The next thing after QR codes?

One of the interresting launched products or service at GraphExpo was definitely the product or offering from DocuMobi. Where many stands offered products and solutions around the QR code, DocuMobi came with a new idea around the next generation of QR codes. A QR code is a rather dull block of black and white dots. It’s rather secure, but if you scratch it with a black marker the QR code doesn’t respond anymore. The good thing about the QR code is the ability to connect different type of actions with the code. The usual is the link to a website. In a test however it has been found that more then half of the QR codes link to a stand webpage. Being either the home page or a page with the specific order or product information the QR code is referring to. What most developers forget is that a QR code is scanned with a mobile device. The screen of a mobile device is not really 26″. Browsing on a full web page on a tiny mobile screen is not a guatantee for success.

The Microsoft Tag as opposed to the QR code already has more color. A Micosoft Tag can even be created as a corporate logo or nice picture. The features of the Microsoft Tag are somewhat similar as with the QR code. With the Microsoft Tag the options to create an action based on the scanned tag are somewhat broader then with the QR code. In essence the idea, look and feel and pupose are the same. Both are barcodes, which need to be generated and applied to a document or product. The usage of QR codes is ranging from standard documents, to coffee cups and information links in a museum. This is also the opposite of using QR codes. There is a need for a generator and a technique to apply it to the document.

The technique from DocuMobi is not new in its essence but new in how it is used. Taking a picture from a building and get background information is already their on mobile devices. The layer technique or even Augmented Reality on standing in front of a building with your camera is already used. DocuMobi combines the technique of taking a picture and connecting you to a website page.

With DocuMobi the trick is not to create custom and dull  looking QR codes but have the full page of a magazine, flyer, post card, napkin or billboard as a “QR”  code. Take a snapshot of the page with the DocuMobi reader and a webpage is launched. Since the link is created on usually a SmartPhone with GPS, the action of where, when and who made the link is recorded. Giving you full details on the success on the marketing campaign.

The downside is the knowlegde of being a DocuMobi linked image. Where a barcode (QR) code on a page is obvious and by nature leads to some sort of scanning action (think of the groceries in a supermarket in scanning the barcodes), with a DocuMobi image, nobody really knows. A tag line with the information that this is an image which can be scanned by your DocuMobi app (iPhone and Android) must be there. That’s also the big downside. Its a great thechnique and very customer friendly, but if people will start to understand the thing behind a DocuMobi image, only time will tell.

Oscar Dubbeldam.

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