Notcon 04

h3. Barcodes for spatial markup and control

“Spotcodes”:http://www.highenergymagic.com/spotcode/index.html use a very “simple circular barcode”:http://www.highenergymagic.com/spotcode/symbols.html, to mark objects for interaction with a camera equipped phone.

* Requires a “small application”:http://www.highenergymagic.com/spotcode/download.html running on a Series 60 phone to scan barcodes with the built in camera
* Each barcode can currently store 42 bits of data using technology modified from iris tracking and wavelet technologies (as far as I understood)
* Potential for more data by increasing the number of rings, but current setup is a compromise for low quality cameraphone cameras
* The mobile phone application can determine position of phone relative to barcode by the elliptical distortion of the circle, could perhaps be used for quite accurate tracking with multiple spots
* The phone application communicates via bluetooth or gprs, using the barcodes as triggers for interactions
* It’s coded ‘close to the hardware’ to use the video input to do barcode calculation in realtime: Java/Symbian apps don’t have an API to realtime video input
* In use commercially via “Bango”:http://www.bango.net

h3. Bluetooth mapping

“Reverend Rat”:http://www.spy.org.uk/ratblog/ demoed his 10 Watt bluetooth receiver, 10 times more powerful than a 35 mile 802.11b receiver, and 100 times more powerful than a Bluetooth dongle.

Not particularly interesting in itself, but using it from a high vantage point he might be able to map out usage patterns in urban areas, or track the flow of people and devices.

h3. Some photos

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p(caption). Nice impromptu public markup

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p(caption). Inside

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p(caption). Outside

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p(caption). Anil demonstrates test barcodes for spotcode

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p(caption). Reverend Rat discovers Bluetooth devices

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p(caption). Celia and Rod

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p(caption). Geeks

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