Quick Response codes, or QR codes as they are also known are mighty popular here in Japan. All you need is an Internet-enabled cell phone with QR Code recognition software and a built in camera that can take macro shots. You put the phone in barcode reader mode, switch the camera to macro and hold it over the code. Then, like magic, all of the contact information that you need appears on your screen, along with a link. It is a nice system. The people behind the test run in San Francisco are Citysearch and Antenna Audio. If anything, it saves you keying in long URLs on your phone.

So far, about 500 restaurants, cafes and businesses have signed up for the service and are putting printed bar codes in their windows. You will have to pay data charges, if you don’t have a plan; but come on this is 2008 and most people have a data plan. If you don’t have one, scour the fine print with regard to access fees. I don’t know about cellphone carriers in the U.S. but I can guess that they are every bit as ruthless as those that we have here in Japan. Check the rates so that you don’t get any nasty surprises.

Source: New Launches, SF Gate

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