticket is then delivered to the customer's mobile phone as an SMS that contains the 3-D bar code along with details about the show in plain text. The customer does not have to pay anything extra for the m-ticket and is actually being offered an inaugural 10 per cent discount at present.

Patel believes that the technology can find application in merchandising or in even supply chain management. As an illustration, he says, if your favourite bakery knows in advance that you are coming to pick up 10 apple pies, it can manage its inventory better and ensure that you are not disappointed.

"What the computer is to the US, the mobile phone is to India. Indians may not be riding on top of the e-commerce boom because of lower penetration of personal computers and issues about credit card security, but m-commerce is bound to witness phenomenal growth," he says.

ConvergeLabs has already filed a patent application for its `M-Bay' solution that enables mobile applications and end-to-end mobile commerce transactions.

With major commercial rollout plans in place, the company recently received a Rs 4-crore investment from Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd (GVFL). "The exponential growth of wireless and mobile networks in terms of capabilities of mobile devices, middle-ware development, standards and network implementation, and user acceptance have resulted in significant attention to the possibilities of commercial transactions through mobiles," says the GVFL CEO, Vishnu Varshney.

Varshney shares ConvergeLab's enthusiasm that the Indian mobile phone market has matured to a level where such applications will become commonplace.

And, before we close, we may tell you that ConvergeLabs is set to sign up with a leading chain of florists. Useful information if you have to make up for that fight you had in the morning.

eworld@thehindu.co.in

More Stories on : Convergence | Telecommunications

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