4 ms·

oh how i wish Microsoft didnt 1] have a patent on color barcodes 2] choose to do nothing with it Still, perhaps we could get a decent barcode format with some

oh how i wish Microsoft didnt 1] have a patent on color barcodes 2] choose to do nothing with it Still, perhaps we could get a decent barcode format with some of its ideas, idk if they are all patented. It uses triangles which can be packed a lot more densely than squares, and has four- and eight-color modes. The density is nuts. You could theoretically download a decent size book via color barcodes in a couple seconds. It could revolutionize all kinds of things, being able to have large amounts of data in a barcode, rather than just a URL.

nightcracker 10y ago
Let's assume a version 6 QR code, which is 41x41 (larger is unreasonable IMO). Now let's assume that using triangles is a twice as dense packing, and we use 8 colors. Also we don't need error correction. Then we have 3x41x41x2/8 = 1260 bytes of storage. Even with compression that's still not a decent sized book. --- EDIT: I'm guilty of not reading the article first. I assume now you meant a 'QR film' that you scan for a couple seconds, rather than a static image. In that case you can apply above calculation to '1260 bytes per frame', at 10FPS that'd be 100Kbps, which is reasonable.
- PostOnce 10y ago
  Not a film, something printable, that lasts without battery or can be put on a poster at a protest. At 3kB/in^2 in a 3x3 grid of barcodes you'd scan left-to-right, top-to-bottom, if the text itself were compressed with PPMd down to 25% of its original size, that 3x3 barcode grid gives you 108kB of text or 12kB in a single barcode (of plain text, compressed down to 3) wikipedia says: "Microsoft claims that laboratory tests using standard off-the-shelf printers and scanners have yielded readable eight-color HCCBs equivalent to approximately 3,500 characters per square inch" so I'm being optimistic, but not wildly so Here's some neat pics: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/hccb-hccbsamples.jpg https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/... https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/hccb-lightexamples.jpg https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/... I've read about this a bit and I really wish there were an unpatented color barcode and a reliable/fast open source reader also, even if it's not quite as dense as my dreams. I think it would make for some neat possibilities.
  - WorldMaker 10y ago
    You can still generate them from a Microsoft site: https://www.microsoft.com/tag/m/Make.htm https://www.microsoft.com/tag/m/Make.htm There are some phone apps in the wild still that will read and/or generate them. At one point circa 2010 there was an https://tag.microsoft.com https://tag.microsoft.com homepage for them, but trying it just now it doesn't seem to resolve any more.
kosinus 10y ago
Rabobank in NED uses QR-like square codes with color. While it generally works well, it breaks down when you try to scan from a screen running f.lux or night shift.

nightcracker 10y ago

Let's assume a version 6 QR code, which is 41x41 (larger is unreasonable IMO). Now let's assume that using triangles is a twice as dense packing, and we use 8 colors. Also we don't need error correction. Then we have 3x41x41x2/8 = 1260 bytes of storage. Even with compression that's still not a decent sized book. --- EDIT: I'm guilty of not reading the article first. I assume now you meant a 'QR film' that you scan for a couple seconds, rather than a static image. In that case you can apply above calculation to '1260 bytes per frame', at 10FPS that'd be 100Kbps, which is reasonable.

PostOnce 10y ago
Not a film, something printable, that lasts without battery or can be put on a poster at a protest. At 3kB/in^2 in a 3x3 grid of barcodes you'd scan left-to-right, top-to-bottom, if the text itself were compressed with PPMd down to 25% of its original size, that 3x3 barcode grid gives you 108kB of text or 12kB in a single barcode (of plain text, compressed down to 3) wikipedia says: "Microsoft claims that laboratory tests using standard off-the-shelf printers and scanners have yielded readable eight-color HCCBs equivalent to approximately 3,500 characters per square inch" so I'm being optimistic, but not wildly so Here's some neat pics: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/hccb-hccbsamples.jpg https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/... https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/hccb-lightexamples.jpg https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/... I've read about this a bit and I really wish there were an unpatented color barcode and a reliable/fast open source reader also, even if it's not quite as dense as my dreams. I think it would make for some neat possibilities.
- WorldMaker 10y ago
  You can still generate them from a Microsoft site: https://www.microsoft.com/tag/m/Make.htm https://www.microsoft.com/tag/m/Make.htm There are some phone apps in the wild still that will read and/or generate them. At one point circa 2010 there was an https://tag.microsoft.com https://tag.microsoft.com homepage for them, but trying it just now it doesn't seem to resolve any more.

kosinus 10y ago

Rabobank in NED uses QR-like square codes with color. While it generally works well, it breaks down when you try to scan from a screen running f.lux or night shift.