Mobile Barcodes At "Under The Radar" Mobility Conference

Physical World Connection, via barcodes and a camera phone, was included at the latest "Under the Radar: Mobility Conference"

Mobile barcodes. (physical world hyperlinks)

The increasing availabity of camera phones has led to the rise of new applications for barcodes; specifically 2D or matrix barcodes, which are scannable at the lower resolutions of most camera phones.

Just starting to come into play in the U.S., mobile barcodes are a feature of daily life in certain Asian countries. When you scan a mobile barcode at say, a bus shelter advert, your camphone’s browser usually opens to a WAP site with information on what you snapped.

Useful for comparison shopping, advertising, and getting information about things you see on the go.
Besides the QR (or Quick-Response) Code—the de facto standard in Japan—competing systems include Data Matrix, Semacode , mCode, and Shotcode.