Checking Out Your Cab Driver By Cameraphone

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the just-in-case-he's-crazy dept

In a world of crazy cab drivers, it appears that some people are a bit afraid to ride cabs these days. Apparently, folks in South Korea have decided this is a big problem and therefore are planning to stick special cameraphone-enabled barcodes inside and outside of cabs, so that riders can snap a quick photo, and “text-message it to their friends or family.” The technology, of course, isn’t new. Barcodes that can be recognized by cameraphones have been used in a variety of places to help merge the digital and analog worlds by allowing you to “click” on something tangible. Because of that, it always seemed likely that completely unexpected applications would show up — however, it’s not clear how this makes much sense. Are people really going to snap a photo and send it to friends and family when they get in a cab? And, wouldn’t it be even more useful if snapping a photo of the barcode gave you some info about the driver to make you feel safer? Of course, even that wouldn’t be too helpful, because bad or dangerous drivers would simply alter the barcode or take someone else’s. So, really, it seems like this has limited usefulness based on the current plan, unless the article has left out some important details.