Slashdot Mirror
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."
Hummmm, special 2d barcodes to relate product infomation to consumers? CueCat anyone?
OK, I didn't RTFA, but wasn't this same concept widely used in Japan awhile ago (and maybe still is)?
I've got an idea, let's shape the readers like some weird half dead cat, and then give away a million readers and start suing people who actually use them!
Yeah...scanning a bar code for a website is a great idea. Wish I would have thought of that.
1. Steal someone's unsuccessful idea
2. ???
3. Profit?
Probably not...
this is just what I need, a new way for trolls to fool me into seeing the goatse man.
Why erect non-human readable signs where they get in the way? What are the benefits of me being able to see this large thing other than to know something is there?
And I know I'll be shouted down for this, but isn't this a much better application for something like RFID? (technical issues, notwithstanding) What's wrong with having this information in the airwaves and some kind of small indicator that a signal is being transmitted?
No-IP.com would like to thank you for making some people go to "www.sashdot.org" just to see if it really existed (they own it). +1000 points
I'm guessing recognising a bunch of coloured blocks is easier than recognising handwriting.
why can't the software be smart enough to read the printerd characters of a url directly? duh
That's the french mirror.
You can try the japanese mirror at "srashdot.org" or the MS-based clone at "crashdot.org"
lmao. Try removing a letter from slashdot.org at random. Every one of them exists except for slashot.org :)
Work is punishment for failing to procrastinate effectively.
If I can go into my local Radio Shack and get the readers for free. What an innovative idea!
Someday an ad exec is going to realize people don't want to see thier damned ads. Of course he'd be instantly torn apart by the pack for showing a clue...
Could this be used (much like the Nintendo e-reader) to encode minigames onto ads or signs? That could be fun.
__________
[Big Brick Wall]
In 1999 I got a Sony Vaio Picturebook - a paperback book sized sub-notebook that has a VGA camera in the top edge of the screen/lid.
One of the features of the Picturebooks was an app called Cybercode. Cybercode is a barcode generator (not a "2D barcode" - all barcodes are 2D, they have height and width) that generates a code that the PC can see with the Motion Eye camera. The codes have applications, animations or other programs associated with them, and I could run different playlists, for example, just by showing a card to the PC.
The guys at Sony Computer Science Labs built a superb demo of this technology here. I recommend the video at the bottom of the page -- a superb demo of what is possible.
I now have two Picturebooks and still use the newest one regularly. I tried different methods of using Cybercodes, and was able to give presentations at college where I ran the VAIO though a laptop and had Cybercode finder running. As I talked about different topics in the lecture, I showed the back of my note cards to the Motion Eye, and the VAIO ran video clips on command.
Now wash your hands.
What's wrong with just posting information on packages, as it is now? And why should I waste my money, to use my phone to view an extra useless ad?
And unless this all works together "very" quickly (not more than 10 seconds), nobody will even bother. I know I certainly won't.
Can anyone think of anything this can be used for, which can not be accomplished by simply posting the information on a sign, packaging, or normal paper ad? (which are free to use, unlike the phone)
for instance, to have barcodes on the packaging of stuff. For example, this code on the outside of prescription medication could link to the producer's web site, or to medical databases so patients and physicians could easily access important information. It would save hugely on paper. I myself would like to have this on my lab equipment so I could have access to user manuals, technical information, experimental protocols and so on. Let's have it!
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
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"
Obfuscating the URL in an image just hides the information for everyone who doesn't have a fancy phone or just doesn't know how to use it. Use plain URLs on products, then use the phone to photography them and then surf to the web.
If the technology works, it could be really useful to add information to your surroundings. Browsing CDs at the store ? Photography one, get reviews from amazon. Looking at a concert flyer ? Photography it, get a map to the place and order tickets. Reading a magazine article about cool technology ? Photography it, get links about the tech to wikipedia.
The technology has the potential to be really cool, but semacode just plain sucks.
...how to I write "www.goat.cx" or "www.tubgirl.com" in this new format, and will it work printed on a tshirt? That'll keep people from collecting any proper evidence against me with those pesky camera phones.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Well, the one thing that jumps out in my mind is this.
Imagine you are in a large building on a college campus. You are walking down the hall, and pass by a classroom. The room number is marked in black letters on a plaque, 246. Under the room number is a semacode.
You take out your cellphone, and take a snapshot (read: scan) the semacode. Your cellphone loads up the appropriate URL, giving you information about the room.
Through the website, you find out what the room is used for, who the technicians / professors are using the room, what the class schedule for the room is, when the professor has open office hours, who is responsible for maintenance of the room, what the phone extension in the room is, etc. And you get a bunch of links to follow from there.
All of that information available in an instant.
Of course, there is the issue of the ubiquity of this type of technology, but if it does become very popular, this is a very real accomplishment.
Employ the same type of situation in a museum display, perhaps or art or rocks.
I think it has a pretty amazing potential, but only if it's adopted widescale. If not, then its just one of those cool things that you brag about to your friends, and after that nobody cares.
that will be awesome until they start spoofing urls. you'll be price checking in aisle 2, click on a link, and then be at goatse.cx...
this sig limit is too small to put anything good h
I really can't see how this is revolutionary.
As has been mentioned this bears some resemblance to the failed CueCat thingy. Also, why would I want to post these 2D barcodes all over the place?
Why not use BlueTooth for this? You get close to a 'beackon' and a little icon appears on your phone, if you choose to click the icon it takes you to the desired URL.
Now I can post goatse links on every building in town! No phone user will be safe!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
It appears you have answered your own question!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
I know that HP's CoolTown is mainly marketing chum, but at the core was actual research into linking the web to physical items. When you're considering what to do with semacode, you should check out some of the CoolTown IEEE submitted research papers. Oh, and here's a fluffy article on bridging URLs to meatspace.
http://www.tinyurl.com/foobar/ -- does a barcode *really* make this easier?
The advantage of this is that it's simple and cheap. Anyone can print out a code and stick it anywhere they want. Of course that will lead to problems too; you can bet scummy advertisers will be making stickers out of these this and plastering them on everything.
Manufacture in China
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.
Not really, you have:
1. (old system). Read text.
2. (new system). Fish phone out of pocket. Switch it on (of not already on. Possibly pull battery out if crashed). Take photograph. Stand around scrolling through symbian menus until you find the 'decode photograph' app. Launch app. App doesn't recognise photograph. Shit. Take another photograph. Repeat.
Imagine the new 2-d barcode spam. Unscrupulous persons will sneak around and replace these barcodes with barcodes linking to pay-per-view porn sites and penis enlargement products.
If this is considered "fascinating" or "new", then this just tells us that the Slashdot editors / submitters are easily amused, and/or have really short memories.
This was a crappy idea 5 years ago, when I first heard about it. I don't see how it could have improved since then.
If you're to take a technologically oriented solution to having to type a url why not just make signage use bluetooth or some such wireless technology to pass the url to these devices?This is just silly Wired magazine style gadgetiering technofetishism to my eyes. Bo-ring!
_nfotxn
/.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
Lets imagine that we have built an AI that is able to autonomously move about in a given area, our lab.
We wantto train the AI how to identify objects, people and items that it "sees" with its digital camera. One way to do this is build a really extensive algorythym which will analyze the visual data, and "think" associations and discern information about the seen object.
Aditionally, we can use cues to provide contextual information about objects thatthe AI will see from a backend source which does notrequire processing locally on the AIs part to identify.
If our lab environment had objects which had 2d barcodes on them - the AI could see an object, see its 2d barcod tag and instantly retrieve info about the visualized subject.
We could still employ the AI code for calculating #D space as it moves about - but it can then be provided with contextual information about the objects it sees. as it learns, it can learn to associate 2d barcodes with object shapes, so that in the future when it encounters them - it only really need to recall the semacpde 2d barcode on the object to pull contextual information again on that same - or similar object. Ideally - it should also be able to write information to the backend DB to update semacodes and relate them... memories if you will.