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That's neither open source or a community, its a software development kit that is cost-free, with restrictions, for non-commercial use.

What is more interesting is ZXing (Zebra Crossing) a free open-source J2ME development kit from Google that is part of the Android platform.

Also see Semacode for a similar idea.

My cell phone shipped with a QR barcode reader application. Some magazines and newspapers have started printing them. There is an open source community at http://semacode.org/

This stuff is already being used. For the time being, it's more of a novelty, though: typing in a phone number or URL is still faster and more reliable.

Like Web 2.0 it's more adoption than revolution or invention. More precise than location based services are item based ones. With http://semacode.org/ and other datamatrix-techologies like http://www.beetagg.com/ you can easily access specific content trough mobile phones. But this raises privacy problems to a whole new level, because you can be traced via your requested items. No proxies can help here.

A better implementation exists, one that is not controlled by a convicted illegal monopolist: Semacode.

It uses Datamatrix 2-D (monochrome) barcodes to encode URLs on paper billboards and flyers, and has scanner implementations for many cellphones w/ built-in cameras.

In a prototypical application, a typical college student sees an advertisement attached to a bulletin board, for a local concert of Local Rock Band XYZ. There is a semacode symbol on the poster. He or she, uses cell phone to take a picture of the link, which automatically launches the cell's built in web browser to that URL (saving much tedious thumb-typing), and purchases concert tickets instantaneously.

http://semacode.org/

That's very similar to Semacode. They have readers for your mobile phone and you can create tags on their homepage. As usual you can find more information at Wikipedia.

PS: There's also a reader for your computer that takes a picture. Combine that with isightcapture and a little Dashboard widget and you could also use it on your Intel Mac.

That's very similar to Semacode. They have readers for your mobile phone and you can create tags on their homepage. As usual you can find more information at Wikipedia.

PS: There's also a reader for your computer that takes a picture. Combine that with isightcapture and a little Dashboard widget and you could also use it on your Intel Mac.

That's very similar to Semacode. They have readers for your mobile phone and you can create tags on their homepage. As usual you can find more information at Wikipedia.

PS: There's also a reader for your computer that takes a picture. Combine that with isightcapture and a little Dashboard widget and you could also use it on your Intel Mac.

Take a look at Semacode, which is a 2d encoding standard for URLs, and decoding software for Symbian phones that can automagically load the URL into the phone's browser.

The idea behind Semacode is to tie URLs to places, for things like self-guided city tours, etc.

Semacode -- Whoops, mistyped the URL.

A 2-D barcode could encode much of the same information as this RFID chip -- with none of the privacy implications. Any legitimate use of your passport involves handling it anyway -- it can simply be scanned.

An ISO/IEC 16022 data matrix would do the trick (the same type used by semacode.org and NextBus for cell phones). The Economist recently did an article on these.

RFID is a good technology, but this is a very bad application.

except that you're not clicking on the links..

using something like semacode would make the 'clicking' seem more like clicking.

a card saying:
- Please. Mr. Japanese-san How much for the batteries?

In case the pda goes flat...

Are they going to fill the country with Semacodes?
I think tourists will have a hard time just recognising and inputing those Kana characters...

Will display URLS on your computer for the product you photographed. Not neccesarily a purchase, but neither is the Amazon way. More at
http://semacode.org/

But with cameras and processing power on cell phones getting more sophisticated, other 2d barcode like QR Code or semacode will eventually outpace this technology with their considerably larger data capacity (up to as many as 4000 alphanumeric characters). In fact, semacode is already demonstrated on Series 60 implementations.

The submitter points to an application that uses spotcodes for remote control. In that implmentation, the spotcode translates to a number which the program then uses to send an instruction over Bluetooth.

However, those wishing to skip the tedium of entering URLs from the keypad using Spotcodes should note that BangoSpot (using the Spotcode technology) almost certainly uses a middleware server which performs a Spotcode number-to-URL lookup. So someone will know that you're using the Spotcodes. It's sort of like the CueCat but the implementation _requires_ them to know what you're looking up in order to provide a WAP URL.

It's an interesting approach, but I wonder how fast cellular carriers can adopt Spotcode-to-URL servers in their network before phone technology ends up leapfrogging and reading and entering sophisticated 2d barcode data directly into a phone browser.

For controlling a computer via bluetooth, there is Bemused Which works pretty well for playing mp3s, and can do other things which I haven't tested. There have been a lot of other attempts to read data in with camera phones. http://semacode.org/ allows you to open up web links from physical items.

I'm working on an open source bar code recognition program which functions, but is still in its alpha stages.

This would probably also be a good time to remind people of Semacode, previously discussed on Slashdot. It combines using 2D barcodes with common handheld devices (phones, PDAs, etc.).

Basically, it serves the same purpose as simple RFID tags: it lets you put up to a few thousand bits of information anywhere. You could, of course, easily use that for exchanging security keys, etc.

Note that this works both ways: modern phones also can display barcodes, which are then read by cameras (e.g., used for bill payment in Japan).

From the FAQ on the site:

Pretty long. We have not yet established the absolute upper limit, but for practical purposes most URLs should be fine.

Figure1.slashdot URL encoded in a datamatrix (semacode) code

(there's a graphic here on their site)

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=70638 &cid=0&pid=0&startat=&threshold=4 &mode=thread&commentsort=0&op=Change

• transit info - nextBus
• A web service to call a taxicab to your present location
• ticket sales from posters (e.g. concerts)

Whoa, I just had this crazy idea. Why bother with Bluetooth or barcode scanners when you can use Camera Phones!! There's already a ton of standard two-dimensional 2d barcode standards. All the camera phones are running Symbian with Java, or maybe Linux with Java. Write a little open source image processing application and then ...

encode a URL into the barcode and take a photo of it ...there's your global namespace, your application platform is HTML or WAP or whatever. The whole network is already bootstrapped.

It would be like semacodes but without any nasty dangly scanners to carry around.

simon

May I suggest my own ideas on this subject? They are summarized over at SemaCodes: WiFi + CueCat = UbiComp ... Tag the real world with semacode URLs

I kind of threw in UbiComp (ubiquitous computing) instead of location based computer (LBS) because they're basically the same thing, but the UbiComp people are cool, whereas the LBS people are all just chasing megabucks dreams.

IMO

simon

Here's what you need: a WiFi device; a public node; a CueCat or any other barcode scanner. If you're all geared up, then you can jump the gun on ubiquitous computing. You might use sem@code, a barcode that encodes a URL. With a wireless or mobile internet device, you just scan the barcode into your URL field, and voila! you load the website it links to.

Sem@codes are public tags for URLs. This is not pie-in-the-sky stuff: for example, over three million CueCat scanners were distributed (you can get one on eBay). With that or any other barcode scanner attached to your laptop, you can read semacodes. In addition, your or anyone else can generate sem@codes with open-source software online.

Simon

Here's what you need: a WiFi device; a public node; a CueCat or any other barcode scanner. If you're all geared up, then you can jump the gun on ubiquitous computing. You might use sem@code, a barcode that encodes a URL. With a wireless or mobile internet device, you just scan the barcode into your URL field, and voila! you load the website it links to.

Sem@codes are public tags for URLs. This is not pie-in-the-sky stuff: for example, over three million CueCat scanners were distributed (you can get one on eBay). With that or any other barcode scanner attached to your laptop, you can read semacodes. In addition, your or anyone else can generate sem@codes with open-source software online.

Simon

There's a better way. Run the demo-collecting software on the client. The user enters their info, the client randomizes it and sends it on.

Similarly for customized ads. Your client (open source of course) knows your demographics. But it also has 5 other (fake) profiles. It sends them all to the server, the server sends back 5 customized ads, one for each profile. The client picks the right one and shows you.

Everyone wins!

Ciao for now,
Simon Woodside
http://www.simonwoodside.com/

PS. Please, check out http://www.semacode.org/ and give me some feedback !