If you've got a Windows Mobile device then you might want to try out this new application called Windows Live Barcode.  It's a neat way to make data entry quick and easy.  Basically you can encode free text and templates like business cards into a kind of barcode format that is machine-readble using your mobile phone. 

For example I can encode the following contact details:

First Name: James

Last Name: Senior

Job Title: Vista Technical Specialist

Company: Microsoft

(there are more fields available)

 

Barcode that represents this information:

So, take a picture of this barcode on your mobile device and my contact details will be inserted into your address book - great for business cards!  There are potentially lots of other uses for this technology like downloading address details and driving directions from Local Live or downloading details of a product from a billboard etc.

So, what is the science behind it?  QR Codes!  Quick Response (QR) codes are two dimensional barcodes that can hold lots more data than your traditional one dimensional bar code. 

QR Codes Quick Facts

  • Data Capacity
    • Numeric Only - max 7,089 characters
    • Alphanumeric - max 4,296 characters
    • Binary (8 bit) - max 2,952 bytes
    • Kanji, full-width Kana - max 1,817 characters


  • Smaller Print Size - 1/10th size required of that compared to 1D barcode
  • Kanji Capability - supports Japanese symbology (20% more data storage)
  • Dirt and Damage Resistant - Error correction capability
  • Readable from any direction in 360*
  • Can be divided into multiple data areas

Using QR Codes in your applications

Over at ideas.live.com, we've provided a webservice that you can access to encode and decode QR Codes with your applications.  The webservice will return a BMP in 64bit binary format for you to use, and will expect the same format file when decoding your QR Codes.

Use the webservice here: https://ws.barcode.ideas.live.com/QRCodeService.asmx

 

Check out the example flash video here:

Other Resources

Windows Live Barcode Site

QR Code Technical Information