Rumors and an elaborate mock-up have started making the Internet rounds about an alleged new feature for the iPhone: make Starbucks orders using your iPhone without having to stand in line.

See the full series of mock-up images.

This was reported by Forbes a few weeks ago. Let’s say you walk into a Starbucks or other place with a long line of people waiting to order something. Instead of waiting in line, just get out your iPhone, place the order wirelessly, and then wait for your iPhone to report to you that your order is ready and waiting–and then pick it up. You have just jumped to the head of the line, cutting in front of all those other people waiting like suckers!

It’s not as impolite as it sounds, though–people who order electronically bypass the line altogether. People in line are not waiting for their product, they are waiting for the services of a human at the register to take their order. People who order by iPhone still have to wait for their order to be processed, like everyone else. It’s just like getting a movie ticket on Fandango–when you get to the theater, you can bypass the line of people who want to buy a ticket at the counter, and instead you go to the line of people waiting to show their ticket to get in.

What the new iPhone feature does is make it so you can order “online” from within the store itself, a big change over ordering from your home PC. This could make a big difference in how people shop. Instead of having to prepare everything in advance from home, you could make an order on the fly from just about anywhere.

An interesting element of the mock-up:

It’s the use of SemaCode, a 2-dimensional barcode, to place the order. In Japan, a similar 2-D barcode called “QR Code” is often seen; however, as far as I can tell, it’s not used in the same way as suggested above. In Japan, the code is often seen on ads in magazines and posters on walls in any public venue. You use your phone’s digital camera to scan the code, and your phone decodes the data. It might be a telephone number you can call, or a hyperlink to a web page your cell phone can then visit. Often these codes can be seen on food wrappers; scanning them can tell you the history of the item, like where and when a certain fish was caught, or where and when the potatoes for a bag of chips were grown and harvested.

The idea that this technology is being integrated into the iPhone certainly makes sense regarding the rumor that the iPhone will soon be announced for Japan.