Introduction to Two-Dimensional Camera Phone Barcodes
Mobile Phone Barcodes, like those shown below, link information that lives in the physical world with information that lives in the digital world. Barcode reader enabled cameras on cell phones can capture these two-dimensional barcodes in the same manner that they take pictures. There is no “barcode scanner” required. These barcodes contain encoded information (text, web site URL’s, SMS messages, business card information, phone numbers, email messages, etc). Decoding software on the phone captures the data and then presents, stores, manipulates, or takes action based on the data (i.e. opening the mobile browser going to a web site).
There are several competing 2-dimensional camera phone barcode standards on the market today. This is a visual comparison of the different standards with links to posts that provide background on each standard. Are there any others out there that I have missed here? Let me know by leaving a comment, and I will update this page.
You need a camera phone that is enabled to read these codes. You can take a picture of the codes on the screen and the reader software installed on your phone will automatically open your mobile phone browser and take you to this web site. Alternatively, you can print these codes and scan them with your camera phone for the same result.
I only have a phone that is QR Code enabled (learn how I did it here). I have tested the QR Code and it works for me. For those of you with phones enabled for the other code standards, it would be great if you could try these out and let us know if they work.
QR Code
This is a Datamatrix code with an embedded URL which reads “http://www.barcodemobile.com“. This short article describes Datamatrix code. You can create your own DataMatrix codes at Kaywa.
NeoMedia Technologies is way ahead of the curve than anybody else in the Physical World Connection space (PWC) linking a physical object to the electronic world. Their new product called Qode reads Aztec Codes and will soon read QR codes as well. Aztec Codes contain more information than any of the codes you have listed in your article and it will be the premier code of choice. Look here for more information on this amazing company that dominates this space with 27 international patents with another 61 pending. You may find this company at http://www.qode.com/ and you can download Qode to your mobile camera cell phone at http://get.qode.com. Qode is now available on any internet capable cell phone even if they do not have a camera. Non-camera cell phones can use qode GoWindow for manual KeyWord or manual bar code entries. For camera function bar codes, qode is available on Symbian Series 60 cell phones and Java 1.0 and 2.0 cell phones. Refer here for current models http://www.qode.com/handsets.jsp?flash= All other Operating System languages such as MSFT-5.0, BREW, PALM and Blackberry will be available this quarter. Qode will become the worlds only Universal Reader and it will be code-agnostic, meaning it will read all bar codes. Qode is currently on over 130 handsets, in 14 diferent languages, in 35 diferent countries and they just launched Qode in the UK by placing 2-D bar codes on bottles of “ONE” water: http://www.watertechonline.com/news.asp?mode=4&N_ID=64717 and you can watch a current CBS news video made last week as follows: http://www.qode.com/videos/WINK_TV_high.wmv
All the Best, JP