A Calgary mother and son have teamed up to create a new application that they hope to help Canadians buy products made in Canada.
Ryan Checora and Cathy Checora self -taught applications have published their application fueled by AI called O Scanada on the App Store on February 3 To help buyers identify the products that are or are not, made in Canada.
“Really, it suddenly came to me when I woke up one morning thinking about the news, and you know, the desire of people to buy the Canadian,” said Cathy.
With the free application, buyers can search for products two ways: either by typing the name in the search bar, or by scanning a barcode. The application then indicates to buyers who manufacture the product, where it is manufactured and where it is sold.
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“The AI will essentially obtain this information from the digitized barcode and will give you a result which essentially tells you that this Canadian product is made in Canada,” said Ryan.
If the product is not made in Canada, but the buyer only wants to buy the Canadian, the application will provide a list of alternatives.
For example, if the user was to look for Pringles Croustilles, which are produced by the American company Kelloggs, this will suggest Canadian brands such as Old Dutch or Humpty Dumpty. The application says: “These brands offer a range of snack options that support the Canadian economy.”
“If they choose something on the shelf at the store, they can discover on site if it is a Canadian product,” said Cathy.
The duo said they hoped to add more articles to future updates and plan to put pressure for more brands and local retailers.
“As people use the application, they could find products that are not suggested to them,” said Ryan. “We want to give them a platform where they can give us these products and we can integrate this into the application and have this also referred to people. We hope that it will be somehow a collaborative thing where people will use the application and it will improve as we add more options for people, “said Ryan.
O Scanada is currently only available on the Apple App Store, but an Android version is on the way.
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