Barcode Kanojo: New iPhone app scans you a girlfriend

This new iPhone app, Barcode Kanojo, from Roppongi-based Cybird is essentially a virtual girlfriend simulator. But we’re not about to get all down and harsh on the hackneyed old Weird Japan thing.

Instead, we’ll just explain that the game encourages players -- several thousand so far -- to use their iPhone cameras to scan any real-world barcode on a can of coffee, a manga or whatever.

The app takes the few bytes of data a barcode contains and uses it to create a virtual girlfriend -- the kanojo of the title.

Naturally, we’re talking about pouting anime-style creations here -- this is Japan, after all -- and they’re really just pulled from an existing parts library.

Still, the app builders clearly know a good thing when they see it -- aside from the community interaction of allowing players to compare their creations (oh, and steal them from each other,) there’s a location element too.

Scan a barcode in Asia, you get an Asian girlfriend; do it in Europe, we’re told, and you end up with a far different result from the supposed seven trillion permutations.

See? We managed to get through that without even once referencing some of the bizarre in-game concepts, such as point number 2 under "Things you can do," listed on the app’s website. 

Barcode Kanojo is available in English and for free in the App Store now.