Jim,
Thank you for the insights! They're great, and extremely helpful for
the class lecture I am putting together.
Apart from the ubiquitous advertisements, one of the truly inventive
things that we are seeing in Japan is a "layering" of QR codes into
existing websites. So, for example, if you use your PC to access
important information such as the weather (for anyone interested in how
much snow will fall in Niigata today, you can click here
http://weather.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/15/5420.html), if you scroll down
the page, halfway down on the left-hand side is a QR code with a link to
the same information on your mobile phone. While the fundamental
weather "content" is the same on the mobile site, it has been stripped
down to its bare essentials.
Maybe I am getting excited about a very little thing, but this and
Amazon's "Scan Search"
(http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/amazon-japan-cell-phone-fancypants-service-026198.php)
are examples of a compelling integration of the mobile platform WITH the
PC platform. The big pushback that we regularly hear about the mobile
Internet is that "the screen is too small" or the keyboard is too
cumbersome, etc.. as if these two platforms are competing. But with
these developments, we're starting to see a future where the two
compliment one another nicely.
Is anyone else on this list working on or with interesting applications
related to the phone's on-board camera? Are there any innovative uses
of video as well?
Thank you in advance for any help, support of constructive feedback.
(note: This information will be integrated into my upcoming spring 2006
class on mobile and Internet marketing here at IUJ, where we have
masters-level students from more than 40 countries represented on
campus, and the common language used in all classes is English.
Students will not be charged for these lecture materials, and in the
spirit of academic inquiry, I am more than happy to make them available
free of charge to anyone interested in them offline.)
Jim Levinger wrote:
>There are some key reasons why QR codes were adopted in Japan and why you
>will not see it have similar success in other markets. Let me try to explain
>why, I apologize for the length of the email but it is a pretty involved
>issue.
>
>First some background I am with a company called Nextcode Corporation based
>in the US, www.nextcodecorp.com, we have been doing extensive work with QR
>codes as well as other code formats, for over four years and have developed
>and sold QR encoding and decoding software in Japan and the US. Our only
>business is creating code scanning and code creation software for camera
>phones.
>
>QR code was first developed by Denso for automotive applications. The code
>was at its inception designed for industrial purposes like encoding shipping
>containers. The code contains a compression schema that is suited to
>encoding Kanji which is not available in Data Matrix. The designers of the
>code did not envision that QR would be used for consumer applications. They
>expected that to decode the code one would use an industrial scanner. Also
>some of the issues of integrating codes into consumer publications like
>advertising, directories, etc. where space, code shape or aesthetics were
>important were never considered.
>
>The industrial legacy of QR represents huge limitations for consumer
>applications. For example: Codes are always square, the minimum QR code size
>is 21x21, sizes grow at arbitrary 4 module per side increments, 21x21,
>25x25, 29x29, etc. Further the finder pattern (the square "eyes") of the
>code is both inefficient and very industry looking. As a result, one needs
>to use a QR code that is much larger and takes up much more space than it
>ideally should for consumer applications. If you were putting a QR code on a
>shipping container who cares.
>
>However in consumer applications and integration with advertising, space
>ease of use and aesthetics are serious issues.
>
>Because Japan moved very fast to adopt code scanning, there were no other
>good 2D code options available other than QR. To overcome the inefficiencies
>and constraints of QR Japanese handset manufacturers introduced macro focus
>lenses. By putting much better optics and macro capabilities into the phones
>one is able to shrink down the QR code to fit it into places that it would
>otherwise not be able to be used.
>
>Outside Japan, few handsets are being shipped with macro lenses. Macro
>lenses drive up cost and introduce usability issues. Just take a look at the
>handsets sold by Nokia and Motorola as an example, none have macro lenses.
>Also, higher resolution imagers do not solve the problem of defocus that
>creates too much blur to make a small code readable. While there are many
>other issues with QR code that make it sub-optimal for consumer applications
>I don't have time to address them all.
>
>To solve these issues other code formats are being introduced, you can find
>ColorCode from Color Zip and ShotCode which was originally called Spot Code.
>These codes become more readable with standard camera phones by greatly
>reducing the amount to data that one can encode and then linking to
>Server-based information. They only carry only about 50 bits (including
>error detection/correction) or so of data far less than even the smallest QR
>code. They have applications but are in no way a realistic replacement for
>QR.
>
>Warning promotional message ahead: To try to solve some of these issues, my
>firm spent years working on a consumer code format called mCode which is
>specifically designed for camera phones and mobile applications. We have
>recently launched our service called ConnexTo. We provide a free code
>creation tool online at www.ConnexTo.com and one can download a free code
>reader client application from our WAP site. If you are interested you can
>see how we have approached this quite differently than the way QR works.
>
>Because we do not require special optics it opens up lots of applications
>and markets that would be blocked were they to rely on QR. Further our code
>is designed to anticipate low quality optics and consumer use cases. There
>is plenty of info online if you are interested.
>
>Jim Levinger
>CEO
>Nextcode Corporation
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: keitai-l-bounce@appelsiini.net [mailto:keitai-l-bounce@appelsiini.net]
>On Behalf Of Christopher Billich
>Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 7:05 AM
>To: keitai-l@appelsiini.net
>Subject: (keitai-l) AW: Re: QR codes - used outside of Japan yet?
>
>I don't know about QR and other b/w 2D codes in this respect, but color
>codes work with much lower-resolution cameras than those, so from a
>technological POV you wouldn't have a problem on most European handsets.
>
>As far as user adoption of mobile content in Europe in general goes, that's
>another story entirely, of course.
>
>Christopher
>
>
>
>>-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>>Von: keitai-l-bounce@appelsiini.net
>>[mailto:keitai-l-bounce@appelsiini.net] Im Auftrag von Gerhard Fasol
>>Gesendet: Donnerstag, 12. Januar 2006 15:00
>>An: keitai-l@appelsiini.net
>>Betreff: (keitai-l) Re: QR codes - used outside of Japan yet?
>>
>>Michael(tm) Smith wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Wow. I guess I hadn't realized that cameraphones elsewhere were
>>>that far behind relative to the ones in use here and in Korea.
>>>
>>>
>>yes. If you look at Camera-phones, data transmission speed,
>>and several other factors, Japan is about 3-5 years ahead,
>>or maybe even more.
>>
>>Gerhard
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Gerhard Fasol, PhD Eurotechnology Japan K. K.
>>http://fasol.com/ http://www.eurotechnology.com/
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>This mail was sent to address 24h@billich.biz
>>Need archives? How to unsubscribe?
>>http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/
>>
>>
>>--
>>No virus found in this incoming message.
>>Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>>Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.17/227 - Release
>>Date: 11.01.2006
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
--
Philip Sugai
Assistant Professor of Marketing
International University of Japan
777 Kokusai Cho, Minami Uonuma-Shi
Niigata 949-7277, Japan
Office Phone/Fax: 81-(0)25-779-1400
Received on Fri Jan 13 06:15:54 2006