No Barcode App? Try ZXing’s Online Decoder

ZXing Decoder Online is a web based bar code decoder from ZXing, an open source project that’s also created Android and mobile Java bar code reader apps and a bar code decoding library. The ZXing webapp lets you decode 1D and 2D bar codes found in images online or images uploaded from your device. It displays the contents of the bar code which could be text, a phone number, vCard or a URL. The decoder could be useful if your … Continue reading

Google’s Big QR Code Push – 100,000 Favorite Places Get Store Front Decals

Yesterday Google did something that should light a fire under the lagging adoption of mobile barcodes in the US.  They are sending window decals featuring a QR code to the 100,000 US businesses that are  most searched using Google.  The decals also have the Google Maps logo and identify the business as a “Favorite Place on Google“. Users with QR code readers on their phones can point the phone’s camera at the QR code, press a button and be taken … Continue reading

CTIA Endorses 2D Barcodes

Today the CTIA announced a “Camera-Phone Based Barcode Scanning White Paper” (PDF) at the morning keynote. There was a demonstration of scanning a bar code with a camera phone to launch a video on the handset. The white paper describes a somewhat complicated indirect access architecture where the code scanning application sends an identifier to a central “Clearing House” which routes it to a “Campaign Manager” associated with a particular service.  The Campaign Manager then sends a message to the handset application directing it … Continue reading

QR Codes

It looks like mobile 2D barcodes are starting to catch on in Europe at least. When I was in Japan a couple of years ago they were everywhere, on handbills, maps, business cards, product packaging and in magazines. The idea is that you point a camera phone at a barcode and take a picture. Software in the phone decodes the image and takes you to a mobile website, downloads a ringtone or adds contact information to your phone’s address book. … Continue reading