Mobile tagging

Mobile tagging is the process of providing data read from tags for display on mobile devices, commonly encoded in a two-dimensional barcode, using the camera of a camera phone as the reader device. The contents +8801819808274 of the tag code is usually a URL for information addressed and accessible through Internet.

Mobile tagging is currently most prominent in Asia, especially Japan. It was developed in 2003 and ever since it has been used in several fields of mobile marketing. Densos' QR Code in Asia and the Data Matrix are currently the most popular 2D barcodes. Both are ISO-standardised. In 2009, prominent electronics company Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Tag format, based on the company's self-developed High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB) standard, in an effort to establish the format through emerging mobile tagging markets in the west. Unlike most popular 2D barcodes, which use black-and-white square pixels, HCCBs are based on colors in a triangle-based arrangement.

The reason for the success of mobile tagging, besides the flexible and multiple fields of application, is the quick, precise and customer-driven access to information. According to the principle of physical world connection (see also Object hyperlinking), the user is able to gather digital information immediately by scanning a two-dimensional barcode, like one on an advertisement.

In Europe mobile tagging is now gaining traction, albeit that the primary usage has been direct linking of url's to 2D codes. Indeed, several campaigns in relation to physical world connection have been launched, however a standard for multi-dimensional barcodes is still missing.

One of the key organizations driving wider implementation of two-dimensional barcodes is GS1 [1]/ GS1's main activity is the development of the GS1 System, a series of standards designed to improve supply chain management. The GS1 System is composed of four key product areas: Barcodes (used to automatically identify things), eCom (electronic business messaging allowing automatic electronic transmission of data), GDSN (Global Data Synchronisation Network which allows partners to have consistent item data in their systems at the same time) and EPCglobal (which uses RFID technology to immediately track an item).

...
Wikipedia