It's been a long, long time since we've heard from Germany's "Future Store" -- the ultra-futuristic German grocery store that might have sprung directly from the Sprawl trilogy -- but they've got a new feature we thought you might be interested in. Shoppers in the store can now use camera-equipped cellphones (i.e., cellphones) to snap pictures of item barcodes, and then download the information at the checkout when they're finished shopping. The system totals all of your purchases into one big, nasty barcode which you then scan and pony up cash (or cards, or fingerprints, or magical rainbow juice) for. It's unclear how to store handles shoppers who don't scan everything they've got in their cart, but if it's anything like our favorite books, it's not pretty.

[Via PHONE Magazine]

We've seen prophets get their agendas past the marketing department a time or two before, but NTT DoCoMo's latest peek into the "future" seemingly forgets to look at what's actually available right now. The lengthy spot showcases how mobile phones will "one day" be even more tightly integrated into our everyday lives, and while the ideas of using mobile-based keychains and passwords, geo-locators, and video telephony are certainly novel, deeming them events of the future seems a bit ignorant. Additionally, it demonstrates the phone's ability to assist with grocery shopping, take care of hailing a cab, act as a tutor, and prevent children from straying too far away -- all of which have either already been implemented or are quite a ways along the development pipeline. Of course, the pen-sized handset with retractable holographic display certainly hasn't hit mainstream channels just yet, but otherwise it seems we're all way ahead of our time. The pseudo-futuristic video awaits you in the read link.

[Via PSFK]

Much like the Photo2Search project being developed by Microsoft Research Asia, a new cameraphone-based image recognition service called Search By Camera! is promising to help consumers acquire info on products by simply snapping a picture while shopping. Developed by Bandai Networks and D2 Communications, using technology from Evolution Robotics (which is also at the core of a similar service launched earlier this year, called Mobot Mobile Visual Search, as well as having been recently licensed by Robosapien manufacturer WowWee Robotics), Search By Camera! will currently only work for the handful of folks who happen to have imported a DoCoMo FOMA N902iS phone into the US. Further degrading its utility is the fact that Bandai and D2C must get permission for each and every product they want to include in their database, which has so far only come from a scant ten companies. Still, even if this particular initiative doesn't take off, it's pretty clear that image recognition will play a leading role in the future of mobile search, with many handsets already possessing the proper tools that make such a service feasible.