A Port Moody student is hoping he can boost a surge in Canadian patriotism at the grocery store with a new app he’s developed.
Peter Iskakov, who’s in Grade 12 at Port Moody Secondary School, recently launched his free Canalens app for iOS and Android phones in Apple’s App Store and it will soon be available in the Google Play store as well.
The app allows shoppers to take a photo of an item in the store, or even their own kitchen, and learn if it originates in Canada or is made by a Canadian company.
Since U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to levy a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian imports and uttered a desire to annex Canada as a 51st state, consumers have responded with renewed vigour to shop Canadian. Some retailers have responded by tagging their shelves with little labels highlighting Canadian products.
Iskakov said while some apps already available require users to scan labels or bar codes on packages to learn its origins, he wanted to make the process even easier.
So he applied some of the knowledge and experience he’s gained programming little video games for his own amusement since he was eight years old to design the app and set up a server that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to collect product information from all over the internet.
