HighCapacityColorBarcode
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Microsoft Tag makes a video appearance, still seeking popularity
"It's the hyperlink in the physical world" says a Microsoft PR man, giving us the most succinct definition of what Redmond's Tag initiative is all about. Having announced its alternative take on the barcode at CES 2009, Microsoft has been working behind the scenes on proliferating the use of these multicolored Tags, which are designed to be snapped by nearby cameraphones. Once the pattern is recognized, you can obtain digital content directly on your phone -- whether it be a website link, YouTube video, or whatever -- and the uses are pretty much limitless: business cards, product packaging, magazines, anything that can benefit from supplemental online content and has a flat surface is a candidate to be Tagged. Such is the theory anyhow, and Microsoft's doing all it can to make it happen, with software for most mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Video demonstration after the break.
Microsoft's 'elite' HCCB barcodes to contain promo extras
High Capacity Color Barcode: Microsoft's solution to the storage-deficient UPC. Up to two-pages of data can be stored in the four- and eight-color geometric patterns. That's double the amount a traditional UPC can store, according to BBC.The HCCB will find its way onto Xbox 360 discs (and standard DVDs) by the end of the year as a 'partner' barcode. "The UPC barcodes will always be there. Ours is more of a niche barcode where you want to put a lot of information in a small space," Microsoft Research engineering director Gavin Jancke told BBC. But why?It seems that camera phones have the iddy biddy keys to unlock the jumbled mess of triangles. Snap a photo and you've got yourself a web address. Hit up the website and you'll find a pot of digital swag. Viva free wallpaper!Eh, anything to turn the tide of a console war, right?
