Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, has launched a new, free mobile application called Shop Social for the iPhone and Android that combines barcode scanning software, game mechanics and social media in a retail setting. The app was built using the ShopSavvy ScannerKit SDK.

From the news release:

Shop Social is an experimental mobile application built and developed by student and faculty researchers in the Mobile Applications and Service Lab in Grand Valley’s School of Computing and Information Systems.

Different from other barcode scanning apps, Shop Social focuses on the social aspects of retail shopping. “Shop Social allows users to share their finds on Facebook,” said Jonathan Engelsma, associate professor of computing. “As the user shares the information and uses the app more and more, they begin to receive badges, similar to Foursquare.”

When a product is scanned, relevant photos from Flickr, videos from YouTube and product reviews are sent back to the user within seconds. The app includes four sections: the “Social” tab allows users to share their product interests with friends on Facebook; the “Lookup” tab is where users retrieve product reviews, photos and videos; the “My Stuff” tab houses the user’s favorite products and badges; and the “Store” tab provides locations of local stores where the product can be found.

A team of three students, led by Engelsma, began work on the app last January. “While this project provides more opportunities for students to build apps, it also serves as a research opportunity to understand how users respond to mobile apps in a retail setting,” said Engelsma.

iPhone users can download Shop Social at iTunes