Here’s a fun little tech toy that I discovered thanks to Jonas: Semacode, a two-dimensional barcode that encodes a URL in the matrix. With the newer breed of camera phones and the right software installed, the phone can read the barcode and automatically open the URL in the camera’s embedded web browser.
For a long time computer scientists have been looking for a cheap, inexpensive way to create a gate between the real world and virtual world of the internet. Semacodes provides such a solution. By means of special symbols, printable by anyone on any printer, and special software, available for camera phones, connections can be built on a wide scale in a totally decentralized fashion.
A semacode is a small symbol that encodes a standard, web-oriented URL. The URL is embedded into a two-dimensional barcode along with error correction information. When the semacode reader software snaps the barcode, it launches the embedded URL on whatever web browser is available.
Software to read the Semacode barcodes is already available on the Semacode website for Nokia 3650/7650, 3600/3620/3660, 6600 or 6620 camera phones.
There are all sorts of potential uses for this. Some of the following examples come from the Semacode website, some from Jonas, and some from me:
- Bus stop transit information: Grab the Semacode posted on a bus stop sign and go right to the page listing the bus schedule, or if a system such as NextBus is being used, get up-to-the-minute information on when the next bus will be by.
- Tourist orientation: Post Semacode stickers at landmarks or intersections pointing to MapQuest maps or Yahoo Get Local pages to help people instantly find out just where they are and what hotels, restaurants, or attractions might be close by.
- Ticket sales: Include a Semacode on an event poster, newspaper, or magazine advertisement that links to the online ticket sales website.
- Social networking I: Put the Semacode for your personal website on the back of your business cards.
- Social networking II: Create a webpage detailing just what you’re looking for in a potential mate and then make a shirt with the Semacode pointing to that page prominently displayed to wear to the bar.
- Advertising I: I’m thinking seriously about updating the designs on the shirts I’m selling through CafePress to include the Semacode for this site (or for a yet-to-be-constructed page specifically for the shirts) on the back of each shirt, logo-style.
- Advertising II: Include the Semacode for a club or business on the flyers or advertisements.
I’m sure there are a lot more possibilities here.
Of course, the really ironic thing about all of this is that not only do I not have a cell phone, but I have no intention of getting one, as the fool things annoy me to no end (though, really, it’s not the phones themselves that annoy me as how incredibly rude cell phone users can be), so aside from slapping my Semacode around, I can’t really take advantage of the technology. That doesn’t make it any less interesting to me, though.
iTunes: “Dragula (Si Non Oscillas, Noli Tintinnare)” by Zombie, Rob from the album American Made Music (1999, 4:37).