2D barcodes

June 4, 2006

Filed under: Uncategorized Future Japan

(image courtesy of B-Log Cabin TPJ) For some reason, matrix codes/2D barcodes have been infringing the borders of my attention these weeks. A few different friends of both the techie and non-techie varieties have brought up the topic in conversation. The most familiar 2D barcode, at least to folks who are familiar with tech in Japan, is the QR code. These can contain quite a bit of information - up to about 3KB of data. One could imagine a sort of super-durable storage in the form of a huge array of QR codes laser-etched into some tough surface. Today they are used in industry to track inventory just like a bar code or RFID chip. The consumer uses are more interesting - QRs with URLs stuck on posters can take camphone users directly to related websites with no more effort than a snapshot.

Mytago - "my tags to go" - is a US company trying to do the same sort of thing. They unfortunately wedge dread Time between scanning and acting upon their 2D tags. After the phone snap, you "later get the details of the tag on your PC." I don't think this is a very compelling service because of the time delay, among other things, but I'm excited about 2D barcodes for a few reasons.

• They are easy to produce - any consumer printer in existence can crap out a simple matrix of black squares - speaking of matrix, even dot matrix printers from 1987 could be used to print out 2d barcodes. This means that any non-legacy human can be a producer
• cameraphones are finally cheap and very common in the United States.
• "online in offline spaces" services like Dodgeball are gaining popularity
• I speculate that a critical mass of the public (and especially the money-spenders that some call the 'myspace generation') are ready to comprehend a data layer in any/all mundane objects (I use the word "mundane" in the sense "not magical" - look for an upcoming Neoglam post pimping animistic relationships with technology)

I think that a 2D barcode on an open standard (the QR code is an effectively open standard, as the IP holder doesn't enforce as a matter of policy), combined with just a little more leeway from carriers on 3rd party soft - or a web service that would let you MMS shots of codes and send you back the contents for a penny - could really open up the hotlinking of spaces. The infosphere is as pervasive as oxygen, but most of the information that lives online lives in parallel to the physical world rather than being linked. Obviously RFID/ARPHID tech is an exciting possiblity in this space, but at least as of 2006, you can't print one on a dot-matrix printer.

OK, someone, there's the idea - implement it and promote it huge plz, call me when done for your next assignment.

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