2011년 2월 25일 How Microsoft, Mobile Tag, and AT&T are Killing Consumer QR Code Scanning In Utero
I heard of QR code, High capacity color barcode (HCCB) and related technologies long time ago, and wondered why Microsoft endorses the Microsoft Tag (a particular implementation of HCCB) instead of existing other technologies (QR, Datamatrix etc.). Now it is quite certain that Microsoft had an evil intention.
From the technological aspect, HCCB indeed has a superior information density to other technologies using square modules. HCCB itself is complete, in the other words, provides a encoding structure, error correction and data packing at the highest level just like other technologies. I won’t be surprised if HCCB is superior to others in every ways. The problem is that Microsoft Tag is so small: 100 bits1 at the best (and much lower when the error correcting bits are added, but I’m not sure that it includes the ECC bits).
IMHO the current usage of (say) QR code is skewed to the compact transmission of human-readable data. Nothing prevents the encoding of binary (non-human-readable) data in QR code, but that is quite rare. As a result URLs are very common payload in QR code, and that allows the resolution of the barcode without other central authorities. Microsoft Tag can’t; you cannot pack a valid URL within 100 bits or less. This means that Microsoft Tag needs a central authority to resolve itself, most likely a server operated by Microsoft, and as I said several times the central mechanism is bad. There is nothing you can do if Microsoft charges a resolution of existing barcodes, for example; QR code and others won’t have this problem until the Internet goes proprietary (highly unlikely). Not to mention the patent concern2.
I’d like to see the HCCB becomes a viable and even more useful alternative to QR code someday, but Microsoft Tag disappoints me. Sigh.
