Imagine little blue hyperlinks on your stuff, your real stuff, not your computer or your cellphone, but you jacket, you box of pancake mix, that lamp in the corner. The idea of creating hardlinks or physical world hyperlinks boggles my mind and gets my imagination running.
Well, it’s possible, and they aren’t little blue links they are QR codes (sometimes called 2d barcodes). Japan was covered in them when I lived there 2 years ago. QR codes were on everything from soda cans to billboards. For QR codes to work you need two things, the code with encoded info and a way to read them, usually a small cellphone application.
These codes are little windows from the physical world into the information of the virtual world. Here’s an idea, I could make some seriously fun alternate reality games around the city. Or what about being able to take a camera phone pic of a business card and instantly be able to call that person and later search for them again in my address book. I want to put aQR code on my website, so you can transfer my contact info from website to you cellphone through the screen. I want to use it for cute applications, like tagging my crafts with the maker name and website (the kind of info that doesn’t normally fit on a little “Made by:” tag).
Speaking of space constraints, my plants don’t have room for an instruction sheet, but the small stake labels or even the pot itself would have room for a QR Code. QR Codes could link my objects to the information that I need to make decision about them. Should I wear a jacket today? My clothes can link to the weather, my car can link to my favorite gas finding site. Friend’s objects can have their phone numbers (Can I keep your book for another week?). Or what about will-call paper tickets at shows? You’re handed the paper only to walk 10 feet and have it taken back or ripped up (a waste of paper), imagine just using your phone to hold a QR code image that you scan screen to screen.
Oh, and how much geekcraft-cred would be earned with a little QR Code cross-stiching? Traditional QR codes have 3 points that define the plane, and the forth point helps correct for skew from angles. There are also other proprietary types of codes, such as the Dune-ish shot code.
You can learn more at Instructables, make your own or get a reader for your cellphone.
A flickr search turns up some really amazing results.
If anyone gets any crazy ideas let me know, I’ll help out and in the least I’d love to see what you make.
