Active Barcodes - Smart Product Identifier

Moving goods from a producer to the consumer efficiently and effectively is the goal of supply chain management. ‘Smart packaging’ incorporates the abilities to sense, and/or inform, and/or respond to changes in product status along the supply chain to ensure a product is received intact, in time, and with a known history and identity. The Active Barcode (ABC) technology utilised emerging ink technologies (e.g. thermochromic, electrochromic, and photochromic inks) as part of a digitally coded graphic to enable a low cost labelling system to report status as products moved through a supply chain. The active barcode identifier was trialled in a field study where it was included in a wine label designed to meet the requirements of EAN, Food Standards Code and packaging legislation, a commercial printer, a small wine retailer, and the technical aspects of ‘active barcode technology’ so as to distinguish between ‘ambient’ and ‘chilled’ wines. The identifier was found to reliably track product status at point of sale.
Dr Helmer was project leader and responsible for technology development including early prototyping through to extended field trials, intellectual property management, and technology value and research communication. The technology was licensed to an Australian SME. The research was conducted under the auspices of the CRC Smartprint whose mission was to develop new products and manufacturing processes to make substrates and their coating materials “smart”. Research partners included Monash University, CSIRO, Australian National University and the University of Wollongong with industry participation including Amcor, Note Printing Australia, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA), Australian Paper and Norske Skog.