Stephen Withers
Thursday, 17 September 2009 06:28
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 4
The main difference seems to be that instead of using black squares, it uses black or coloured triangles. The use of colour means the same amount of information can be encoded in a smaller space (handy for business cards, etc).
Microsoft also claims that the scheme it uses can cope with out-of-focus images that are as small as 40 pixels square.
Another benefit is that a Tag doesn't have to be made up of triangles. The normal black background can be replaced with a colour image overlaid with coloured dots, or you can go a step further and change the shapes of those dots so they form a recognisable image. Perhaps the example that's easiest to visualise is an array of jellybeans.
This is a mixed blessing. On one hand, a black and white QR Code is in stark contrast to coloured artwork, and can be visually jarring. On the other hand, a custom Tag isn't obviously a Tag and therefore may be overlooked by the person looking at the material
If you're the sceptical type, you're probably thinking "I bet this only works with Windows Mobile phones."
Well, no. It's also available for J2ME, iPhone, Blackberry and Symbian S60 handsets. A notable exception is the Palm Pre.
The Tag Reader application can be downloaded from
gettag.mobi at no charge.
So what's the catch? Find out on
page 3.
