I was never big on those “take a picture of a barcode and buy Britney tickets” schemes so popular with mobile solutions providers, but this sort of turns that whole concept on its head. Mobeam, created by Ecrio, provider of streaming mobile apps for NTT DoCoMo, flashes any light source on the handset to simulate a barcode for any laser scanner. That’s right. The clerk at Wal-Mart only needs to scan your phone to get 50 cents off your 7-Up.
No carriers or handsets announced but the concept seems sound and actually quite cool. Read more over at MobileCrunch or pop by to watch their 3-minute flash demo.