2D barcodes for mobile phones

2D barcodes were designed to carry significantly more data than its ID counterpart. These codes are often used in industrial information tagging applications where high data capacity, mobility, and data robustness are required. Mobile phones have evolved from just a mobile voice communication device to what is now a mobile multimedia computing platform. Recent integration of these two mobile technologies has sparked some interesting applications of 2D barcodes in mobile phones with camera. Nonetheless, this new mobile applications area is still at its infancy. Each proposed mobile 2D barcode application has its own choice of code, but no standard exists nor is there any study done on what are the criteria for setting a standard 2D barcode for mobile phones. Our study is to address this void. In this paper we have detailed our study of all published 2D barcodes. We have also carefully selected features desirable for a standard 2D barcode optimized for the mobile phone platform. These features are based on the operating limitations and attributes of camera mobile phones in general use today. Based on our selected criteria, we will identify the most suitable 2D barcode for mobile phones