Everyone who’s been in a long checkout line has experienced the frustration of watching a cashier fumble with a product trying to either a) find the barcode and/or b) scan it correctly. But in January, a company called Digimarc introduced a new technology that incorporates an invisible digital watermark, not unlike the kind used for currency.

“The clerk no longer has to hunt for the barcode because it’s all over the package,”Says Ed Knudson, executive vice president of sales and marketing for the company. “You and I can’t see it but other devices, including a smartphone, can see it. “The code can be embedded onto the product label via Photoshop, though Knudson says it will be in the trail stage next year. Not that we can wait: Digimarc says the new technology speeds up checkout times by as much as 33 percent.

Lou Carlozo, Deal News. 8 retail innovations you’ll see soon. Retrieved from MSN Money.