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How To Embed Data Into an Image for Mobile Users

Karl L. Gechlik — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:01:18 +0000

You remember playing Tag as a kid right? Some of you might still play it today – don’t worry we won’t judge you. (Yes we will!)

OK so this is nothing like that and is actually helpful for any type of marketing campaign. This can help you out with your high school election, help get you gigs around the neighborhood or how about get your friends involved with a new age scavenger hunt?

Sounds like fun or something that can help your business/organization? Well then keep on reading!

This is another cool new product from the Redmond camp and this might just be something that will stick around. You will start seeing these embedded into magazine ads, billboards and maybe even some creatively made graffiti….are you still with me? Good.

Microsoft built upon some older technology and breathed new life into it. This technology allows you the user to embed data within an image. There is also tracking and reporting analytic features to go with the app.

Using their website you can log in using your Live ID and get started. What you then do is click on ‘Create a Tag’.

When setting up my first tag I decided to embed my website’s URL. So the way this is supposed to work is when someone scans in my “Tag” created above on their cell phone using Microsoft’s free application it will instruct their mobile browser to launch my website with no other intervention.

You can also embed other items. You just need to pull down the tag type menu as you can see here:

You can embed Text, your Vcard with your contact information (this will be saved to the users contact list) or dialer. The dialer will dial up a number on the mobile phone. This is great for sales leads. Each option will give you different fields to fill out. All the fields other than URL allow you to password protect the item. This is how you can keep your scavenger hunt private!

You can choose how your tag will be displayed. You can decide if you want to include a link to download the software or various sizes as you can see in this screen shot:

You can also choose PDF, XPS or WMF. I suggest leaving this as a PDF because more phones know this format than the others!

The person who wants to view the “Tag” needs to have the Microsoft Tag reader installed. It is available from here. If you go to that URL on your device you probably will not have to choose which download you need. If you are going to download the software to your computer then you will need to choose your phone make/model.

The supported phones are listed below. Each link will point you to the correct page for your device.

You can also choose your handset by manufacturer instead. I downloaded the Windows Mobile version called tagreader.cab directly onto my HTC Touch Pro (running Windows Mobile 6.5 Beta)

You can use your application on your mobile phone to capture this tag above and it will automagically redirect your phones browser to my site AskTheAdmin – very cool.

If you don’t want to try it out for yourself check out this youTube video of it in action.

This is some real futuristic shiznit here. Do you know of any other cool new technologies that will be shoving themselves in front of our faces anytime soon? You do? Awesome – share them with us in the comments!

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What Are QR Codes? Digitize your World & Back Again

Jimmy Rogers — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:01:38 +0000

Last week I reviewed “YouAre” and dropped a little hint about an emerging technology called “QR Codes”. What are these rather strange looking 2D codes? Let’s take a closer look at them and see if there’s anything interesting you can do with them.

What are QR Codes?

You’re probably already familiar with the bar code. It’s a series of differently widthed and spaced lines that confers a numerical value to the item it is attached to. While it appears to be a 2D object, it’s actually one dimensional, since the scanner picks up all the information it needs by taking a cross-section of the image.

QR, or “Quick Response,” Codes are different because the entire image is part of the code. While I’m not an expert in the layout of these codes, here is some general info about how they are constructed.

The three prominent boxes in the corners of each code indicate the location of the image (so it can be centered by the image parser). Another smaller box in the lower-right aligns the image. The rest of the blocks indicate the information specific to the international standards (which were approved in 2000) and finally the identifying data contained within the code.

“How are these codes read?” you might be asking. Cameraphones are the answer. While the US has been slow to adopt cameraphones, their use became ubiquitous many years ago in Japan and other Asian nations. They subsequently began developing technologies that make the best use of all those cameras. One of them is QR Code. Any object or advertisement can be labeled with one of these bad boys and automatically any cameraphone user can immediately summon up the underlying message.

QR Code Generator

Now that you understand the premise of QR Codes, I’ll bet you’re hankering to try some out. First of all, you can make your own easily online. Semapedia has a QR Code generator, as do these similarly named sites at Winksite and Kaywa. The Semapedia one has an option to make several in a batch. Winksite is my favorite generator because it gives you the most options in terms of how you want your data to read out. Here’s a sample below:

After you generate these codes, what can you do with them? Well they have an enormous number of different uses. One of their first applications, industrial cataloging, can be used domestically as well. Simply place QR Codes on items like books or sealed boxes so you can quickly find out what’s in them. Alternately, you can post them in public places in hopes that other QR initiates will pick up on the trend and contact you.

While these may seem strange and foreign, the QR Code has already become a staple of Japanese culture. I asked my friend who recently visited Japan for several months if she was familiar with QR Codes. At first she didn’t recognized the term, but once I showed her one, she told me that they are on absolutely everything (known locally as “barcodes”). They display nutritional information on foods, coupons for products, and replace the “see our website” moniker found on most advertisements in America.

Want to try it out for yourself? Go to Semapedia and scroll to the bottom. You’ll see an area for selecting your type of phone. After that the instructions should guide you the rest of the way. If you’re an iPhone user, you’re in luck. There is a very nice App for the iPhone, called 2D Sense, already up on the App Store.

If you want to learn more about QR Codes, here are some resources for you:

Have you ever seen these out in the wild? I think I’ve seen them on the odd package sent through a shipping service, but that’s about it. Maybe now that I know about them, I’ll notice them more often (and snag a look with my iPhone).

[Images from YouSay, Wikipedia, and 2D Sense, respectively]

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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