Bokodes, if you don’t already know, are 3mm-diameter, powered tags that currently consist of an LED, covered with a tiny mask and a lens. They can hold thousands of times more information than their striped ‘bar code cousins’ and can be read by a standard mobile phone camera.

In the longer term they could be used to “encode nutrition information on food packaging or create new devices for playing video games”. They certainly sound like a fascinating technology and if they work as planned & promised, I believe that they will be a great ’step forward’. However, I have 2 areas of concern: (a) I find it difficult to believe that they will be read accurately from 4 metres away (let alone 20 metres as hoped) and that (b) the price will come down from the present £3 cost-point to 5 cents! If both of those targets are hit -  fantastic. If not, failure on either count could ‘blow this innovation out of the water’ before it gets launched. So there is a long way to go yet but watch this space for further information, as it becomes available………Chris Penfold