My friend, The Pondering Primate, has an excellent idea for linking the physical and digital worlds with Shot Codes.
Shot Codes, are codes like the one here. You take a picture of one
with your camera phone, which instructs the phone to open its browser
on a specific web page. The one above is for this site, of course, if
you want to try it.
The PP suggests a great application for eBay. Say you’re running an
auction and you want to maximise local impact. Maybe for something
better sold locally anyway (like a bike), but want to tap into eBay’s
familiar platform. You can print out a flyer, complete with Shot Code,
to put in your local supermarket. People "click" on the Shot Code and
can see the price reached and place a bid - all from the comfort of
their own phone 
That’s a pretty cool, real world application, just begging to be taken up.
So how is this different from Semacode (http://semacode.org/) besides shape and size of the code? Same idea, different company? (Nothing wrong with that, the more the better).
On a side note, I wonder what all these companies think about Paperclick/Neomedia (http://paperclick.com/) owning a bunch of patents on this technology (http://paperclick.com/patents.jsp). Sigh…
Shot Code / Semacode
Russell and The Pondering Primate post application ideas around codes that can be read with a camera phone:
“The PP suggests a great application for eBay. Say you’re running an auction and you want to maximise local impact. Maybe for something bette…
Technically, Shotcode stores a numerical ID. Shotcode read then calls home to shotcode.com to find out what URL matches that ID.
Semacode stores the whole URL in the optical code, so there’s no middleware/phone home, you connect directly to the intended target.
The payment models also differ.
–simon
Fun, a discussion between simon and us on a weblog!
We differ from Semacode because:
- ShotCodes are specifically developed for use with camera mobile phones making it a very robust system (Don’t take our word for it, test it yourself on http://www.shotcode.com).
- ShotCodes are aesthetically more friendly
- ShotCodes are always the same size and will not grow or shrink with the length of the URL
- ShotCodes serves an automatically optimised page through our servers. This makes linking to a standard page on Ebay a lot more viable (99,9% of standard webpages look horrible on mobile phones).
- ShotCodes are dynamic, you can change the URL on the fly without having to change your print material.
- Last but not least, ShotCode’s server connection system allows for a cost-per-click model for commercial use. This gives complete transparency to the cost-profit relation (as opposed to a licence based model).
++Dennis
This is old news… The ‘QR Code’ (see link) is in wide use. My phone comes standard with an application that reads them.
HyperTokyo - this kind of thing might be old news in Japan, but it’s a bit harsh to conclude that everywhere has QR codes on that basis
Russell
Devin, why would a company’s patents make you want to sigh? Patents have been the foundation of American business and entrepreneurship for centuries. The patent system works, and good ideas should always be rewarded when the “big guys” can always get wind and beat you to market. You would think that someone like yourself would be behind “the little guy”; without patent protection, eventually there would be about five, maybe six companies. GloboServe, Inc.
You should be glad that these patents, which are worth a fortune (which will be revealed in due time) are held by the good people of Neomedia Technologies.
Its true that QR codes are old news in Japan and have permeated the advertising world. Your take on the barcode is interesting, however, one thing that makes QR codes so popular is that it is an open format, there is no need to get information from a server, all you need is right their in the code. This means that no-one person owns the information format( apart from the royalty-free patent held by Densu ). For something like this to gain mass appeal it has to be simple and open, this way the technology will sell its self and spread naturaly. However, with a large enough marketing budget that wouldn’t be a problem for you. ( IMHO of course )