QR codes are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in Japan, with consumers using them to access more information on everything from trees in parks to nutritional information for their MacDonalds hamburgers. However, there are already companies working on developing the next contender to the QR code crown.

DoCoMo have been working on an ‘audio QR code’ which enables mobiles to capture data embedded in music and jingles. I have already posted about the ‘blacklight QR code’ developed by IBM. Today, Fujitsu announced the FP code or Fine Picture code, a technology which embeds codes into pictures in a way that’s difficult for the human eye to spot.

Fujitsu are naturally tight-lipped about how they do this – all they reveal is that the system was inspired by the fact that the sensitivity of human vision alters according to size and colour. Sounds complicated. The big draw of the system is, like blacklight QR codes, the codes don’t compromise the design of printed material. In the future will all printed pictures contain embedded codes?

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 9:05 am