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next generation 2D code - atom tag

2D Coding

Next Generation 2D Coding

Here I am with Ignacio Mondine – from DAEM Interactive in Barcelona. He is demonstrating the use of his new technology – which allows for a cameraphone using 3G access (as of right now) to capture images of various icons and images and the camera verbally. The new product is called ATOM TAG. The idea is linking bits and atoms – basically two-dimensional images to information using your mobile device in real time. The focus currently is on marketing and advertising and connecting individual users to campaigns using a simple visual accessed through their cameraphone. It is a truly amazing technology and opens up a number of possibilities for embedded data.


Background – what is this technology?

Miguel Sola is my partner and co-founder. We come from a field of augmented reality – in a more classical academic sense. We started to do some interactive showrooms for architecture and urban planning and those involved projector screens and modified virtual reality goggles. For augmented reality we kind of ‘hacked’ VR goggles and added a camera to them – and you need a video loop (for augmented reality) so what you see through the goggles is what surrounds you. So when you identify certain markers – you ca place virtual elements into the scene. This is called “mixed reality” or “enhanced reality” – it is adding additional information to a real environment.

We started off doing this in 2002/2003. We did a couple of projects for the local government – for the Forum 2004 event and wanted to show the public their new buildings. They used augmented reality to allow people to interact with virtual models and virtual markets in a very intuitive way. At this point in time – we got into this event prize called the NETI (Madrid school – Amena and Institute al Impresa – top business schools in Spain). We proposed this concept / paradigm to camera phones – and having a camera and color screen – everything you need to do this ‘magic trick.” We won the prize and decided at that point to focus on mobile phones. People started to come into the company and we got a public grant through the Catalan government and this last year went through our first VC round.

So how did you migrate more specifically to the first Phase of the product?

The first objective was to develop something that could be launched to the market in a very straightforward way. We wanted to use any old camera phone for our image recognition system. This was Phase 1 of our development that anyone with a cameraphone could use. The focus (from the beginning and still now) is mainly through marketing and advertisement. The Phase 1 uses logos or images to access certain content or campaigns. So we developed this concept and established MMS gateways with all of the national carriers starting in 2003 (that took a long time! Nearly 3 years – Amena/now Orange, Moviestar and Vodafone.) So we did tech trials with all three carriers’ in-house using logos or posters – and then Vodafone decided to move forward with a national campaign. Last October – we had a campaign through the “Free Distribution Press” (through Metro, 20-minutes and Que) You can take a photo of the Vodafone logo and get a free ring tone (chosen from 4 different songs – Madonna was one). This was only for Vodafone Live users and sending the pictures over was free. This was the first MMS image recognition campaign – we passed about 6,000 images through Vodafone Live users – this was a great result. While MMS is usually expensive – this was FREE. Some people sent their pets and other images (because it was free) but overall they sent Vodafone images. This ran for 6 days in October in various newspapers. Vodafone is processing the information and determining next steps.

Up until now we haven’t been able to launch multi-carrier MMS campaigns. But starting in March of 2007- we will be able to launch campaigns with big brands and have all users send pictures to a unified short code (short number) and have a multicarrier campaign. So we’re the first company in Spain to have a unified short number for ALL carriers. This opens up so much – such as MOBILE to TV. Someone on a TV show can say “please send in a picture of your ugly pet in the next 5 minutes and the ugliest one wins.” This is our other product – ability for a MMS DAEM gateway for ANY image sent through a mobile phone.

Can you explain how the technology works?

The image technology recognition is an engine we developed ourselves. Year after year we have been able to develop our own stuff. It is robust – you can take pictures of any poster for example – any printed media (for the time being) of any complexity. And we can handle the variations such as light reflections and different resolutions and different optics along with different light conditions. We are robust to reflections, partial occlusions (blocked), distances and angles. Even the old camera phones with low resolutions CIF can take part in these campaigns. Basically from a complex image – our technology is based on shape analysis and pattern matching – different bits are configured and put into our database. We also keep track of the relationship between all of these in a poster. If one of the references is occluded – we still use the remaining ones. We currently work with printed 2D media – newspapers and magazines. When I talk about reflections it is very specific – in an urban setting you have a billboard (or bus stop). You normally have glass between you and the poster – because these are very popular – we figured out a way to get past the reflection issue.

What are your thoughts on 2D codes in general?

This is about real-time interaction. Just by looking through your camera phone at a particular graphic element you can immediately access the content. This usually takes some time to send an MMS to our database and get it back. Phase 2 is ‘real time’ recognition. We will be launching in summertime – ATOM TAG. This deals with more restricted images – little squares or rectangles (black outlines in about 8 pt.) this makes it easier to handle in real time. This is still server based – the image recognition is not done on the handset – but on the server. Traditional 2D readers decode the information right on the handsets. The minute you want to have ecommerce solutions tied to 2D code readers you have to route through a central server to connect to the ecommerce. A server-based content management system. QR code and Data Matrix (the two open standards). There are a few proprietary 2D codes out there, but they are not as popular. In Europe Data Matrix is popular for some reason. Shotcode and Mcode are examples of proprietary technology. When you use Shotcode –you get a reference ID (like 2652) the Shotcode server links you to the content. For these companies, the model is not around the 2D reader itself, but it is important that the whole experience needs to be centralized for an effective experience. The end user may or may not know they are being re-routed.

We’re moving forward with the next generation of 2D codes – which will be image based, using pictures, icons or graphics inside of a little square. One of the ideas is that it is not only machine readable but human readable. With QR codes – it is ONLY machine readable. With these images – they are human identifiable and you can identify them from the images themselves. This opens up many possibilities. This is going to be a user generated product. You can go to ATOM TAG page and upload your image – logo or blog and you can generate one of these codes and then direct them to a specific URL or destination. Just like QR codes you can have ‘code generator’ and people will be able to generate their own “ATOM TAG”. With user generation we’ll be able to reach critical mass.

How will this work with carriers and operators and countries?

We’ve been working with MMS Premium models. This is fine for some scenarios – but not everything. The MMS Premium model and shared revenue is good for some things but not everything. The idea is for this to be an open platform – for FREE you can download the application to your phone – this is just for Symbian phones right now. Rather than seeing this technology as competitors to regular 2D codes – we have seen this is a perfect partnership with these 2D code companies. Normally – people don’t like the black and white machine only readable. People will know they can ‘click’ on the advertisement with the black or white outline. People will identify these little squares as scannable. It will be just as fast as a video stream, but not as expensive.

Our expertise is currently on logo and advertising recognition – which is server based. Then we have all of these services that are 2D code readers that are based on the handset. It is a perfect collaboration because these 2D code readers are already matched with many of the most popular handset – and as this is not our expertise and timing is tight, we can utilize existing relationships and development. At 3GSM, we had a chance to see all of the other 2D code companies out there, and to begin establishing partnerships and relationships with them. We build the technology - we are not specialists in making sure it works with all of the current handsets and platforms. It would be ideal to have the application pre-installed on a handset of course, but until that happens we have to work with others to generate the critical mass we are looking for.

What happens next? What is your goal?

So the Premium MMS model kind of sucks for the user. End users are the main source of revenue. What we are providing is quality attention to the brand or logo for the end user using this technology. The brands ideally would pay for this – not the end user. We can track what ads people are looking at – we gather data on what logos are looking at and how long they are looking at it for. This should be free for people. It should be free to use for non-commercial applications. It’s about turning it over and getting a critical mass going and have the bigger brands coming to use and asking us to apply it commercially. For now – the main idea is to get adoption going. Everywhere.

We would like to eventually bring augmented reality to the mainstream audience. To bring digital reality to the mobile web from real life every day objects. The cereal box can be a gateway to your cereal provider. Anything you have contact with the cereal maker. ATOM TAG is user driven. This potentially can intersect with social networks. You can have kids create their own tags and send them around for viral marketing.

How are you splitting up your time?

I am the CTO – or the R&D director. We have a strong R&D base – we are constantly working with Orange R&D and Telefonica R&D – one of the possible directions for ATOM TAG is to have it preinstalled on handsets – it has that potential. We did a tourist map called Magic Map for Orange. We had a map with tags for monuments and access show times and various elements of information.

Do you have any competition?

MoBot (California base) has something similar to our Phase 1 – but they licensed the technology and are not as flexible as we are (since we developed our own engine) – Things are popping up in China that are interesting – image based recognition.- Lucent Alcaltele is also interesting, but not yet commercially available.

What are the factors in availability for the US Market?

The US is a few years behind. The service is supposed to go live in the Summer. There are different user habits and on sense in trying to launch a MMS product in the States. But people do access the mobile web – and this would be the easiest way for people to access the mobile web. If we launch this as a truly open service, we’ll have support for almost all of the camera phones.

Any last words?

Sometimes it’s not about the stronger and more powerful technology – but about being simpler and more straightforward. That’s our goal.

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Posted on March 7th, 2007 in Thoughts
Tagged as , , , , ,
Written by Kelly Goto

9 Responses to “next generation 2D code - atom tag”

Comments

  1. Timothy says:
    March 7th, 2007

    Wow! It was an interesting concept. Thank you for letting us aware about this new technology.

  2. Kelly Goto says:
    March 7th, 2007

    Should be interesting to see if this can replace or supplement the current 2D barcode environment. His strategy is definitely to work with existing companies and utilize their understanding of devices and platforms to make the usage seamless.

  3. Doris Booth says:
    March 7th, 2007

    We are fascinated with DREM technology.
    WHERE can we get one for my visually-impaired sister-in-law?

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