Reading bar codes with mobile phones: Snap it, click it, use it | The Economist
Reading bar codes with mobile phones
Snap it, click it, use it
Aug 20th 2009 | SEATTLE
From The Economist print editionA new way to deliver information to mobile phones is spreading around the world
A game of tag
A new format for bar codes appeared in January, when Microsoft unveiled Tag, a system that uses colour to increase the density of information that can be stored. A Tag code occupies about one-eighth of the space of a comparable QR Code. It also allows coding elements to be incorporated into designs. One sample code shows a photograph of coloured jelly beans that includes Tag data. Others show company logos, balloons and birds.
Bar codes that do not need specialised software to read them are also being developed. These encode less information than their more sophisticated counterparts but can be used by people who own simpler mobile phones, because the image-recognition process is handled elsewhere. The codes made by JAGTAG, of Princeton, New Jersey, for example, can be photographed using a camera phone and then sent to a messaging service that analyses the code and sends back appropriate information. Sports Illustrated used the JAGTAG system when it sent its readers those extra images of swimsuit models, and the system has also been used to advertise Nike, Sony and a restaurant chain called Qdoba.
Bar codes, then, could be on the point of breaking out of their native environment. It has been a long and curious journey from the supermarket checkout.
World-flattening technologies (a la Thomas Friedman) are putting more power into the hands of the consumer.
In a level playing field where consumers have access to virtually unlimited data, it's the brands that can put that data context that will win.
Which brings me to an important lesson about content creation - one that's been reinforced for me recently. In ascending order of interest (at least most of the time), there's raw data, information, stories, secrets. That said, when it comes to creating content, you can't restrict yourself to just one of those. You'll need a mix of these to be effective.
And the formula to making content effective - well, I'll save that for another time.
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