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Graphic Hyperlinks for Camera Phones
Making offline material interactive. Semacodes are like barcodes that can convert URLs into a visual form. You 'scan' them with your mobile phone camera and get digital data in return. With most mobile phones actually typing out a URL is a hassle and anything that saves people some time and trouble is good. It is so easy to use, even your grandma can do it. I'm just amazed how we don't see them everywhere already!Easier than the clickable world. Create a semacode now by using this Java applet called Web Tagger and download the software for your phone (assuming it has a built-in camera). When you shoot a semacode with it, the software acts like a barcode reader translating the code into URL and then loads it into your phone's web browser. Moreover, semacodes are not alone. There are other similar 'tags' derived from the same concept. Here is a list of the various kinds of tags in a technical entry made by Network Research.
Get the phone. Take a picture. Go online. Imagine how useful these things could be on business cards that link to constantly updated contact information. Another example could be, say you saw an advertisement and you are in interested to know more about a product and find out where to buy it etc. Thinking of a less commercial activity, you can print some of these for your friends and quickly swap blog URLs with each other. How about printing them on stickers? These are just a few that comes to my mind instantly.
What other applications can you think of?
[Via: Jemmille]
10 thoughts:
Excellent post. Digg it! http://digg.com/tech_news/Graphic_Hyperlinks_for_Camera_Phones
Just Qode it.
The universal reader of 2D symbology.
When I lived in Japan, it was quite common to see these codes on advertisements of all kinds. I don't know how many stateside phones really support it, though…
CueCat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat)
Defunct.
(And, I can now? access your blog.... issues were apparently network related my direction.)
We have one of those CueCat's at work. Not bad for being free :P
As for the 2D barcode they are fun and can store a lot more than tradition barcodes.
Have no idea why you posted a picture of a non-existent "phone" which WILL fail anyway.
To make it up for the Apple fans :P
where do you find these cool things?
Wow!
I just happen to find these two articles on Digg next to each. Look at this other one that uses the very example mentioned in this blog. http://www.buildhardlink.com/
After doing a search for informtion on the state of US tagging (barcoding) I have found that there are about 5 companies world wide jocking to be accepted as the dominate tag reading software (including MS) and a couple more that are multi-translational. At this point it is still a crap shoot - you shoot a picture and hope you have the right software loaded on your phone. I just loaded and tried Kaywa reader and it works better than some of the others that are not quite ready for prime time.
In contrast the above site does not require you to load software or stick a tag on you target - you just use its current number. Is the answer really this simple - or am I missing something? I tried the above site, it seems to work. I made a link and pointed my phone at it and saw my picture and data come up.
So, now my question is will the final solution for linking involve tags? Why do tags need to be used?
Are there any other pending companies or options out there?
Thanks for the good topic.
CT
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(Submitted by Nintendo DS running [url=http://will-the-r4-r4i-work.wetpaint.com/]R4[/url] rrPost)
What do you think? Post your thoughts..