UW Students Develop Phone App
A new smart phone application developed by three UW-Madison students can help shoppers find local products at a grocery store and learn more about them.
The True Local iPhone app was launched Wednesday at Fresh Madison Market, the only store that has been licensed to use it. The app can scan a barcode, list local products by categories and provide coupons that can be scanned off the phone at checkout.
“That’s the goal of this app, to increase the amount of sales of products that are local,” said Claus Moberg, one of the founders of the company that designed the application.
Last year, Moberg, Jami Morton and Matt Luedke proposed a similar app in the campus Climate Leadership Challenge, a competition for solutions to issues presented by climate change. Their entry proposed using the technology to chart a product’s carbon footprint. That is still in development.
The students, who created a company called SnowShoeFood, won the competition and $15,000 to develop the product. The app for Fresh Madison Market is the first step. It can only be used on Apple products, but an Android version is in the works.
Store owner Jeff Maurer said the technology was a good fit for his store at University Square, with customers who wanted local foods and students who are already using their smart phones there.
“They’re checking nutrition, they’re reading recipes right on their phones and buying the ingredients,” Maurer said.
By: Jane Burns
