How often do you look at a recipe in a cookbook and it makes enough for 4 people? When you only need to feed 2? Or 10? If I scale it, what do I need to do with the baking temperature and time? How do I do 2.5 eggs? You know, stuff which isn't blatantly obvious.

The barcode has quantities and scaling information which might confuse the average person. You can it with an app on your smartphone/tablet and tell it how many people you want to feed. It tells you how to scale it up/down, including baking time, temperature, etc.

You're on a gluten-free diet? Low carb? Need to do some substitutions? Again, that can get complicated. Better to let an app do that. That app will need data, preferably WITHOUT needing to hit some external website. You can put quite a bit of data into modern, 3D barcode, especially if the data is compressed.
-- Meower68, Dec 23 2013

You must be really, really hungry after waiting over 18 months to post your first idea?
-- xenzag, Dec 23 2013


Welcome, [Meower68].

That would be handy - I do such things in my head when cooking or making beer, and the results aren't always predictable - it would be nice to have a tool that factored in some scalable variables.
-- normzone, Dec 23 2013


Hmmm, when I read the title, I thought that scanning the barcode would load an ingredient list for shopping. No reason this can't be added in with your original idea - scan the code, enter how many people you intend to feed and voila, a personalized shopping list. [+]
-- AusCan531, Dec 23 2013


// 3D barcode //

Clarification is requested.

This could refer to:

A QR or "2D" barcode;

A QR or "2D" barcode, but (correctly) implying that since the barcode exists in three dimensions (length, width, time) it is, inter alia, truly a "3D" barcode ;

A QR barcode employing embossing, very thick ink, or both;

A "pop-up" book where a "cube" is revealed with a QR code on all visible faces, the sixth face being coplanar with the supporting page and therefore inaccesible, which indeed would be capable of conveying a substantial amount of data.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 23 2013



random, halfbakery