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Son of CueCat? Purdue Professor Embeds Hyperlinks

rbook writes "Remember :CueCat, the "free" (as in beer) bar code scanner that was supposed to change everything by allowing advertisers (or whoever) to put hyperlinks in printed material? Well, the idea is back, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education: 'People who prefer print books over e-books may still want extra digital material to go with them. That's the idea behind Sorin Matei's project, Ubimark, which embeds books with two-dimensional codes that work as hyperlinks when photographed.' Photographing an image and uploading it sounds like more trouble than scanning a bar code to follow a URL, but they figure you can take the photograph with your smartphone and view the web page automatically on the mobile device." It looks like standard QR codes are embedded; what Ubimark is pushing is "a publishing environment which combines print books, ubilinks, a centralized Internet based interactive information repository and computer displays."

3 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Free by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 5, Funny

    >> CueCat, the "free" (as in beer)

    More like, "free" (as in Gonorrhea)

  2. Re:DRM by game+kid · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's probably the plan if they're calling it Ubimark. :(

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
  3. Re:Fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    What should I know about this pack of condoms? Scan the 2d barcode for some tips & tricks.

    I'd expect you'd be in some trouble if your condoms came with tricks