Mobile Phones and 2D Barcodes Enable Signage and Lifehacks

I stumbled onto a conversation on the use of machine-readable 2-dimensional optical codes (A.K.A. 2D matrix code, barcode and symbologies) to communicate with mobile phones equipped with cameras and scanning software. Applications of 2D barcodes have expanded from its origins in tracking automobile parts and shipped packages to include convenient access to information for wayfinding and advertising
; well, at least those are the earliest and obvious applications as of today.

Consider the case where Kim is new on campus and wants to take a bus back to her dorm, which is on the other side of campus. Kim sees the QR-encoded (a 2D symbology) sign below the usual bus stop sign, captures the image with her camera phone, starts the application which reads the URL encoded in the image, and which then launches the phone's browser to display the bus schedule. Kim selects her destination; the Web application reads her location from the phone's built-in GPS and the current location of the nearest bus arriving at her destination (read real-time from the bus' GPS unit) and displays the estimated time to arrival.

Another day, Kim walks through downtown. As she passes the theater, she notices a few plays and concerts that pique her interest. She pulls out her mobile phone and photographs the 2D barcode in the theater's digital sign. She will look over the schedule when she returns to her room. Ah!, the new Korean restaurant. Her phone can usually read signs across the street, so she's got that captured, too.

This is not the future. It is life today in urban Japan, soon to arrive in your neighborhood. I simulated the experience using barcode displayed on a computer screen, and captured images on an iPhone. I downloaded the application 2D Sense (free) from the iPhone App Store to read the sample 2D barcodes on this post, on theiMatrix site and on Wikipedia. For example, the image on this page should take you to my blog at cjohansen.org. If you have problems, as I occasionally did, you can zoom the barcode images before capturing it, and the actions will be more likely to work. You can create your own barcodes, which is where I created the image above. 2D Sense delivers on encoding for URLs and text, however, it doesn't currently support Google maps for location information - that is way too bad, but I'm sure will be fixed soon enough. Note that mobile phones bought in Japan have made the experience seamless, and the sight of 2D barcode signage is said to be common.

There it is: 2D barcode signage - a new aspect of the ambient information ecosystem. Tell me, oracle, what beasts lurk here?