Thursday, March 12, 2009

NotSavvy Shopsavvy: Epic Fail

Anyone watching the TV recently may have seen some adverts that show people in Liverpool Street Station carrying a Google G1 Android phone and using an application for it called "Shopsavvy" which has been developed by "Big in Japan". The blurb for the app says,
ShopSavvy is a shopping assistant developed for Google’s Android mobile phone platform and was T-Mobile’s featured application for their US launch of the G1 in October of 2008. Users can scan the bar code of any product using their phone’s built-in camera.

ShopSavvy will then search for the best prices online and through the inventories of nearby, local stores using the phone’s built-in GPS. ShopSavvy won Google’s Android Developer Challenge and is available in Google’s Market.
Sounds great doesn't it? Fun at least. So I just scanned this:

And this is what Shopsavvy told me it was.
Two words. EPIC FAIL!
I'm thinking there is great potential for a meme here of other amusing Shopsavvy system failures.
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6 comments:

  1. Letters From A Tory12 Mar 2009, 10:09:00

    To be fair, Crimpy Critters would probably be less damaging to your health.

    ReplyDelete
  2. dizzy12 Mar 2009, 10:09:00

    Depends what you crimp

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous12 Mar 2009, 13:36:00

    It's probably designed to do that if you scan an "unsuitable" product.

    Try a bottle of Absinthe next.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous12 Mar 2009, 14:13:00

    Epic Fail? Really? Hundreds of thousands of people use the application to save money everyday. We do have a growing problem caused by UPC spammers - i.e. people who pollute public UPC systems with incorrect UPC and EAN numbers.

    For big ticket items like consumer electronics we have a very high (99%) accuracy rate, but with items like water, Coke and cigarettes there is a LOT of UPC Spam. Some of it isn't even spam, today retailers like Amazon sometimes return three different items for the same UPC. We are working on a new SPAM model that will compare UPC/EAN numbers and titles from several retailers and select the most common response.

    Try some more items like Books, DVDs and consumer electronics and give us a chance...

    Alexander Muse
    http://www.biggu.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. dizzy12 Mar 2009, 14:22:00

    Errrr assuming this comment is real can you not see the hilarity that a packet of cigarettes would produce the result of a childrens toy? Chill out.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous14 Mar 2009, 23:21:00

    Maybe that's what they think the inside of a smoker looks like?

    ReplyDelete