Microsoft tag

Have you already heard about 2D barcodes? Instead of having the data set in a vector like in normal barcode, 2D barcodes have the data in a matrix, which means they enable to store a lot more data (usually v-card, URL or free text). Well, the problem with this is that they are really ugly. Microsoft has solved this problem with Microsoft tag.

With Microsoft tag everything starts with a set of triangles of four different colors, which can concentrate more information in a smaller surface then a standard 2D barcodes:

However, the really interesting part starts here… Instead of using triangle, with Microsoft tag enables to use points. And since there are white spaces between the points, those can be filled with a background.

Pretty cool!

The application enables actually even more… imagine merging every point to the background, so that you don’t see the tag anymore but just a nice and smooth picture.

If you don’t believe me that it really works, download the free application from http:/gettag.mobi on to your mobile phone (Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, IPhone, Android, PalmOS, Symbian, Java etc...). You can even create for free your own tag and customize it at https://tag.microsoft.com.

Kind regards,

Steven Meyer, Lead Microsoft Student Partner Lausanne