Kooaba's ooLink Hyperlinks Physical Objects To The Internet

Add Kooaba and their ooLink application to the list of Physical World Connection companies.

Kooaba was founded in November 2006 as a spin-off company from the ETH Zurich, an outstanding science and technology university in Switzerland. Their mission is to simplify access to digital information from mobile devices by hyperlinking objects in the real world.

Kooaba has strong ties to the Computer Vision Lab of the ETH Zurich. Therefore, we are able to embed the latest research into highly innovative products.

ooLink allows publishers to hyperlink their print advertising with digital content. End-users can access the content by sending a picture of the ad to their service.


How does ooLink compare to 2d bar code scanning applications?

Currently, several companies offer solutions which link objects based on 2d-barcodes, which are attached to the object, e.g. to the advertising panel. (An example of such codes are the QR codes.) The advantage of their solution is that no codes are required, since the object itself is recognized.

This has several benefits:

-Users don't need to install a software on their phone.
-The ooLink solution works even if parts are covered (occlusion, see above). If a code is partly covered it is unreadable.
-The codes look often unattractive. With our solution the original design of the ad does not have to be changed.
-The space for the codes can be saved. (Important for advertising in magazines where space savings directly reflect cost savings).