QR Codes

Have you ever seen something like this(like the square dotted image below) and asked yourself whats is it?

Yes, me too was in the same situation when I came to see an Ad, where a token with some black dots was used to pass out contact information. Out of curiosity I did a search on what this stuff was all about and finally got what I was looking for.


What's QR Codes all about
QR Code means Quick Response Code a two dimensional matrix bar code. The reason why they are more useful than a standard barcode is that they can store (and digitally present) much more data, including url links, geo coordinates, and text.

QR Code Videos

Here are some videos showing some creative use of QR Codes.

Generating QR Codes

If you want to generate a QR Code for yourself to showcase info like contact details, phone number or your personal site URL. Here are some free resources providing QR Code generators.

Kaywa

Google URL Shortner

ZXing

Reading QR Codes

So now we know how to create some really exciting QR Codes for yourself with details containing like contact info, phone number, personal website url, email id or even your Facebook Id et al.  Lets move on to on how to read QR Codes. If you had watched the videos, then you might have already started scanning out some QR Codes out there in the internet or street.  


Ok lets jump on and see how to read some QR Codes with your smart phones. I think nowadays smart phones are no longer the realm of rich and cosy, with Android hitting the mobile markets, the smart phones are now within common mans reach. So the basic requirement is, you need to have a smart phone with camera. Next step is to download QR Code Readers for your mobile platform. For Android users here is the most downloaded QR App.

How QR Code works
If you are the kind of person who is really passionate to know about how things work. Definitely we are on the same frequency. Ok lets find out the internals on QR Codes. So before that lets first checkout how QR Codes came into picture? 


The limitations imposed by bar codes really gave way to the development of 2D Codes. Usually a bar code encodes data only in a horizontal direction that means it simply wasts space by encoding the redundant data vertically. So as to contain more data, bar codes were enlarged which complicated reading operations and increased printing costs.

The QR Code was developed by Denso Wave Corporation and released in 1994, as a means to contain more data per area than bar code does. This is a patented technology even though this is open for public use and its clearly defined and publicly available. The QR Codes also known as 2D Codes can contain data in both horizontal and vertical directions. QR Code could handle characters up to this range.


Data Capacity:
Numbers:                                    7089
Alpha numeric:                           4296
Binary:                                         2953
Kanji (Japanese characters):   1817


You can see for yourself the cost saving in using QR Codes over bar codes, as it requires just one tenth space to encode the same information as bar code does.

The other advantage with QR Codes is that it can be read from any direction that means it is omini directional or can be read from 360 degree angle. QR Code decoders does this by identifying the position the big squares located at the three corners of the QR Code.

QR Code Structure 
The following image depicts how a QR Code is to be structured. The cells colored White or Black are fixed, these are called "finder patterns" or "timing patterns" which is used by the QR decoder to help determine the orientation. The cells colored yellow are the ones which data is stored while the one in cyan is used to store error correction code and mask pattern (aka format information). 

QR Code Versions
The QR Code symbols comes in different versions ranging from Ver 1 to Ver 40. Each version has different module configuration, here module means the density of black and white dots that make up the QR Code. Version 1 had 21 modules while the present version i.e 40 which could contain 177 modules. This also provides error correction capability to retrieve data in case the symbol gets dirty or damaged. 


If you are interested to dig more about QR Codes data encoding visit the following URL (decode and try. Scratching your head to find out an online decoder? don't worry click here and paste the below QR Code symbol\image url)

.NET Developers
A good news for you folks, If you are planning to incorporate QR Code encoding\decoding functionality in your application, here is a free library worth evaluating.


So next time, if some one asks you whats that square icon with dots, definitely you could show off techie skills.

Microsoft Kinect - The Next Generation Gaming Interface

Have you ever imagined, how it would feel like playing games without any kind of joystick or  controllers; and how about hiding behind couches to avoid shots from a first person shooter game? Got your jaws dropped? thinking whether am I hearing a Flash Gordon sci-fi story? Yeah me too was in the same situation, when I first heard about Microsoft Kinect.

Nowadays motion controllers being the buzz word in the gaming industry, which got Nintendo’s Wii on to the market forefront, but this time Microsoft made a giant leap, which took the gaming industry by storm.   The ground breaking product from Microsoft, code-named "Natal" had finally hit the stores christened as "Microsoft Kinect", this time Microsoft has not only come up with something which is innovative, but moreover something for the open source community as well.

Microsoft Kinect the next generation gaming add-on for Xbox 360, redefines the way we interact with games and gaming consoles. Its not something we had seen anytime before in the gaming arena, no controllers, no joysticks, no remotes nothing but just human gestures!!!!. Yes you heard it right, just gestures. No device's attached to you body or surroundings. An excellent piece of technology which I had ever experienced. So before moving on, let me show you this marvelous piece of technology in action.

Got astonished at just what you saw? Keep reading there's still a lot more to see on this wonderful piece of engineering. So whats behind this next generation device? lets find out. Microsoft Kinect at its core is like that of a human with eyes and ears. Practically it could see you in 3D, i.e; height wise, width wise and depth wise and could interpret your gestures. Moreover it could recognize your face and even comprehend your voice. So what gives this marvelous device these capabilities? At the heart of Microsoft Kinect is a 3D camera(from PrimeSense an Israel based company) aka "radar camera", a motion sensor, a tilt motor, a Mic and definitely the software to process data from all these sources. The device provides USB interface for connecting with consoles.

If you were to dissect this device, you could find four microphones for voice input, two camera's, one infra red projector, a three axis gyroscope, 64 MB of DDR2 RAM and a motor to point this device to a particular point. 

The 3D camera could even operate in complete darkness, as it relies on a infra-red beam to analyze the objects. The depth information is computed by measuring the time taken for the beam, to bounce off from an objects back to the camera. While the motion sensor is capable of tracking 48 points of movement in the human body which could track your finger movements. Despite of all these glittering features, a UK based firm had reported that Kinects facial recognition didn't work for dark skinned people, while some had denied that, they didn't experience any such problem with Kinect.

I think you should see how the depth and motion sensing capabilities of Kinect looks like in real world.

So now after seeing all these, you might be wondering how to get yourself this  wonderful piece of hardware. If you already own a Xbox 360, then you are lucky that you just need to shell out Rs.10,000 to own this. You could find more information on pricing related stuff over here at TechnixUpdate.

Open Source and Microsoft Kinect

In case if you interested to programme this device then read on, else you could skip this section. If you were look at Kinect from a different perspective, you could see that, this device opens up tremendous possibilities at what you could achieve with this marvelous piece of engineering. So the first question which could be lurking in you mind could be, how about interfacing this with my PC? If this was your concern, then no need to worry at all, as this had been  already taken care of by the open source community. Here are a couple links providing driver for this device.

http://codelaboratories.com/nui

http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/11249/

http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/11/07/did-this-person-just-win-the-open-kinect-prize/

http://git.marcansoft.com/?p=libfreenect.git

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKhW-cvpkks&feature=player_embedded

http://kinecthacks.net/

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/369596/top_ten_kinect_hacks_best_kinect_hacks_far/

The other cousin - EyeToy

If you had heard about PS2's EyeToy from Sony, then you could find a lot many similarities between these two, but for those who are new to EyeToy, here is what its all about. EyeToy released by Sony in 1999 for its gaming console had gesture recognition capabilities, which allowed players to interact with the games using color, motion and voice recognition. But unfortunately the device didn't catch up the market as expected during those days, which spelled doom for the EyeToy.

Finally the ultimate question from every gamer would be, are there any games out there that could take advantage of Microsoft Kinect. Absolutely Yes !!! indeed the Xbox forum is full with this very same query. Take a look over here to see the long list of games being showcased which are specifically targeted towards Microsoft Kinect.


Microsoft Kinect has a whole lot stuff to offer other than from the gaming arena. Definitely the applications of this wonderful piece of hardware is yet to be unleashed, once this is interfaced with Mobiles, Tablet PC and even with workstations. Well this device is definitely going to rewrite on how we are going to interact with entertainment systems as well in near future, well wait and see....


If you are anxious to know more about Microsoft Kinect click here to explore further.