Microsoft Tags: Barcode Scanning at its best

Microsoft today release its own barcode technology for use with various mobile phones. The whole system includes a smartphone oriented software that works on most smartphone platforms (Windows Mobile, iPhone, Blackberry. Symbian) and the High Capacity Color Barcodes that Microsoft developed.

Using the software is as simple as it gets. With the Microsoft Tag software on your device enabled, you point to the desired Barcode and you click search. What makes Microsoft’s adaptation of barcode scanning is the use of better than the rest of the banch (read: QR Codes, CueCat etc) is the High Capacity Color Barcodes. Not actuall bars, but instead rows of colorful triangles, do not store information but instead a unique ID.

Quoting istartedsomething.com that had first-hand experience with Microsoft Tag:

Unlike other tag technologies too, the Microsoft Tags don’t actually store the information. You see, all it stores is a unique ID which it then sends to Microsoft’s servers. This way, you can include much more information, and more variety of information, then if it was just on the tag itself. A nice side-effect of this is also the ability for publishers to gather reporting data on how many times it was seen.

I’ve only played with Microsoft Tag for a few minutes on my Windows Mobile phone, but its a noticeably better experience than I’ve had with other 2D barcodes in the past. For example you can read it from a very far distance, from a very side angle and even if it’s partially blocked.

Applications of Microsoft’s newest creation includes instant phone dialing (Barcodes on business cards) or launching a website off an advertisement. You can install the Tag software on your device, by simply pointing your browser to http://gettag.mobi/. You can also create free of charge (for now at least) your own barcodes using the Tag Maker software.

Via: IStartedSomething