Slashdot Mirror
QR Codes - Internet to Cell Phone via Camera
An anonymous reader writes "From ITWorldCanada comes an article about a technology that might change the way people use their cell phones in North America: 'A Toronto-based software developer wants to bring Quick Response (QR) codes to Canada, and an industry analyst says this may appeal to companies offering products and services to youth.' McDonald's restaurants in Japan having been using the codes for over a year to present nutritional information on the cell phones of their customers. QR codes were originally developed by Tokyo-based Denso Wave Inc. and are common in Japan. When published in print form — on billboards, transit ads, vehicles or other media — consumers can then take pictures of the images and have them converted to links, phone numbers or other advertising messages."
What a great idea!
They should get Rowdy Roddy Piper to be their spokesman here too!
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
McDonald's restaurants in Japan having been using the codes for over a year to present nutritional information on the cell phones of their customers.
This article was almost believable, except for the fact that there's no such thing as "McDonald's nutritional information".
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Then they can scan the barcode for the information. Heck, we can even give away free barcode scanners with magazines to make them do it- just make them cute looking. I'm thinking maybe a cat.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Yes this exists in Japan. QR Codes are an "open" patent, the company that owns the patent has published the details so that anyone can implement it and doesn't enforce its patent except for the name.
This means it is IMPLEMENTED on a LOT of phones.
So what does this western company do? Implement it on Windows Mobile 5 or 6.
Eheh, why not implement it on the iPhone and go for an even more limited audience? (Sorry fanboys, but even with its massive success the iPhone is still only a tiny part of the market, although it is possible that with just 1 phone Apple will get a share that reaches while digits)
Hint, MS ain't exactly owning the market for mobile phones, especially those owned by youths. What advertiser is going to include a bloody ugly area in their carefully designed ad that can't be used by 95% of phones. (Getting real market share data from MS in this area is next to impossible, they are very reluctant to release hard figures)
If this canadian company had any smarts they would at least get it to run on Symbian (the majority OS) and preferably do it so that it simply runs on anything that has a camera. That is what the Japanese did.
Without this, this will just be another, it worked in Japan and failed in the west tech stories. Remember i-mode anyone?
I would also try to launch this in europe where carriers are slightly less restrictive about third party software on "their" phones.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
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.
Finally someone is seeing the usefulness of this outside of Japan.
Man, I've been wanting to get more features from Japan and Korea. Finally now that Japan and Korea are adopting 3G GSM I don't have to rent a phone there and can just roam with my provider. But then you would still miss out on some features, this will finally bring other mobile phone makes in line.
Now to get a phone with a Japanese IME, English and support for my own language. I seriously wish that kind of software was more modular, might be a better use of the memory they put inside mobile phones these days.
Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
This means my cell phone in 2009 will finally be able to read those QR graphics on Japanese web pages written in 2004!
...more ads.
Most Nokia devices in Europe already come with a bar code reader. The N95 comes with a reasonable one, but there are plenty of 3rd party apps, especially for Symbian devices.
I favour Quickmark from http://www.quickmark.com.tw/, although i-nigma from http://i-nigma.mobi/ is fairly good.
Here's a good generator of QR codes, available in PHP or Perl
http://www.swetake.com/qr/index-e.html
QR codes are great for pushing complex information into your phone, forget scanning in a business card - just snap the QR code and have a vcard on your device instantly.
With Google pushing them on print ads, everyone and his mother having a camera phone, phones with good mobile browsers, I think the time is right for these to take off in a big way.
If a square is really a rhombus, why aren't all triangles purple?
http://mobilecodes.nokia.com/scan.htm
"Point and shoot your camera phone at a mobile code to connect directly to a website, view a message or get a phone number ready for dialing." --from the site.
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
Why would I want to get "more information" (read: more advertising) than I already get? I mean, yes, there are maybe quite sensible applications to this, but I doubt we'll see many of them. Instead we'll see a lot of ways to cram ad crap onto our cells.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I feel like every time I post to Slashdot in the last few months, it's almost been exclusively about my cell phone (I live in Japan).
I bought my phone this summer and the QR is awesome. My au phone bill comes with QRs to the site and this month's free downloads. I just went shopping at the Village Vanguard (like a cooler Japanese Spencer's) and the bag I got for the stuff I bought had three QRs, for directions, info on the store, and other things. I've even used QR on PC websites to access mobile versions of sites.
It's really, really useful, but I think it needs a semi-decent camera on one's phone. I'd love for it to become popular in America, but American phones would have to start supporting it and then others will. While the three major Japanese phone companies are follow each other, getting American cell phone companies to go in one direction is like herding cats. I seriously doubt it'll take off in America.
Don't get me started on the Japanese OCR program, which can take pictures of kanji and passes it on to the Japanese / English dictionary - it's so awesome.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
You just can't keep a good cat down. Or even a mediocre one.
Cheers,
Ian
For proof of just how big QR codes are in Japan, have a look at this. http://arity.blogspot.com/2007/12/information-density.html
Also see Semacode for a similar idea.
from the to-stupid-for-words dept.
Hmm... Microsoft's homepage lists a bunch of Windows Mobile phones that support QR codes, hence this is nothing new:
http://www.microsoft.com/japan/windowsmobile/wm50/prodinfo/device/default.mspx
I got QR code stamped on my passport at immigration when entering Japan, back in 2003. In Japan, virtually all new phones that have a camera can also recognize QR code (pretty much like 99.999% of them).
This technology has been available since way way way way back in 1994. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code Welcome to technology three years older than this website.
A fast cowboy since 2007
QR codes are being used to affix "What's This?" tags
to objects in Real Life, so you can aim your cellphone
at something and get directed to its Wikipedia article.
See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semapedia>.
slashdottagsshorterthanhaikunewartform
Cellphone internet is already so expensive in Canada it seems nobody would want to spend real money (as in greater than $0.005) to surf ADVERTISING. Prices are as high as $0.05/kb on major providers, like Fido. So, if you were to download Fido's homepage, without graphics or flash, you're already looking at spending $1.35. If you got one of their internet pre-paid packs, you'd pay "only" $60 a month for 25 MB (and Fido was known as one of the cheapest mobile internet providers in Canada not so long ago!) Rogers (another major provider) would only bill you $5/5MB (3 cents/KB extra), Telus $15/2MB ($12/MB extra), Bell $45/4MB (100 minutes voice service included [amazingly], $12/MB after). I think that actually covers all the providers, and they're about double the price they were last year, and infinitely more expensive than 5 years ago (Both Rogers and Fido offered flat rate unlimited internet for $50/month then).
Heck, what am I saying, with rates that cheap, give me an entire GIGABYTE of service, it's only $50,000 monthly with Fido! Wooohooo, we're surfing in style now, baby! Put some more ice on that phone, and some spinners to boot!
A QR code reader app comes with the Dopod release of WM6 for the HTC Tytn (Hermes) phone - and, no doubt, other WM6 ROM packs originating from Japan. These ROMs have been widely leaked for the HTC phones. A good starting point for more info is here: http://www.xda-developers.com/
I have played with the QR code reader on my phone and while I like the idea, I find that getting the camera aligned 'just right' to get an image shot that decodes propely is a real pain. I hope that it's perhaps the optics of the phone or just my lack of experience but it seems that the size of the code (there's online tools to make your own) and camera setup are pretty important. I put some test codes on an internal Web site and when the images were obtrusively big compared to other elements on the page, I could capture them about 80+% of the time first go, but when they were shrunk down to banner size, I'd get a decode perhaps 1 time in 10 on my 17" LCD monitor. Results with printed codes were better, but it still took some time to get the capture process right.
Maybe the Japanese phone users have this down to a fine art now and I just need more practice.
AT&ROFLMAO
It says "present nutritional information on the cell phones of their customers." They tell you how much nutritional value there is in eating the cell phone. As nylon and some other plastics contain amino acids, this is not quite as stupid as it sounds.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
This reminds me of some of the logos I saw in the "ghost in the shell" series
:)
(hmmm I wonder if they actually are QR codes)
would it be possible to get a working tattoo of one of these?
a fun way to stop anyone taking your picture, a tattoo virus on your forehead that places an image where your face would be
QR codes is a well-known technology that worked very well in Japan. However, the rest of the world will probably never hear about them since another technology is about to place its place: RFID tags and NFC phones. NFC is a much better technology since you do have to position the camera just above the tag to read it. Also, NFC phones and RFID tags communicate with a bidirectionnal connection while QR codes are unidirectional only. There is no doubt that NFC phones are going to replace tickets and credit cards in many cases (but not all of course).
So it's really too late to try to bring this kind of technology in the Americas or in Europe. Even in Asia QR codes are only used in Japan.
Nobox: Only simple products.
As an expat living in Japan, I have experience with these phones and have actually seen some good uses, and rarely is it more advertising. Here's one example:
You picked up a card, see an advertisement, or something else for a restaurant that sounds pretty interesting and it has one of these square bar codes on it. You take a photo of it, and it takes you to a mobile enhanced site with a menu, prices, daily specials, and sometimes even coupons. Seems like a pretty good deal to me if you're out and about and can't quickly pull out a laptop with a wifi connection to go the website listed on the bottom of the advertisement.
The whole idea is that the advertisement poster or whatever gets you interested in whatever the product is, and the barcoded link gives you the opportunity to get more information if you are interested.\
Just wait 'till you're on a train, and everyone reading their paper sees goatse at the same time ;)
I can certainly testify to the popularity of these codes. I'm in a hotel in Shibuya just now (for the pilgrimage to Akihabara) and there are QR codes on posters in the elevator here.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
If you want that to be really ubiquitous, use Java instead. Here in Spain, and the same goes for the rest of Europe, every single cellular phone not older than 3 years has a J2ME JVM inside.
Symbian is getting more and more popular, but it is still reserved to high-end models.
Why don't they just use Kanji, seeing that all Japanese children already know it? Pictographs generally has one symbol per word so there must be a symbol for everything already.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
There are even more than just "QR" and "Semacode". The German-Speaking Wikipedia call it "Mobile Tagging":
* QR-Code
* DataMatrix (Semacode)
In Switzerland a Code called "BeeTagg" is quite popular. The "Swiss Post" is prompting it for several uses:
* Job advertisment (Young people)
* Hiking information (Postal car departures)
* Even an official Stamp (http://www.news.ch/Weltpremiere+bei+der+Post+BeeTagg+auf+Briefmarke/291522/detail.htm?ref=rss)
Other companies, like the "Swiss Railways" join it: http://www.gleis7.ch/beetagg/
I read a story about this a month ago in my student newspaper. Good to know Slashdot is still setting the bar high for getting breaking news. Still, interesting topic.
Semacode, QRCode, whatever - I just want one that has readily available legally-free generation and decoding libraries available that I can use on my Linux box (in addition to J2ME applications)
It doesn't have to be all commercial advertisements, after all. I think this kind of thing would have great potential as a modern equivalent of the old hobo codes. Sure, it's also abuseable, but I think I'd rather have the "Skateboarding is not a crime!" stickers as innocuous barcodes anyway. Same goes for commercial advertisements, which to me would be as barcodes vs. traditional advertisements what inline text links are to pop-up ads
I imagine more artistically-inclined folks could have a fun time hiding barcode messages in graffiti or sculpture (imagine a sculpture that at a certain time of day casts a shadow that translates as semacode or QRcode, or crop-circle barcodes decodable from aerial photos)...
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
Does anyone else remember the code puzzle in Impossible Mission (old C64 game)?
The colorised QR code on Wikipedia looks a lot like the codes from IM.
Coincidence or poor memory on my part - you choose!
Current phone hardware in Canada won't be able to scan most Japanese-style QR codes, because they lack a macro-focus lens. Examine any phone from Japan and you'll find either a hardware or software "tulip icon" switch for macro-focus.
With QR codes, you trade-off data size vs. physical size vs. the resolving ability of the phone's camera. Someone mentioned having one on a business card. A QR code containing the contents of the business card (name, position, email, phone, address, URL, etc.) would have to be printed at a size way bigger than the card itself, in order for it to be readable without macro-focus. At a more reasonable printed size of something like 2 cm square, you'd be able to fit a URL or a name, if it's short enough. That kind of information density might be useful for advertisers who want to stick a scannable URL on a flyer (remember CueCat?) -- but only if the phone's user interface makes it less of a pain in the butt to fire up the QR code scanner than to simply type in the URL.
Other factors such as lighting, scratched lens, and movement (scanning while riding the bus or train) can affect QR code readability as well.
And now on my soapbox ... unfortunately, open software only goes so far. With mobile, we need more freedom and choice in the hardware space in order to really make progress. And as long as the North American carriers continue to do things "their way" (e.g., CDMA), we still have a long way to go.
I use a QR code to allow people to conveniently install my software on their phone. Say a user is browsing on their desktop computer and comes across a review for my software. The user decides they want to try it out but the prospect of typing a url into the phone puts them off. They then notice the QR Code so they take out their Nokia N95, launch the preinstalled reader and scan it directly into the phone, which then automatically launches the web browser to download and install the application. Ok, it's more than a single click, but it's really convenient. I use this method quite often on my 3250 using the reader from Kaywa.
Try it yourself using the code here http://emz.yi.org/
Nokia are/will be using there codes on their beta site too.
Max.
(posted from my 3250)
Max.
last decade? Too bad they don't notice it only works in Japan cuz their phones/plans are much cheaper than in the west.
There is some kind of 2D graphic on the back of a Nevada Driver's License.
Anyone know what is on it and how to decode it?
Any other states have this?
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
As the article said, they are targetting teens and early 20s - guess us old geezers won't have much content for us. Oh well. Welcome to the new society - heck what was the name of that book where people are killed at age 30?
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
How long before one of these Windows devices gets itself infected - just because it "sees" a virus somewhere?
It already does run on Symbian. I can scan any random QR code with my Nokia N93 and it will decode it and then let me open the web page, call the number, or do whatever the code points to.
I'm thinking that unique transaction or decryption info might be displayed on a POS (or other) screen, and be captured by the consumer for who-knows-what purpose. Solution looking for a undefined problem. The fact that it isn't human-readable might be an advantage, like the system that my local blood bank once used for donors' anonymous responses. ...Lorenzo
...Lorenzo / I'm into kinky crustaceans. I just discovered internet praWn.