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?
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!
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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.
The idea is that you can use the static, printed data (the barcode) to retrieve dynamic data (the bus location and how long until its arrival)--not just to retrieve more static data. Static data would still be printed, human readable as always, on the sign in the first place.
And, remember, web pages can be interactive, too; you can send information back to the company or organization whose barcode you just scanned through forms on the web page. So you could quickly order a product or service directly to your location.
It really comes down to one word: Cost. Ink on paper is essentially free. If you're printing a sign anyway, there's no additional cost to include a barcode. Yes, RFID is cheap, but ink is cheaper.It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
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"
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.
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.
Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
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.