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Semacode - Hyperlinks For The Real World
An anonymous reader submits "Semacode is a fascinating concept - it involves encoding a standard network/web URL in visual form (essentially a 2D bar code) that can be displayed in the real world for people to 'read' with semacode-enabled connected devices. The reference platform for now is the Symbian/Series 60 phone platform - specifically, the Nokia 3650 . Semacode also works with the Nokia 6600 and 7650 camera phones."
Beat me to the punch!
However, the only slight difference is cue cat referenced a central database against an ID number in bar code format.
Though... yes.. CueCat...
mmmm... hopefully... more free bar code readers...
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
wasn't this already done with images that you could put up to your webcam? Ah yes, here it is: http://www.digimarc.com/
I'm guessing recognising a bunch of coloured blocks is easier than recognising handwriting.
it's a URL encoded in a 2D, non-proprietary format. It's also a plus that it's not locked up in some bullshit like the CueCat.
The "Cues" (DigitalConvergence's special barcodes) were just regular CODE128 barcodes with the sync bars removed, so only the CueCat could read them. Other than that, perfectly standard. What's more, the CueCat could read just about any 1D barcode out there, which made it very interesting for a free toy.
The "encryption" used by the CueCat to send codes to the computer's PS/2 port was just XOR and BASE64 encoding. Not much of an encryption really.
The big difference with this is that the Cues were essentially links to entries in Digitalconvergence's database (which itself was just the UPC database + a bunch of special products from companies they partenered with, like RadioShack) so that they could sit between your scans and the information to collect marketting data. This on the other end seems to just be barcode-encoded URLs.
More info on the CueCat here.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
The semacode website actually provides some intriguing uses for this technology. Since it is an open standard, we could think up other uses, but there are three that they mention that make sense to me:
- transit info - nextBus
- A web service to call a taxicab to your present location
- ticket sales from posters (e.g. concerts)
Cellphone prices are falling, and many people no longer even have a landline, so there could be a large market for this.Also, these uses don't cost much if anything. It probably will have a few niches. Can anyone else think of good applications?
Information: "I want to be anthropomorphized"
I give them credit for the attempt to make a "2d barcode"
Not me.
google for 2d barcodes and you find many, even some without royalty. And my picturebook come a fex year ago with a camera and some game based on 2 d barcodes.
Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
Yes.
And btw, I only have a 2D barcode on my license, my cereal only has 1D barcodes...
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Not to nit pick, but while all barcodes are represented in two dimensions, probably because that's the easiest thing to do on a flat 2-D surface, not all barcodes encode information in 2 dimensions. Now, naturally I didn't RTFA, but the barcode on a box of cereal encodes information in one dimension. Take the thinnest line and call it a 1, a line of double that thickness is 11 and the spaces are 0, a double wide space is 00. The height dimension is just a matter of convenience so you do not have to be precise when scanning an item, it has no information content.
OK I RTFA, and it sure looks like this scheme actually encodes the information in a 2 dimensional matrix, and a cursory look indicates that the same information is encoded 4 times in different orientations so the reader does not need to be lined up precisely.
Sounds like Cybercode and your use of it is pretty cool. Something I need to look into - thanks.
"None of us are as dumb as all of us." - meeting mantra
Yes, all barcodes are printed in 2D space, but the 2D moniker does not mean how it is printed.
Traditional barcodes have information encoded only in one dimension. Technically you could print a barcode in 'one dimension', however, it would be very difficult to scan. The height is only there to facilitate scanning. That is why they can be called 1D barcodes.
2D barcodes, on the other hand, have information encoded in 2 directions. That is why instead of lines they use squares.
all barcodes are 2D, they have height and width
Not sure if you were just being facetious, but a standard barcode is considered one dimensional because the data is only encoded in one direction. Height is irrelevant. But in a 2 dimensional code, data is encoded in both dimensions.
Last summer I went to Tokyo Dome City right downtown tokyo and on their main roller coaster you could buy your place at the front of the line. For some (reasonable wankwank) 1000 yen or something you would get 4 little pictures sent to your cellphone (well, your girlfriend's) and you could reserve spots for the ferris wheel too.
We cut out of the 3 hour line (The charge goes to your phone bill, handy!) and went to the front, put the picture on the screen of the phone and put it on a square reader. It beeped and ten minutes later we got on the coaster. We did that all day. Chumps, lines are for poor people.
/.ers might be interested to know that I did all the building and compiling on Linux. Normally, you can't do that, but there's a free tool by Rudolf Koenig called sdk2unix that converts the windows sdk to a really cool makefile based system on linux.
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I wrote up my experiences here in this HOWTO,
HOWTO develop Symbian apps using Linux and OS X
Simon Woodside (semacode developer)
home page
bit of a moot point with services like tinyurl