Tag Types

Microsoft Tags

Background

Microsoft has been interested in bar code technology for some years. In 2006, it debuted a 2-D bar code product called Windows Live Barcode designed to seamlessly transfer information between computers, billboards and magazines, and mobile devices running its Windows Mobile software.

In 2007 Microsoft’s research team unveiled a new kind of code known as the High Capacity Colour Barcode (HCCB), composed of small, brightly coloured triangles in geometric patterns. The changes allowed the size of the tags to be reduced while increasing the amount of information storage, and opened the technology to a wider variety of phones, including models with lower-end cameras and lenses.

In January 2009, Microsoft showed a new product called “Microsoft Tag,” based on HCCB, and then in April 2009 fine-tuned the tag technology one more time, adding an option to swap the triangles for dots. The change enables tag creators to better customize the codes’ appearance as the dotted tags resemble pointillist images instead of triangle-packed grids. The resulting barcodes are so visual, in fact, that HCCBs were on exhibit at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Features of MS Tag

The Microsoft Tag format includes the following features:

• Designed from the beginning to work with the limited capabilities of a typical camera phone
• Much smaller than other formats – typical packaging application starts at 3/4” x 3/4”
• Optimized for both print and video display
• Enhanced Reed-Solomon error correction means Tags can still be read even if partially damaged
• Capable of 360 degree (omni-directional), high speed reading
• Handles long URLs
• Tags are saved for later viewing and can be forwarded to someone else (no need to scan it again)
• On many camera phones, you just have to aim the phone’s camera at the Tag with the Microsoft Tag reader software running and the Tag is instantly recognized taking you directly to the linked content with no interaction needed
• Microsoft Tag preserves precious real-estate on printed materials, allowing a much smaller size than other formats
• Out-of-focus images are no problem – tags can be read even when they are out of focus

This illustrates, at actual size, a successful scan of a four-line Microsoft Tag using a Samsung Blackjack II handset with an unmodified lens. The size of the barcode square is about 40 pixels.

Microsoft Tag Examples

Standard MS Tag

Black and White MS Tag

Branded MS Tag

Note that Microsoft Tags can be printed at different sizes, however the quality of the mobile device’s camera can become a limiting factor when Tags are printed at very small dimensions.

QR Codes

Background

QR Codes are a form of two-dimensional bar or matrix code created in 1994 by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave. Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context, including both commercial tracking applications and convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users (known as mobile tagging).

QR Codes are very common in Japan where they are the most popular form of two dimensional code, being used by over 70% of mobile phone users on a daily basis to pay bills, buy goods and services, and access data over the internet.

Features of QR Codes

The QR Code format includes the following features:

• As a symbology developed in Japan, QR Code is capable of encoding JIS Level 1 and Level 2 kanji character set
• Includes error correction capability – data can be restored even if the symbol is partially dirty or damaged
• Capable of 360 degree (omni-directional), high speed reading
• Can be divided into multiple data areas and, conversely, information stored in multiple QR Code symbols can be reconstructed as single data symbols; one data symbol can be divided into up to 16 symbols, allowing printing in a narrow area

QR Code Example

Note that QR Codes can be printed at different sizes, however the quality of the mobile device’s camera quickly becomes a limiting factor when QR Codes are printed at very small dimensions.