Seron comes up with a new survey from MyVoice in QR Code Usage in Japan - Survey from October 2007

Q2: Do you use your mobile phone’s QR code or bar code reader? (Sample size=mobile phone users)

Often use	4.9%
Sometimes use	42.2%
Have used it before	14.6%
Know what QR codes are, but don’t use them	27.7%
Just heard the name	2.9%
Not even heard of them	7.6%
No answer	0.1%

This question was rather badly worded as it confuses awareness of QR codes with usage of them; the number of people aware of QR codes but not owning phones with decoding facilities is not determined.

Also worthy of note:

Declining PC/Mac Internet usage in Japan among the 20 to 39 age group (2000-2006). Accessing the internet through the keitai (mobile phone) becomes predominant.



Sources:
パソコン見放す20代「下流」携帯族
The Second Digital Divide in Japanese Society

Update: article from November 5: In Japan, PCs are becoming sooo version 1.0

Pocketguide DevLearn

For those of you that are attending DevLearn. I've created the PocketGuide again this year. I did it for the Annual Gathering in Boston and while the online version did not work too well, the ones that I left at the registration desk flew away quickly. So this year we will have more at the registration desk and the pdf link above should get you a good copy.

As Brent Schlenker has already a QR Code on his blog, I would find it great to integrate this QR Code in the Pocketguide. This way he can offer updates and discussions about DevLearn any time. I see this combination as the killer app for any conference: pocketguide + QR Code. On top of the advantages of a paper pocketguide already mentioned, the pocketguide would then also be updated and could include audiovisual material (photos, mp3 podcasts, 3gp videos).

Just an addendum to my last post. We have a chance to pass directly to web/mobile 3.0 (however meaningful or meaningless this dot zero numbers are), but I get the feeling that most proprietory code companies (there are exceptions) remain stuck in 1.0 respectively have a last century mindset.

According to that famous quote, history repeats itself first as a tragedy (the dot com bubble burst) and then as a farce.

Jan Chipchase in his TED Presentation

The benchmark for a big idea is changing, if you wanna a big idea you have to embrace everybody on the planet.
The street will figure out ways to innovate as long as it fulfills basic needs. It will innovate in ways we cannot anticipate.

This could be the introductory quote for a QR Code manifesto.

See also:
My first notes for such a manifesto from February 2007

QR Codes and Learning
QR Codes at mLearn 2007 by Leonard Low

If you’re attending an m-learning conference in the future, consider having a QR Code for your own contact information added to your business card; getting a QR Code stamp made; adding a QR Code for your contact details or website to your presentation; or even having it printed on a t-shirt so other attendees can “snap” your details in seconds! :)

See also:
Toefl Test with QR Code
And some more T-Shirts here and there.


QR Codes and Wayfinding
QR Codes Show The Way

The Taiwan Academic Network Conference 2007 is being held this week at Taiwan National University. This year's theme is on ubiquitous campus and mobility, and one of the papers submitted is on using QR Codes to improve campus accessibility and navigation ("Study of Indoor Wayfinding Systems based on QR Codes and Spatial Navigation Models", by Yen-Yin Chu, Chung Yuan Christian University).

Chu's basic idea is to have QR Codes posted around the campus to help people unfamiliar with the environment find their way around.

See also the Powerpoint: QR Code+TANET2007


QR Code Seminars
Kaywa together with people from SMI, Ringier and MNC (Alcatel-Lucent) will hold an internal seminar on Mobile Tags with Ringier and Swisscom.

Publimedia also announces workshops.


Advanced Security with ucodeQR Code
I also spoke about ucodeQR Codes at Infosec, see my presentation.
How to use the ucodeQR tags (scroll down)
Tokyo Ubiquitous Technology Project in Ginza uses ucodeQR Codes

ucodeQR Code Container Specification (PDF in japanese)


Document Retrieval with QR Codes
Effective Document Information Retrieval System for Both Paper and Electronic Documents

This paper presents a feasible and effective solution for solving the document information retrieval (DIR) problem for both paper and electronic documents using the quick response code (QR Code). The two dimensional QR Codes provide much bigger data storage then traditional one dimensional barcodes, more document information can be embedded for making offline document processing possible. The document information is proposed to be stored into the QR Code in XML format for maximum portability and integration with other document processing systems. The evaluation results for the prototype system showed that many benefits can be obtained for both paper and electronic document processing environments.

See also: IBM/Ricoh QR Code Special-Function Parameters. By the way Ricoh came also out with a cool way to store your personal settings for the copy machine.


Delivery System with QR Codes or why QR would also beat EAN
Delivery System with QR Code (2-dimensional symbol)

In 1993, GS1 Japan drew up guidelines for the system using ASN and SCM in cooperation with the Japan Chain Store Association (JCA).
However, in the actual transactions, many SME business partners face difficulties in the use of ASN. In department stores, in particular, as these stores handle many product items, most of their business partners are SMEs that do not employ ASN systems.
To cope with this situation, in 1999, we conducted a pilot with Mitsukoshi Department Store (one of the largest department store chains in Japan) to encode ASN information into two-dimensional symbol (QR code, the most popular and widely-used in Japan) on the SCM label.

[...] The spread of this system has succeeded because of two factors:
One is that features of the system are recognized and appreciated by users, such as notation in Japanese (Chinese characters) is possible by means of the QR code, reading errors can be corrected, etc.
Another factor is that employing this system has enabled automated purchase report processing at department stores. Department stores publish detailed accounts payable data for each supplier on their websites, and this has promoted wide recognition of the advantages for suppliers and wholesalers who can now inquire about payment schedules immediately via the Internet instead of by telephone or fax.

Airline Tickets with QR Code
After the recent accouncement by IATA, here is an in-between solution from ANA. In-between insofar as you still have to print out your ticket. The next generation ticket will be an SMS with a QR Code sent to your phone.
Passport and QR code, please

Clever use of 2-dimensional barcodes by All Nippon Airways (ANA). If you opt for e-check-in on their website the system sends you a QR code. All you have to do is print it out, take the printout with you to the airport and hold it in front of the display of the check-in machine, which will then give you your boarding pass. Simple and easy.

See also:
Hobsons.fr

Today I am presenting at Swiss Infosec 2007 about Mobile Tags and Security? I already did this presentation once, but changed it now a little bit.

The presentation is in german: Mobile Tags and Security? at Swiss Infosec 2007 (PDF, 1,8 MB)

22. Oktober in Innsbruck: Mobile Tagging / QR Codes

There is a Wiki too.

Here is an overview and some basic links in german

Gallerie Japan (Marketing NZ & Australian Food & Wine in Japan) writes:

We are proud to have produced New Zealand’s first phone website for Woolllaston Estates.

A QR Code is on each bottle label for sale in Japan, consumers scan the QR Code using their mobile phone and are able to read wine reviews, see images and read tasting notes for all the Woollaston range.
They can also write a wine review, read food pairing suggestions or join a tasting at their nearest wine club.
Local & international sales can also be done through the mobile phone.

Even a QR Code placed in print media or marketing material will link to the phone website, in English, Japanese & Korean

I would love that Woolllaston Estates puts there QR Code on all their bottles, not only on the ones shipped to Japan. I certainly will then buy a bottle or more;).
I hope we see some here in the near future too.

***

Update: Thank you Hector (ThinkMobi)



Image: Winopedia

Wine List with QR Codes (PDF)

The post Nokia’s dilemma: operator friend or foe? is a great read and asks some hard questions.

The following passages I liked most. They also explain why it is so hard for "content" (and I would add marketing) companies to understand the mobile space. They have to think out of the box if they want to be players in that space.

Communication is king and presence is a prince

At Nokia’s own internal thought leadership conference in Helsinki nearly two years ago they had Andrew Odlyzko, mathematician and Internet philosopher, explain the future dynamics of the Internet and broadband. One central part of his thesis is that communication is king; content is secondary. When I take a photo of my kids at the zoo, and share it with my parents, that’s communication, not content.

Douglas Galbi (an FCC economist) takes the model one step further, with three basic modes of communication: presence (the sensuous sense of the other person being with you, as social bonding); storytelling (which includes the narrative of a game, the lyrics and emotions of a song, or the scenes of a movie); and pure information transfer (I want a taxi! What’s tomorrow’s weather?).

[...] Remember the day at the zoo? Nobody makes a satisfactory product yet for me to share the experience. It’s sure not MMS. I should be going round the zoo, snapping away, and each picture should become the new backdrop on both Nana and Grandad’s phones, as well as being downloaded to their digital picture frame at home. Yet who is going to integrate, retail and support such a product? Who will distribute it? Who do you depend on to embed 3G or WiMax or CDMA into each new connected appliance?

Spex, the german magazine for pop culture puts the QR Code on its cover, inspired by the Pet Shop Boys Integral video.

From the Editorial:

Er begegnet uns ständig, bald wird er den guten, alten Strichcode abgelöst haben. Der Code birgt eine verschlüsselte Botschaft. Je mehr Buchstaben, desto feingliedriger wird das Raster. Die Handys der neuen Generation besitzen bereits einen Scanner, mit dem der Code gelesen werden kann, andere kann man nachrüsten: Man scannt das Code-Quadrat und liest eine Nachricht – oder wird direkt mit einer Webseite verlinkt.

Die Folgen für die Kunst, die Literatur, das Kino, die Musik und die digitale Interaktion sind absehbar. Man schlendert, an nichts Böses denkend, die Straße hinab, an einen Laternenpfahl geklebt: ein Zettel, der auf irgendetwas hinweist, außerdem der Code. Klick. Das Telefon verbindet mich – mit einer Textbotschaft, einem Song, einem neuen Film.

Alleine, dass der Code als Verzierung, als Schmuck durchgeht, hat bereits etwas ebenso Subversives wie Beunruhigendes. So schön und streng und elegant hat die Digitalisierung des öffentlichen Raums bisher noch nicht ausge sehen. Weiterlesen...

(If I find some time, I will translate the editorial).

Thank you Spex for pointing to the Kaywa Reader.

PS:
Spex has also put QR Codes next to the print articles, but so far they link back to the web version of their site. As in the example of Universiteit van Amsterdam, it is very important that the pages become quickly mobile friendly. With the Kaywa Reader you will see the difference easily: if there is an in-between page with a warning before arriving at the destination page, the site has not yet been approved as mobile friendly.

In comparison, sites which let you through directly are mobile friendly. See an example with Feed2Mobile here: