Current graphical tag readers for mobile phones
Thought I would do a summary of the current readers out there that I could find at the moment. As there are yet no standards in readers where no reader works on all phones and no phone accepts all readers and all codes. This adds to user confusion - see my post on Fragmentation of the Market. For those of you not familiar with what readers are to scan a graphical tag and get content online (or otherwise) via your mobile phone you need a reader and phone which has a camera.
Some phones like the N95, the i-phone and some other lower end Nokia phones ship with readers installed. Usually, however users need to install readers and this can be problematic. Usual problems that users encounter are:
• Due to the fact that readers are free ware, often the authentification certificates have expired and phones reject them. The work around is to set the phone’s internal date to before the certificate expires and then after installation set it back again. As you can imagine this is a bit tricky for the layer user.
• Many readers use .SIS file formats which many phones don’t actually support, so one can download the file but then not actually open/ install the reader
• The menu system on phones differs, so sometimes users have problems locating the software once they have installed it
• Often websites for readers which say they support certain handsets don’t actually do this that well where variables such as lighting, operating system, and camera specs play a large role in whether the code will work with the phone.
• The support provided my many of those who provide readers is non-existent and the only way of troubleshooting problems is in online forums or hacking into phones.
The main readers out there are:
Beetag - These guys provide a reader that reads beetags, qr codes and datamatrix codes, or so they say. Yet to be tested. The list of supported handsets is impressive.
Glass - A reader devised by the active print project created by HP Labs in Bristol. They look promising in their proposal of a mobile codes consortium, but considering their latest news is dated January 2007 I am not entirely convinced they deliver what they say they will. The glass reader is also a .SIS file which doesn’t work on my Nokia N70’s.
I-nigma - One of the easiest to use, but they don’t update their website with new handsets and ignore emails for support.
Kaywa - Thse guys get a lot of good reviews, but I haven’t been able to overcome the .SIS download prob with my Nokia N70’s
Neoreader - Good reviews, but quite a limited number of handsets that they will work on, Brands they support are: Apple, Blackberry (but only a few), Nokia, Motorola (very limited range), Siemens, Samsung and Sony-Ericsson.
Nokia – Readers are loaded onto newer handsets. Not very backwards compatible, even with symbian phones. They do have good support in their Nokia beta-labs though which a rich community of enthusiasts and developers.
Quickmark - Supports a range of codes: quickmark, qr codes and datamatrix codes. Quickmakr is Taiwan based and provides good support and a range of code options.
Scanlife - US based company which supports by operating system, rather than handset: Android , Blackberry, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian and iphone. They have accounts so you can manage tags online as well.
Shotcode - Supports only Shotcodes. These are propriety codes aimed at advertising, so not that popular with end users. Devised by High Energy Magic, a spin out company from sources of Cambridge University in the UK. Mostly linked in with advertising for companies such as Coca Cola, Heineken, Xbox, Nike, Volkswagen, Monsterboard, Jameson Whiskey
Trillcode - Only reads trillcodes, and from the website difficult to work out which handsets are supported. Trillcodes do allow for branding or images to be embedded in the codes. They were evised by Lark Computers in Romania, but since they are propriety software, with little publicity in Western Europe they do not really have that much of the market.
Upcode - Can read datamatrix, qr-code and upcodes, which are propriety so limited in their use and really used by wide market share.
2D Sense - iPhone app which reads a wide variety of codes: Aztec, QR, Blot code, Datamatric, and Shotcode. It gets pretty bad reviews on a lot of sites though, so I think only the lucky ones can get it working.
Simone O'Callaghan
in graphical tag, mobile phone, object hyperlinking, qr code, research
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Good post.
I was thinking of working out a list on my blog as well. The list seems complete. I think you should also include the barcode reader on Android and also the Imatrix app on Iphone.
Interesting overview. I'll test out a few and see what happens and let you know. I did install Kaywa on my Sony Ericsson W810i about a week ago (was having some issues with i-nigma which turned out to be caused by my being dumb [or possibly poor interface design. I prefer this theory :-D]) and install was seamless and quick. In function the reader seemed to be basically identical to i-nigma. Really wish there was a way to auto-approve that "give permission for the app to send to the web" message though for a particular app. Really annoying.
A q: You've said in the past that QR codes are in common use in Japan. I know they have all sorts of fab technology there that we don't have here yet, but do you know how they get around things like the install and finding-the-app issues? Does it all come pre-installed and built in to a custom OS or something? Curious...
Thanx Punit for your advice - had been trying to remember the name of the iPhone app, so greta that you jogged my memory. I had a look for imatrix again, and then realised that it has changed name and is has teamed up with 2D sense, (already listed above) and is no longer imatrix.
I had a look at the google phone app by going into a T-mobile shop and playing witht he G1 phone and it looks rather interesting. Am very tempted by android as a platform to work with in my research, though I shall wait until they release the G2 in the UK before being an early adopter.
Thanx minim for trying out some of these on your phone, let us know how you go! It is always helpful for independant users to test these out and give feedback because the sites for each for the readers, which of course are saying their reader is the best can be a bit biased. Knowing the difficulties that people who didn't desing the app encounter when using the software is invaluable for the rest of us. Not to mention some of the phones that some readers say they do support actually don't work so well, for example i-nigma on the Nokia 6300, or Kaywa on the N70, even though they say they do work!
Re your question about Japanese phones, many now come with the QR-code readers preinstallaed. NttDoCoMo (one of their serivce providers) teamed up with DensoWave (who own the patent on QR-codes, but let anyone use them) to make things easier for consumers in accessing codes. In Australia telstra has attempted to do this with their QRious codes where software comes preinstalled on a number of phones.
The problem with usage in Australia, like Britain where many Nokia models come with the readers preinstalled is down to marketing. Even those selling the phones don't understand what the readers are for. I have spoken with staff on the ground in Telstra shops in Australia and the big fancy Nokia shop at Terminal 5 at Heathrow and none of them knew anything about the apps which were on the phones they were selling.
Nokia has foolishly called their app a "barcode reader" without pointing out that it works for 2D barcodes which the averpge punter doesn't know about so they get really annoyed when they try scanning a the barcode of a tin of baked beans and then wonder why it doesn't work.