MobileCamp NYC PWC Highlights

Rich at Mobilitee presents the highlights on Physical World Connection at MobileCamp NYC meeting last week.
Physical Hyperlinks:

There were multiple talks on physical hyperlinking. One was focused on Semapedia , the other spoke about it more generally.

Point and click for physical world
QR codes contain the actual URL data - not a reference to a lookup table
Competing codes - Nextcode, SHotcode, Qode… most are serial numbers into tables
FeliCa is HUGE in Japan
Yellow Arrow SMS campaigns in London would be faster with QR codes
These codes scale to building size
RFID could replace QR codes (agree with consumer goods)
There’s a disconnect between the picture and the code doing the action now - confusing
People are uncomfortable taking a QR code pic in public

A couple issues I still see with PWC.

What or where this QR code give me? Outside of Semapedia ("Internet Dictionary") there is no mainstream application that encourages people to click on a code. Price comparison is the most discussed PWC application but that is for 1d codes (barcodes).

One of the reasons I like the proprietary code players Nextcode and BeeTagg is because their codes are distinguishable AND you know what information you will get when their codes are scanned.

There has to be a reason, or an expected outcome, to get people to scan a code. Curiosity won't drive adoption.

This can be resolved very easily.