2-D Barcodes for your mobile device

Nokia 2-d barcode This post is pretty far out in left field, as were regular UPC bar codes when they were originally developed. Did you know many Nokia mobile devices come with a 2-D barcode reader?

Barcodes are close to my heart. When I owned a ticket business we had to create, read, and validate them. It was actually a piece of cake because the barcode scanner does all the work of reading them, and opensource code did all the work of making them. And validation was simply: does this code exist in this show’s set of codes and has it been validated before?

A new twist in barcodes is these 2-D barcodes which you may have seen floating around. They look a bit like crossword puzzles on some kind of serious drugs. My best engineering guess as to why traditional UPC codes would be unsuitable for this application is that the 2-D format optimizes the available real estate better. The original linear code readers had to move over the code in a linear way. Next generation was able to reverse using expected start/stop codes if the scan happened to go the wrong direction. Then came the lasers, which were able to take it all in without moving. And if you can do that, WHY NOT make it 2D?

You can create a 2-D barcode of a URL, your ecard, or an arbitrary text. You can do that at
this page on nokia’s site. I used this site to generate the graphic you see at the head of this post. You can put these graphics on anything: a shirt, a business card, a web site, your dog’s tag or whatever.

I’m a bit phone phobic myself. My cell phone is a simple model that makes and receives phone calls and isn’t subscribed to any other services. I don’t own a reader, and I don’t expect that the hand held scanners I have left over from my ticket biz days will read these but of course I will test. You never know!

Be the first to decode the graphic in this blog post and comment what it is!

16 comments to 2-D Barcodes for your mobile device

  • i find 3 no there

    264 i dont know whether they are right or wrong

    Link Buildings last blog post..Directory Listings

  • admin

    huh? please explain better your comment.

  • It Says: http://dorkage.net

    I do have a nokia phone, but I cheated…

    Steves last blog post..Lift Chair Recliners

  • admin

    Thanks for drop by steve, and your answer is correct. I can’t comment your blog because I don’t want to register. But how do you mean “cheat”? I was looking for some web-based app that reads the image and decodes it but I couldn’t find one. And wow, Japan seems to have gone for these BIG TIME!

  • Honestly, that site gets hit pretty bad with spam and by bots, so I have a very restrictive comment policy on it.

    I have one that I am probably going to put commentluv on in the next few weeks, so I will let you know when I get it up. Thanks for stopping by 🙂

    I found a site that would decode the QR code at ( drhu.org/QRCode/QRDecoder.php )

    It looks like there is a java library over at sourceforge too, but I don’t really know anything about it. ( qrcode.sourceforge.jp/ )

  • akismet catches 98% of the spam for me. You should have it if you don’t. They have it for pretty much any platform.

  • Steve

    If you want, you can check out the blog in this email address (everything after the @)

    I want to create a new theme for it and the domain itself is pretty new, but I have been blogging under that name for a little while now.

    I haven’t installed comment luv on it yet, because I want to play with the dofollow plugin a little bit first. This is also why I didn’t post the url. You don’t have to be a member to post though 🙂

    @Colleen, yeah I had it installed before, but took it off. I have been meaning to reinstall it, but even if I did I would probably have to moderate everything that comes in.

  • Truly beneficial but there are alternatives though. Still looks the best to me.. Thanks.
    Cheers!!!:)

  • stay up to date with the Latest Technology News in the world. Latest news and Technology Headlines of gadgets, mobile phones, computers, notebooks, apple, hardware and software

    Technology Newss last blog post..HP Mini 1000 Notebook

  • These 2D barcodes are quite interesting to look at because we are so used to the 1D ones in various places. If they became common, I could see photoshopped images of them as crossword puzzle holders being made in inventive ways. Also, about having a simple phone, I think that owners of phones like to either have an abundance of features to tell people about, or have a very plain phone to tell people about.

    Armen Shirvanians last blog post..Leading By Example – Guest Post

  • They look very strange and busy, but I can’t complain much. Great concept, 2D bar codes… Who would have ever thought. Lol!

  • Kirk

    Most conventional scanners sweep a lazer beam which can’t resolve 2-d. You need a camera for that.

  • admin

    Oh damn so my little PosGuys laser scanners can never read these even with software updates? damn, what lack of foresight! I knew the old linear barcode scanners couldn’t.

  • I could see photoshopped images of them as crossword puzzle holders being made in inventive ways. Also, about having a simple phone..

  • Actually the site I work for creates asset tracking software that is using cell phones as the next barcode scanner, thus removing a piece of equipment from a companies inventory.

  • […] funny how things confluence. A while back I did a post spreading the word about 2-D bar codes. Just recently I attended Beaver Bar Camp and went to an un-session titled Nerdlepoint by a woman […]

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