Semapedia.org

Kommersant Article

Stan Wiechers — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:30:58 +0000

We just had an interview the russian daily kommersant about semapedia and the state of 2D barcodes in general:

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1211376

Love that they published the Bernie Madoff Tag:
http://www.kommersant.ru/dark-gallery.aspx?PicsID=354650&stpid=71

The google translation is hilarious:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kommersant.ru%2Fdoc.aspx%3FDocsID%3D1211376&sl=ru&tl=en&history_state0=

Bypass Neomedia Patent for Indirect Resolution of Barcodes

Stan Wiechers — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:09:54 +0000

Neomedia holds the patent 6,199,048 for indirect resolution of barcodes :

1.) the user initiates the code scan on his device and the scanner software retrieves the Identifier encoded in the barcode
2.) the scanner sends the Identifier to a online service to retrieve the associated URL
3.) the scanner is handing the URL to the browser or a different app to display the content

How about the following:

1.) the user initiates the code scan on his device and the scanner software retrieves the Identifier encoded in the barcode
2.) scanner uses the Identifier to assemble a URL like “http://www.online-db.com/resolve?id=[identifier]” and hands it *directly* to the browser
3.) the online service does a HTTP redirect to the content associated with the Identifier

That would turn indirect resolution into direct resolution insofar as the network triggers the final content URL and not the software on the device.

For the user the result is the same. It saves one network request from the scanner at the cost of one more redirect.

Would that bypass the neomedia patent? I am of course a big supporter of the QR code based direct encoding, but if you want to i.e. write a reader/browser based service that make use of the billions and billions of UPC Barcodes out there then you might run into patent issues if you go the first route, that why i hope that the second route might bypass the patent. Would be great if somebody could confirm that!

Ad Age - QR Code Article

Stan Wiechers — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:06:50 +0000

Interesting Article on QR Codes and the US, yes there is a future for QR codes in the US.
http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=138154

What I find really amusing about the article are the comments, always those stupid patent claims by neomedia. Wonder why they not get tired of that, they don’t have the QR Code patent or a patent that describes what QR Codes do. And why they don’t realize that it does NOT DO THEM ANY GOOD, the comments are so bad that you might think the competition if posting them to discredit them. They still try to keep the “fear” up, uh neomedia, we come for you if you use QR Codes. Don’t worry about them, QR Codes are they way to go, sorry Neomedia/ScanLife/…

If you are looking for a reader try this: http://www.tigtags.com/getqr

63% of Phones can install a QR Code Reader App

Stan Wiechers — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:48:04 +0000

What?? As many of you probably know, Alexis and me run TigTags and PercentMobile together with Dave Harper. We provide professional mobile analytics. We have a comprehensive database of devices with tons of properties, one of them is whether the device supports QR Codes and what reader you can download. We ran a query over the most used devices worldwide and crossed that with the QR Code capabilites and according to that:

63% of Phones can install a QR Code Reader App

This is good news, especially in an environment where people are getting too used to the idea that they can download applications to their phones. No need to rely on handset manufacturer to pre-install those devices, users can download the barcode readers themselves. Sometimes standards are imposed on us and there are quite a few barcode reader companies who want to impose their reader on us, but really if you create interesting QR code applications and people get the QR code reader on their phone, that beats imposition. Paying for barcodes is not en vogue, especially in a cash strapped environment.

To get a barcode for your phone try our QR Coder Reader download service.

Enjoy

Tyree Guyton

Stan Wiechers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:54:19 +0000

Last weekend we went for a family trip up north to Detroit. It always confuses me to see such a large and important city in such state of decay in a nation that calls itself the leading country of world, clearly not, not when the nation lets a city on that scale rod to its bones. Burned down family houses en masse, car wrecks, factory ruins, the ghostly train station and abandoned sky scrappers. Desolate and depressing. The more important that it has people like Tyree Guyton who started with his Grandfather the Heidelberg Project. He uses empty lots and abandoned houses as canvas for his uplifting, inspiring and positive art. The radiation of hope can be felt all around it. It was a pleasure talking to him and I feel very honored that he put a semapedia sticker on his work. Ein Man der Tat.

When you around make sure to visit him and also don’t forget the close by urban farmers that provide an excellent model for sustainability in difficult urban environment such as Detroit.

QR Code Reader Download

Stan Wiechers — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:04:01 +0000

Over the years we have been harvesting a mobile device database for our TigTags service and decided to use it to provide a QR Code Reader download service. Simply visit:

http://tigtags.com/getqr

with your mobile device and we see if we have a QR Code Reader for you. We didn’t include every QR Code Reader in the world, but decided to just present one or two per device, the ones we know that work well. We also didn’t include QR Code Readers that you need to purchase.

If we are missing out on your device, leave us a comment.

Enjoy;)

NeoMedia’s Barcode Lookup Patent Approved

Stan Wiechers — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:36:55 +0000

Sad, but true:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/NeoMedias-Barcode-Lookup-bw-14397693.html

What I don’t understand is if that covers direct QR Codes with the URL embedded as well. All the patents I have seen so far were describing indirect barcode usage that require a trip to the server to get the URL and send the URL back to the User.

Can anyobody shed a light on that? Will Microsofts Tags, UPCode, Scanbuy,… fall under that patent?

G1

Stan Wiechers — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:35:39 +0000

First thing I did when I got my T-Mobile G1 was installing the zxing barcode reader, worked without problems. Scanning of QR Codes is picture perfect, provides a good viewfinder and renders the result of the scan nicely by displaying the code and the resulting URL. Excellent job!

The barcode reader component also supports 1D barcodes, the barcodes you virtually find on every product. My fav app using those so far is the Comparison Shop Application, scan a product and it tells you where to find it cheap online, show you close by stores and in case of books also shows libraries that have the book. You might never shop the same.

But it gets better, as it turns out the G1 browser has Google Gears preinstalled, Google Gears is a plug-in that allows javascript to store/retrieve data on the client and to get its location. On a desktop browser the location is determined via your IP address, on a G1 however it gives you the location based on Cell Towers and GPS. So now you can write location aware websites! It is supposed to work on windows mobile 5.x as well with a preinstalled Google Gears plugin, can somebody verify that? We made prototype, works on a desktop browser but test it on a G1 when you have a chance. Uses wikipedia, flickr and outside.in.

Google Gears Location Experiment

Alexis on German TV

Stan Wiechers — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:35:48 +0000

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/content/606282?inPopup=true

Check him out;) Overall a very very good piece on QR codes.

TV: Semapedia on 3sat this Sunday - Stay tuned

Stan Wiechers — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:09:58 +0000

Hi all, we just wanted to pass along that this Sunday, we’ll be featured on the german-speaking public TV channel 3sat. As far as it looks, we are going to talk about Semapedia.org, as an example for how people can use the open QR Code technology to create fun and engaging applications.

Ok, here are the details:

The channel is 3sat, the show is called ‘neues’ (”New Stuff”) and it will be screened on 16:30-17:00 CET this Sunday.

Be there or see square!

iPhone QR Code Readers

Stan Wiechers — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:55:01 +0000

Over the course of the last weeks we have been testing some QR Code Readers for the iPhone and we are happy to give you a recommendation if you are still looking for a good one. It quickly came down to two readers the Neomedia NeoReader and the Beetagg Reader. They both do very well what they are supposed to do: decoding 2D barcodes (besides QR Code they also support their own codes, but we will ignore that, you know what we think about proprietary codes;)). They both read QR Codes that have a shadow cast over parts of the code, upside down, from the side, codes that are behind reflective glass, codes that have graphics embedded, codes from a LCD Screen and codes on a bend surface like a bottle. And they do it fast.

Both don’t go to the URL right away but do a redirection over their own servers to collect usage data. That is why the NeoReader asks you for Demographic Information in the Settings, but luckily that is optional. Also both suffer from the iPhone camera lack of a videomode, so you have to take a picture, rather then just moving the iPhone over it like you would do on a Symbian or Windows Mobile Device.

Our favorite is the Beetagg Reader, for two subtle but important factors:

a.) appears much simpler, no menus, just scan
b.) better messaging, it asks you if you want to open the URL (which can be activated for the NeoReader) and ~~it also tells you when it couldn’t scan the barcode, the NeoReader strangely just returns to the scan mode without letting you know, feels like a bug.~~ (Correction: NeoReader Version 1.02 fixes that, tells you when it can’t find a code )

Enjoy, here are both download URLs:

Beetagg: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=286586449&mt=8
NeoReader: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284973754&mt=8

A watershed moment for barcodes?

Stan Wiechers — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:29:20 +0000

That came in via a google alert on semapedia:

“Scanbuy, a global leader in mobile marketing solutions, today announced that it has secured a global agreement with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. to preload the ScanLife mobile 2D barcode application on Samsung’s camera phones.”

CEO Jonathan Bulkeley of Scanbuy went so far as to call the agreement a

“watershed moment for the 2D barcode market.”

Watershed moment? Lets have a look, their Readers read their very own EZcodes, where is watershed here? You have to pay money for the creation of codes, more a moneyshed from you. QR Codes and Datamatrix are free, you can create as many codes as you want to for $0. And I believe you even have to pay for code usage. EZcodes are indirect, they don’t encode an URL but an unique ID that is resolved on their server to a URL and then send back to the user, very old school, just encode the URL please like you do for QR Codes and Datamatrix, straightforward and no added point of failure, when scanbuy is down so are the codes. That is by design. Also QR codes can be easily created in every environment, their are libraries for java, ruby, .net, python, you name it, so very easy to integrate, not so with EZcodes, creation always needs go through them, they own the numbers encoded in the barcode. They claim national and international interoperability via their centralized system, URL are interoperable by design and even decentral.

So to sum it up, expensive, proprietary, less stable and harder to integrate into processes. Hardly a watershed. Lets be nice as well, they work well on very low quality cameras, but we write the September of 2008 and not 2004. Cameras these days in phones are top notch and getting better every day.

So why does Samsung who creates modern handsets like the succesful Samsung Instinct use such a backward code system that certainly won’t spin off innovative projects from mobile entrepreneurs, to get a revenue from barcode usage? hardly, to show how innovative they are, hardly, barcodes are not such an unusual sight anymore, the last esquire had a big and loud ralph lauren QR code ad.

A company like Samsung should be a rolemodel and push for open standards, without open standards I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this post.

Edit:
Of course read that one here as well about CTIA and Scanbuy:
http://wapreview.com/blog/?p=1148

Sea Level

Stan Wiechers — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:49:49 +0000

Our great supporters from Tagorg.com in Jordan managed to tag Sea Level, awesome idea!! See for yourself:

Palm Centro

Stan Wiechers — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:36:47 +0000

Been trying the Beetag Reader for Palm Devices on a Palm Centro, worked really well, can only recommend it. Also tried them on our www.videomeetsfunction.com project to see how it handles streaming video from youtube, not bad at all (Sprint PCS Network), pretty good quality!

U.S. Patent Office Rejects All Ninety Five NeoMedia Patent Claims

Stan Wiechers — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:06:22 +0000

Those are very good news, no Schadenfreude, but we are so glad that those ridiculous patent claims by the patent troll neomedia got rejected, they included reading an ID from a barcode or RFID chip from a cellphone, sending it to server, resolving it to a URL and sending the URL back to the cellphone, a pretty much standard procedure in one way or another. We got so many emails in the past if we are not afraid of neomedia and their patents. We never were and now those claims are finally over. Go create something and don’t be afraid of getting a letter from a neomedia lawyer.

http://theponderingprimate.blogspot.com/2008/07/us-patent-office-rejects-all-ninety.html