What is Digg?80 Comments
- catalysis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+48The proper phrase is, "pics or it didn't happen."
- nimawin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+39Pictures:
http://research.microsoft.com/users/gavinj/hccbsamples.jpg
http://research.microsoft.com/users/gavinj/hccbcompare.jpg
http://research.microsoft.com/research/hccb/images/HCCBNovel.jpg
http://research.microsoft.com/research/hccb/images/ColorBarcode_190_120.jpg
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/images/press/2007/MSBarCodePHOTO_thumb.jpg - m3th0dm4n, on 10/12/2007, -5/+42You know you're a fanboy when you dismiss anything with Microsoft in it.
- goeatsmsht, on 10/12/2007, -6/+38"Wow. It's a schooner."
"Ha ha ha ha. You dumb bastard. It's not a schooner... it's a Sailboat."
"A schooner IS a sailboat stupid head." - moojj, on 10/12/2007, -3/+34I'm a fanboy fanboy. Therefore I love you all.
- masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+27This looks like a glorified, color version of the QR Codes that Japan's been using for years.
...Why couldn't Microsoft just use QR Codes? They even hold more data -- 4,296 characters as opposed to Microsoft's 3500.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code
And QR Codes are applied almost everywhere. They're on everything from advertisements to even websites, and you just take a picture of it with your phone. - stratmancj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21pics?
- pantala, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19More information here (including pics):
http://research.microsoft.com/research/hccb/ - hockey, on 10/12/2007, -9/+27Does it have any embedded DRM?
Also do you have to enter in a 45 digit activation key before you can purchase the item?
/sarcasm - charlescheese, on 10/12/2007, -13/+31You know you're fanboy if you get excited about a barcode.
- McTendo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Go Nintendo! (Apple doesn't make videogames)
- rebopper, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16If its so cool then why are there no pics?
- ChumpChief, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9"can be read by mobile phones"
If a large portion of mobile phones could read these, you could put them on posters advertising your product. Then people could scan it, immediately be redirected to a product page online, and purchase your product on the spot.
Anyway, that's my suggestion to a practical use. Of course, I guess you could do that with regular bar codes too. - etandrib, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9That is one of the reasons this won't pick up traction. The label won't last and the fact that barcodes print great because they are 1 color. The printing cost of multi color makes this idea impractical for most businesses.
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"..Why couldn't Microsoft just use QR Codes?"
It's called "Not Invented Here" Syndrome, and Microsoft more than just about any other company exhibits it (I was coming here just to post the same thing you did). If Microsoft can gain market adoption with it, it can then sell the components required to use it, and then start barring everyone else's products from the market; Embrace, extend, extinguish. Basically the only hope Microsoft has left to stay relevant is to gain success in other sectors of the market, and that means branching out to anything and everything they can have their engineers think of.
And this is a common trait of large businesses; Google's experiencing the same growth pains, Apple's dealing with the growth by slowly restructuring and retargeting their products, hell even Digg is undergoing the process of branching out (look at its new "API" stuff; less about Digg, more about finding new ways to view the information). - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Does your cult have a newsletter?
- dheaddy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8oh hi, I upgraded ur barcode
- spindrift, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Uh, what's wrong with QR codes again?
- dolemite5005, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9... or it didn't happen.
- headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Don't colors fade? Possibly making the bar code useless after a couple months.
- sundancekid503, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@foxymcfox
"...Does anyone have a link to the paper storage story, I can't see to find it."
Is this the one you're referring to?
http://digg.com/gadgets/256GB_of_data_on_a_sheet_of_paper - khag7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5so its like semacode but people will actually put these codes on stuff whereas semacode never really existed on anything other than that semacode website
- spindrift, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5You can already do that with existing standards. All Microsoft's standard does is add color (which I personally see as more of a liability than a technical advantage).
- sacherjj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Make a key at the bottom that can be referenced as "standards" for reading this barcode. This would deal with fading issues, until the fading was severe enough that the differences between the colors could not be detected.
- noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4So now I'm curious is this going to be an open standard or will you need a microsoft product to read it?
- EBFoxbat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The camera on my phone sucks so bad, I'm not sure it can actually read 8-bit color.
- catalysis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You know you're a redneck fanboy when your trailer has an HCCB barcode on it.
- tripm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Jeeze, my wife's gonna want to make a quilt that looks like these now.
Also I believe these HCCBs need to be referred to as trianglecodes, not barcodes... HCCT - stevenvh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I thought we were gonna bury barcode in favor of RFID?
(Besides, HCCB a triangle code, not a barcode.) - spindrift, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"The services enabled by HCCB are expected to become more prevalent as lens quality advances in cell phones to capture these small bar codes (for existing cell phones to read a black-and-white bar code, a practice that is widespread in Japan, the code must at least 38mm square, making them impractical in small spaces or where visual appeal is important)."
"Security features can be incorporated into the new barcodes. DatatraceDNA plans to provide technology for anti-counterfeiting security protection features through nanotechnology that is invisibly embedded within the material and ink of the code."
So there we have it. Ditch the (I'll bet anything, more capable) QR code standard because ours is prettier and has DRM! - wyattearp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@etandrib
not until we get that kickass memjet printer - sacherjj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3CMOS will be used, rather than CCD. We are at the point where CMOS is at that price. With a chip designed to decode this, it would be easy. Smart phones, etc. are to the processing power point that they could be read from a snapped image and decoded. The main limitation seems to be close focusing or other lens technology issues. With the gimmick type used that MS plans, it wouldn't matter if the phone took 10-15 seconds to decode the bar code. I don't think it is an improvement over other 2-d barcodes, other than more colorful. These also use imaging modules for the most part. A 2-d barcode just doesn't have the ability to store much alpha-numeric text. The most it can do is store a primary key to some other data, similar to CueCat's attempt.
- Rayor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Has anybody else encoded porn in a barcode format before? No? Oh...
- Otto, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5There's nothing wrong with QR codes, however Microsoft does have a point here. A lot of optical scanners are color nowadays, and so you can fit more data into less space if you take advantage of color coding as well.
Note that their research site says that they were able to get those 3500 characters into 1 square inch and get it back using a 600 dpi business card reader. This HCCR code scales indefinitely, it has no maximum number of characters that it can store. Just a maximum in terms of size and scanning resolution.
The triangular pattern is actually quite clever, as it allows the software to determine the orientation of the scanned image without any reference points having to be printed on the code, like QR codes have to have. - sacherjj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Most of it looks crazy. But somewhere out there is a person making a beautiful picture with triangles that makes everyone feel good inside. Unfortunately, all it says is $fr@34554G^&&3rf@#@#vvd$#CdgH^5L.
- vibez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is a great way to hide easter eggs on the discs.
Here is a printable version for you to download
http://www.console-covers.com/Downloads/Vault/Files/Xbox360/NTSCDiscs-Custom/7264/ - dgendreau, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A large number of sales terminals already use CMOS cameras instead of lasers now.
When I got my replacement membership card at BJs last year, they actually took my picture for the card using the barcode gun. - chrisOrbit, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Looks like a damn ugly eyesore to me. Thanks MS for ruining the disc art.
- TomFrost, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3A work for a company who makes a wide range of products from sports gear to magazines. Every single thing that goes out of our art department here for final publication has a bar code on it. This system being adopted mainstream could mean an entire application change here, which would force us to reproduce the packaging for every single one of our products.
No, I'm not a fanboy. Yes, this matters to me. I know it might be hard to grasp, but we exist! - sacherjj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Widespread adoption isn't a real issue if it uses already in place CCD/CMOS cameras in devices and requires just a piece of software the MS releases. But then, it won't be viewable in Palm or Linux smart phones... Dum dum duuuummm.
- Otto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2UPS doesn't need full color barcodes. It's a matter of information density. In applications where you need more information in the code and full color is not an issue, then this code makes more sense. In applications where you don't need as much data, and it's cheaper to do B&W, then QR codes make more sense. And in applications where all you need is a reference number to tie to a database, a normal barcode makes the most sense.
Different codes for different purposes. - sacherjj, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4We were thinking that, but thanks for confirming. :)
- boyasunder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Christ. That looks like "fun" background on a snack food wrapper in 1994.
- Otto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There's nothing wrong with QR codes. But these HCCR codes can store more data in less space *if* you also have a color scanner with which to read the code.
- AndrewDB, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2@All the mentioners of the Cue-Cat...
Holy ***** I found mine the other day.. I was honestly shocked to see it's still supported. - nimawin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2More Pictures:
http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2007/close-up_429x290.jpg
http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2007/dvdexample_550x552.jpg - lewscroo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is stupid. The 2-d barcodes currently in use are superior and will be cheaper to implement. It's way more expensive to print out a label with color than it is with black and white. If you are putting this on packaging (like a game disc) then that cost is irrelevant, but wouldn't you want to have widespread adoption of this technology? There's no way UPS is going to want to have to print 2-d color barcodes when b&w is available.
- david2tm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2dumb and dumber
- DebbilsAdvocate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@CiQuat
And we all know how successful the CueCat was. ;) -
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