Microsoft has created a new kind of custom tags. So far we had QR Code and Datamatrix Code. The new system from Microsoft is called Microsoft Tag and main difference is that it does not use square pixels, but triangle shapes and colors to store data.

As we can see in the below picture, it represents 1 byte in less area than the current custom tags. That’s because the triangles are half the size of the previous squares, and it uses 4 colours insted of black and white.

Microsoft is not the only one researching into QR codes. Movistar recently created the system Bidi, and also Orange its system Flashcode. Both introduce these encoding systems to provide services like buying spectacles tickets, share website links, download multimedia content, so to sum up, it provides automatic access to services and contents.

And what about the “future”???

Will this technology become a social reality? Will it give us some useful functionality? IT CAN!!! In Japan this technology is used everywhere, like on posters and billboards, providing anyone with a cell phone immediate access to information on consumer prize campaigns, addresses or maps for retail outlets. In the below TV ad, NTT DoCoMo explains to viewers how QR codes work, to make their use familiar.

In Barcelona the company Daem Interactive uses this tech in its solution Skuair (supports Symbian S60 3th generation). This solution could be use, for instance, in a supermarket to select the products you want to buy, send the list to the supermarket server/device, pay and wait for your products to be packed.

Software

We have talked about custom tags technology, let’s talk now about ohw to use it. This tech becomes useful if we can work with it everywhere, what means that has to be accesible from our mobile devices. This is real, nowadays we can have it in our mobile phones. There are several mobile applications for this purpose, and they consist on taking a picture to the custom tag (QR Code, Datamatrix, and others) and then the app will decode the picture into the info that was encoded, like an URL, a mobile command…

For instance you can download the application for Bidis os Flashcodes from Movistar and Orange sites. Also Microsoft has developed a mobile application for mobile devices to work with Microsoft Tag. The name of the application is the same as the custom tag, and it is available on Windows Mobile, iPhone, BlackBerry, Symbian S60 and mobile phones with Java. You can download it from this website.

Try this code on your Phone

Via iPhone Buzz | Microsoft

Last Octuber Nokia unveiled some application concepts, one of those will be able to translate written characters into the language you prefer.

Last week, at CTIA this service was show as a demo in which a Chinese text was captured with a mobile camera and it translate into English.

It works as QR-codes and another code applications, but it will be very useful for travel, you will never have any problem when you don´t know what a word or even a phrase means, you will only have to take a pic with your mobile, and it will translate immediately.

Via Gizmag

First of all, the information.  OMA and GSMA have joined to create a standardization body to define a common standard for mobile barcodes. Along with MC2, the cross-industry group created to promote unified standards in camera cell-phone barcode reading technology, they plan to define a cross-industry standard to foster mobile barcode adoption.

Secondly, my opinion. There is no need for new standards, as long as they already exists. The exercise of defining a common standard to be adopted by the mobile industry could be interesting, but it will take time. Moreover, it doesn’t guarantee that the standards are finally adopted by the industry. I don’t find the point in this.

And lastly, a reflexion.  The article ends with this sentence “Mobile marketing and mobile tagging are now becoming a true reality worldwide and the industry should be prepared for it.” Mobile Marketing has been a reality in Asia during the last years. Is nothing new at all. The difference is that they adopt the technology and it finally becomes a de-facto standard. Here, in Europe, we insists in creating Standardization Bodies for each and every aspect of the business, assuming a delay in technology adoption. This is, undoubtedly, one of the most significant differences between both markets.

We hope that Mobile Barcodes will finally take off in Europe soon.

Via Cellular News

As usual, Europe and more concretely Spain are two or three steps behind Asian market. Fortunately, little by little these codes are appearing in Occidental countries.  Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia published last weekend what can be considered “The first published QR Code in Spanish market”. Not very useful, but interesting movement after all.

Via Xataka Movil