Everyone is talking about RFID – then this caught my eye… Neat, practical and easy to implement on the supply side…
Software based on square bar codes could make surfing from mobile phones far less fiddly by allowing cellphone cameras to automatically load up web addresses.
The open source software, called Semacode, puts to good use the web browsers and cameras that now come as standard in most mobile phones, by making the phone act like a bar code reader.
Data corresponding to a web address is encoded in a pattern of black and white squares, called a data matrix. This is an existing open standard normally used in manufacturing for tracking parts. The Semacode software loaded on the phone decodes the image to produce the web address (URL).
The aim of Semacode is to link the physical world with the online world by enabling people to look up information without the fiddly business of having to type in a URL on a tiny keypad. For example, someone could scan a code posted on a bus stop with their phone to quickly look up a web page showing when the next bus is due.