INFORM - Mobile Urban Exploration

The following was published in Inform magazine's January 2010 edition :

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INFORM - Mobile Urban Exploration
2009/10/11
by Will Rourk

Developments are being made today that are exploiting your phone's ability to supplement your 'real space' experiences. A particular area of this is focusing on the optical reader in most mobile phone cameras. Object hyperlinking, also known as mobile tagging, uses a mobile phone camera to read a special 2 dimensional graphic that can connect your phone instantly to network information. A group of specially coded graphics called QR (Quick Response) codes can hold alphanumeric information in the form of text information, phone numbers, email addresses, SMS texting messages, even geo location information and especially URLs. A QR code is composed of an encoded square data matrix that works much like a barcode where you have a target that graphically represents encoded information, and a reader - your mobile device - that can make sense of the coded message and reveal its contents to you. QR codes have gained large appeal in Japan where they were first developed, and are used in many aspects of modern culture, linking people to information regarding products, people and places via their mobile handsets. QR codes have been affixed to buildings as large posters or small, discreet icons that can instantly connect people with information regarding their surroundings.

These coded graphics have been widely adopted in Asia and Europe but are still slow to catch on in the US. However, an art project exploring the potential of physically encoding the built environment took place in New York City in 2004 called Yellow Arrows. The Yellow Arrow project sought to explore new ways of exploring city spaces via mobile technologies in developing what is becoming recognized as the geospatial web. Participants placed yellow arrow markers in public places that they found particularly engaging. The marker would direct its audience - anyone taking notice of the arrows - to send an SMS text message to a number that would then reveal something interesting or particular about the space they currently occupied. In this way, the arrows curated a whole new experience of urban spaces and objects. QR codes are doing much the same today, but more instantly and effectively, connecting people directly to information much the same way that captions do for museum pieces, except that the content accessed through a web browser can be more enriching and expressive than just text.

The future for object hyperlinking most probably will evolve into some non-physical agent of information connection. RFID tags (Radio Frequency Identification) have been widely used for some time now, mostly replacing barcodes as the means of containing retail product information. But the same means of information could be used to encode urban information, broadcast out to mobile device receivers. Another more promising technology is geo location. Currently geo location is becoming the next wave of social networking connecting people to people based on current location determined by your mobile device's GPS. Being in the "right" place could keep you instantly connected and informed. Most of these technologies are free to utilize with free reader apps for most major smart phones and code generators provided by developers such as Kaywa, Upcode, Shotcode and especially Google's Zxing project. With these tools all we need to do is just encode the content and curate our own experiences of the places around us.

For more information about QR codes and mobile tagging technologies please visit Will Rourk's blog at http://rezn8r.blogspot.com or at this QR code:

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