Already Big in Japan, QR codes are a way of sending information to your mobile via its camera. The patterned black and white codes work like this: you take a picture of the code; software in your handset decodes it; information pops up in your phone. Kind of like bar codes but for cameraphones.
With the vast majority of new phones having a camera installed, QR codes are ready for the big time. One of the first big promotions to run in the UK is for the DVD release of sci-fi horror flick 28 Weeks Later, with a giant billboard featuring nothing but a QR code containing a link to the film’s website having gone up in the Shoreditch area of London.
Do the cash-money maths: HSDPA web access + cameraphones + QR codes = marketing opportunities gone wild. These things are gonna be everywhere soon, peeps.
(Via Guardian Unlimited)
