As promised, here is an exhaustive list of companies currently developing and supplying sensor-activated packaging to the industry. This list will include developers, manufacturers as well as examples of retail brands that make use of their patented technology.
1. Novalia:
Novalia is known for creating immersive and interactive products and technology for brands, conferences, publishers, and the likes. Packaging is only one of the areas in which they work to create products that provide an experience beyond utility. They provide complete services from prototyping to manufacturing and have worked with international companies like IKEA, Pizza Hut, and Audi.
Their Bluetooth-enable pizza box for Pizza Hut was activated with conductive ink to enable a first-of-its-kind product that integrated fully functional turntables into a regular, folding pizza box.
2. BLIPPAR :
Blippar is a free smartphone app that converts real-world images, products, and adverts into instantaneous virtual experiences. The company specializes in Augmented Reality and has been a platform for various campaigns. Cadbury has worked with Blippar in the past to create an augmented reality game that anyone with a smart phone can play using its product. To activate the game, blippar should be installed on a handset. Next, the user can simply point the device at a Cadbury product – be that a Dairy Milk, Twirl, or many others – and the introductory instruction screen of ‘Qwak Smack’ will ‘blipp’ from the wrapper onto the screen as if stuck to the bar.
3. Thinfilm (Ensurge):
Ensurge provides ultrathin, flexible, and safe energy storage solutions for wearable devices, connected sensors, and beyond. Diageo Technology Ventures uses Thinfilm's proprietary OpenSense™ technology and makes use of smartphones' Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities to track the movement of Johnnie Walker blue label bottles across the supply chain, in-store, and to the point of consumption, with the sensor tags remaining readable even when the factory seal has been broken, providing an additional layer of security in protecting the authenticity of the product. The sensors attached to the bottle are extremely thin and allow information to be shared on scanning and even updated when required.