« Origami from space | Main | Tanks buried in Austin » Fashionable CodeThe QR Code is a the next-generation bar code, already popping up here and there - I just created one for the Weblogsky url and posted it on my left nav. Says Rob Walker in his NY Times Consumed column, The traditional bar code is most familiar as the Universal Product Code on practically every packaged good we buy. The series of stripes corresponds to a numeric code containing data like an item’s weight and manufacturer. The new generation of code [QR Code; QR="quick response"] can handle more information because it is arranged in a dot-matrix style that communicates with a scanner both horizontally and vertically — as opposed to the one-dimensional, linear manner of regular bar codes. Because anyone can generate a QR code for pretty much any data that fits, and because many mobile phones can have readers that interpret the codes, they're sure to pop up anywhere and everywhere, not just as product inventory codes. Walker writes about the “QR-Code enhanced pixel scarf”: Snap the code with a properly equipped camera phone and you get a message. (In the case of the scarf, the messages are “Game Over” and “Insert Coin for Extra Life” — a little nostalgia for the old-school gamer.) (Thanks to Pliny Fisk for pointing out this article.) Here's a video that explains the QR Code: jon posted this at 8:28 AM |
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Here's another person putting QR codes in clothing: http://www.emmacott.com/
Her use case is that you wear the URL of your social networking presence ("Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, etc.") as a QR code.
Seems like geeky fun but probably not really useful unless the software to interpret the codes starts to come standard with smartphones.
Posted by: Prentiss Riddle | March 31, 2008 9:41 AM
I think there's a good chance of that- and it appears easy to get the software. My phone's on the list, so I'm hoping to download the software pretty soon. I tried sending an SMS message per their instructions to have the link sent to my phone, but got no response.
Will we see shoppers scanning products with their phones within a year or two?
Posted by: Jon Lebkowsky | March 31, 2008 9:55 AM
Turns out sending the SMS message only works in Switzerland. Says so very clearly, so I wasn't paying attention. Using the url I downloaded the app. It seems to access the camera okay, but when I snap the bar code, it tells me my camera isn't accessible. I'll have to play with it some more... maybe I have to reboot the phone.
Posted by: Jon Lebkowsky | April 1, 2008 7:06 AM
It's in the air: http://www.orangecone.com/archives/2008/03/information_sha_1.html and http://getwickd.com/catalog/
Posted by: Prentiss Riddle | April 4, 2008 12:53 PM