Global wireless commerce solutions provider Scanbuy, Inc. and consulting firm faberNovel have created a pilot program with Regie Autonome Transports Parisiens (RATP), the major transit operator in Paris and its environs, to offer commuters and travelers easy access to information using their mobile phones and other handheld devices. The first program of its kind to be launched outside of Japan, it offers 2D codes that accessed from cellular phones to provide commuters with real time transit information on WAP.
Currently a test program RATP is installing Scanbuy’s interactive 2D barcode technology thoughout Noisy le Grand, which offers commuters access to a wide array or information including bus and subway schedules, as well as area maps and traffic information. The program is currently scheduled to run for three to six months, but if successful the RATP could consider introducing the service in all of the metro stations and bus stops throughout Paris and the surrounding areas.
Indeed, RAPT uses Scanbuy’s solutions (Ezcode 2D code, Scanlife barcode reader). However, Scanbuy has never developed Scanlife. The real name of the 2D code/barcode reader is Visualcodes. Beat Gfeller and Michael Rohs have developed the Visualcodes at ETH Zurich.
Scanbuy and ETH Zurich have arranged an exclusive license agreement for commercial use.
http://www.engadgeted.net/archives/2005/09/18/matrix-codes-visual-code-recognition-on-cellphones/
http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/rohs/visualcodes/
Mobile bar codes are cool, but frankly I can’t see them going anywhere. To encode anything worth encoding, you need more bits than can effectively captured with the average camera phone. Contacting a centralized service defeats the purpose, you might as well just give people a URL to open in their browser.