Semacode
Encyclopedia
Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It is also this company's trade name for machine-readable ISO
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
/IEC 16022 data matrix symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
s, a type of barcode
Barcode
A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...
resembling a crossword puzzle
Crossword Puzzle
For the common puzzle, see CrosswordCrossword Puzzle was the second to last album made by The Partridge Family and was not one of the most popular albums. It was released in 1973 and did not produce a U.S. single. This album was finally released on CD in 2003 on Arista's BMG Heritage label...
, which encode Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
URLs
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
.
Semacodes are primarily aimed at being used with cellular phones which have built-in camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
s, to quickly capture a Web site address for use in the phone's web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
. Semacodes are in fact DataMatrix encoded URLs.
The Semacode website states that Semacode tags are an "open system" and that tag creation is "completely unrestricted," with the SDK software tools being free of charge for non-commercial use.
Potential uses for Semacode tags are still being explored, and will complement development of the concept of using mobile phones as devices for information gathering and exchange. Suggestions from the Semacode.org website included:
- placing Semacode tags on posters, such as those for concerts and public performances. Those interested could use their mobile phone to take a photo of the tag, which could link them directly to the web page where they could order tickets.
- using Semacode tags and mobile phones to enable multilingual museum exhibits - a tag photographed at the exhibition entrance could set a language cookieHTTP cookieA cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is used for an origin website to send state information to a user's browser and for the browser to return the state information to the origin site...
in the phone's web browser, and subsequent Semacode tags displayed at each exhibit could then link the phone's browser directly to a web page about the item, displayed in the user's language of choice. - placing Semacode tags on name tagName tagA name tag is a badge or sticker worn on the outermost clothing as a means of displaying the wearer's name for others to view.Name tags may be temporary or permanent. Temporary ones typically can be written upon so that the wearer's name may be handwritten or printed...
s given to conference attendees. These tags could provide the corporate web address of each attendee's company, or their biography and contact details.
See also
- QR CodeQR CodeA QR code is a type of matrix barcode first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside of the industry due to its fast readability and comparatively large storage capacity. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white...
an implementation of a similar concept invented in Japan. - PDF417PDF417PDF417 is a stacked linear barcode symbol format used in a variety of applications, primarily transport, identification cards, and inventory management. PDF stands for Portable Data File. The 417 signifies that each pattern in the code consists of 4 bars and spaces, and that each pattern is 17...
- Object hyperlinkingObject hyperlinkingObject hyperlinking is a neologism that usually refers to extending the Internet to objects and locations in the real world. The current Internet does not extend beyond the electronic world. Object hyperlinking aims to extend the Internet to the real world by attaching object tags with URLs as...
- High Capacity Color BarcodeHigh Capacity Color BarcodeHigh Capacity Color Barcode is the name coined by Microsoft for its technology of encoding data in a 2D "barcode" using clusters of colored triangles instead of the square pixels traditionally associated with 2D barcodes. Data density is increased by using a palette of 4 or 8 colors for the...
- SPARQCodeSPARQCodeA SPARQCode is a matrix code encoding standard that is based on the physical QR Code definition created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave.- Overview :...
- Cauzin SoftstripCauzin SoftstripCauzin Softstrip was the first commercial 2D barcode format. Introduced in 1985, it could store up to 1000 bytes per square inch, which was 20 to 100 times more than the bar codes of the day. It is now known as Datastrip code....
an historical implementation of a similar concept introduced in the 1980s