New design wanted for Barcode scanners

Technology

Barcode.com - publishes The Bar Code News - the industry's leading daily bar code publication. We want to encourage and inspire innovation in the bar code world. The current style of bar code readers found at leading retailers everywhere hasn't changed much in the last few decades.  Can you help the industry by coming up with a design for a bar code reader that might be fun, hip, more functional, easier to use, smaller, etc?

Needed: a better bar code reading device. Bar code readers are boring, mundane, and they all tend to look and work alike. We are looking to bring some innovative ideas to the bar code industry. For example - could a toy store have a bar code reader that looked like a Star Wars light saber? And, instead of a boring beep, it made an interesting sound. Could a record/CD store have a bar code reader that was themed for a major rock star? Or played a riff (downloadable perhaps), instead of that boring beep? Could a jewelry store have a bar code reader that looked like a piece jewelry? How about device covers - the same way we personalize our cell phones, could we personalize our bar code readers? We want to push the envelope!

This article expands on why we need innovation in the industry. http://barcode.com/fifty-shades-of-gray-in-the-bar-code-industry.html

Every design category has flexible pricing for all budgets. Other design starts at €289.