Researchers Debut Barcode Replacement 185
eldavojohn writes "MIT Researchers have unveiled a new potential replacement for barcodes. Using an LED covered with a tiny mask and a lens, these new bokodes can be processed by a standard mobile phone camera and can encode thousands of times more information than your average barcode. New applications are being dreamed up by the team. Dr. Mohan of MIT said, 'Let's say you're standing in a library with 20 shelves in front of you and thousands of books. You could take a picture and you'd immediately know where the book you're looking for is.'"
CueCat (Score:3, Insightful)
Nobody is in a library with 20 shelves in front of them. Computers do it better.
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Until something is shelved wrong. Or stolen.
but it's powered (Score:5, Insightful)
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Solar cells, reflectors, etc. all still cost significantly more than a piece of paper and a fraction of a penny's worth of ink.
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the cost per bokcode is like 20x-200x that of printing a barcode.
Currently, the tags are expensive to produce - around $5 (£3) each. This is, in part, because the early prototypes require a lens and a powered LED.
However, the researchers believe the technology could be refined so that tags were reflective and require no power.
"We already have prototypes which are completely passive," said Dr Mohan.
In this form, they could cost around 5 cents each, he added.
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"We already have prototypes which are completely passive," said Dr Mohan.
In this form, they could cost around 5 cents each, he added
If you need something printed, which most products do, it doesn't cost anything to add a barcode.
LED THC? (Score:2)
Maybe the most important question not in the summa (Score:5, Informative)
If thats true, maybe they do have potential.
Re:Maybe the most important question not in the su (Score:5, Insightful)
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I think they mean this as more a QRcode type replacement, where people use them for scanning stuff on business cards or billboards, etc., not UPCs on packaging.
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Notice that the summary suggested "Let's say you're standing in a library with 20 shelves in front of you and thousands of books. You could take a picture and you'd immediately know where the book you're looking for is." It didn't say "You could take a picture and you'd immediately know where you left your Fritos."
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More throw away packing (Score:5, Insightful)
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Mod parent up. What the hell are they thinking??
This will likely have a negative effect on sales when people boycott any product with one in it.
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Did you catch the part about the passive tags that don't needs LEDs or batteries?
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Did you consider the environmental impact of better inventory control? Probably not, because it is one of those things that you see in your world normally. The better we can handle inventory, we are allowed to have smaller warehouses, more optimal shipping methods, better use so it can be sold before it expires or become obsolete then tossed anyways. Environmentalism is weighing the cost and benefits. Not going crazy and saying no to progress.
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Yep. And what happens when a box of Cheerios goes bad? The Cheerios break down and the paper box break down. Darn. But what about all those chips and LED's and the readers that you use to read them? A couple billion Cheerio's boxes could have come and gone before those will break down.
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And that plastic bag in the box? That won't break down quickly. And the box may be put in a landfill packed to tight that it will not biodegrade. Sure Chips have an impact. However if they are 1% the size of the box. and the improved efficiency saves 2 out of hundred boxes, then you are better off. Heck those chips my be recyclable too.
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Au contraire. Plastics for packaging as in cereals and plastic bags are being made out of corn based materials now. They break down with minimal amounts of water and sunshine. Even in a landfills they break down in under a few months. This is in response to anti bag legislation being pushed through in several states and cities across the US.
So again, why are we introducing electronics to our packaging when the trend seems to be to reduce
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Since when?
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Oh yay. Lets fill our landfills with more useless crap. Why the hell do I need LED's and battery is PACKAGING? They go into the trash! We as a society are trying to move towards LESS PACKAGING and recyclable packaging not MORE packaging. Is the consumer expected to rip out that LED and battery and recycle that separate for ever single ceral box they purchase?
You'll sound more informed if you actually read the article.
"We already have prototypes which are completely passive," said Dr Mohan.
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Oh yay. Lets fill our landfills with more useless crap. Why the hell do I need LED's and battery is PACKAGING? They go into the trash! We as a society are trying to move towards LESS PACKAGING and recyclable packaging not MORE packaging. Is the consumer expected to rip out that LED and battery and recycle that separate for ever single ceral box they purchase?
Calm down, this will make it more easy for the trash robots to find and sort future garbage thrown out of passing flying cars.
RTFA (Score:2, Informative)
"However, the researchers believe the technology could be refined so that tags were reflective and require no power. "
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Downloads are the best form of "packaging". It would be nice if tangible things like food, cars, and refrigerators could be downloaded.
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And chicks!
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We used to have deposit beverage containers here, but they went the way of the dodo. In the US they're incredibly wasteful when it comes to packaging, and it seems to get worse all the time. A load of groceries that used to go in four big paper bags is now in a dozen small plastic sacks. It both amuses and annoys me when I go to buy a bag of cat food, and they put that one single item in a bag. When I bought a cell phone I broke a pair of scissors getting it out of its container, and again, even though all
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The last game I bought was Doom 3 IIRC, they're making boxes smaller now? As to manuals, as far as other software (especially office and OS software), the lack of good manuals is imo a detriment. DOS 3.1 came with a humongous manual that covered everything about it, including batch file commands and interrupts. XP had maybe 50 pages.
Looking for books??? (Score:3, Insightful)
Price? (Score:5, Insightful)
If printing the code isn't effectively free, and a device to read it is more than $5, its not a replacement for bar codes.
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Well, son we used to have these things called CueCats....
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Looks more like compressing existing barcodes (Score:3, Informative)
Don't get me wrong. The technology is interesting, albeit limited to battery life. But the images in the article look a lot like a series of datamatrix barcodes. These are already widely used in many industries.
As a barcode replacement it sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
As a barcode replacement it sucks. However, the motion capture aspects looked pretty good. Using infrared would improve it as well since the camera can pick it up, but your eye would never notice it.
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Exactly. The video they showed kicks the crap out of Augmented Reality. The bokode is transmitting code that is only visible at a certain angle with much higher precision. IE- if you can see this code at pos(x,y) that means you are looking at this from these angles. Same principle applies to motion capture.
Those funny green suits would capture things a lot better with this bokode device I bet.
I'll read the paper later but I agree that, unless it adds some justified value that the existing barcode system doe
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The Bokode pose estimate seems quite stable indeed, but then the comparison pose estimate (the "G" in the black square) seems to be willfully bad. I've seen better than that, if maybe not quite as stable as the Bokode example, with traditional 2D code matrices.
Unfortunately, the 2-camera rig that they use (one focused at the scene, one at infinity) isn't exactly standard. And it probably won't work with cell phone cameras at all, since these are fixed-focus. Finally, if the camera has to move around a whole
Right there it is! (Score:2, Funny)
You could take a picture and you'd immediately know where the book you're looking for is.
...Somewhere on the shelf.
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I thought Mr. Dewey sorted that bit out long ago.
Brilliant! (Score:2, Insightful)
'Let's say you're standing in a library with 20 shelves in front of you and thousands of books. You could take a picture and you'd immediately know where the book you're looking for is.'
Gosh, that problem has never been approached before! That's a fabulous idea!
Not sure the library is the best example for usage (Score:3, Insightful)
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Even better, you can use a probabilistic sensor model and incrementally refine your position estimate of the RFID tag based on tag detection rates. If you're genuinely interested, look at this paper [psu.edu].
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RFID is very appropriate for this. It's short range... you just need to walk your reader by the stack it will tell you if it's there or not. That is, it's a heuristic that tells you whether you need to bother looking closer, which presumably would save time.
Also, the reader + database could tell you if you are near a book which is in the wrong place, and which book it is. Then you look closer, pull the problem book for re-shelving.
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I'm sure somebody could make a RFID version of kismet, if they haven't already. But yah, it'd only be helpful if the book was misfiled, otherwise just look at the section labels on the shelves.
Where it would actually be useful is in shipping containers/pallets, but only if you really needed to find something without sorting through the whole load.
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Besides, in a properly organized library finding a particular book is very, very easy, as long as you know the signature and the book is at its proper place. Might be quite handy for spotting those misplaced books, though.
Re:Not sure the library is the best example for us (Score:2)
Then again...we already have the card catalog at libraries, and it doesn't require a cell phone with a camera or a set of sp
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
A solution with no problem. (Score:2, Insightful)
New applications are being dreamed up by the team.
If you have to "dream up new applications" for your brilliant new idea, it's not much of an idea. In fact, if the application(s) aren't obvious, and in fact, the inpriation for the idea, it's a stupid idea.
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That reminds me. I got my Google Wave developers invite yesterday.
Solutions inspire solutions (Score:2)
Strange how much human progress and achievement comes from contemplation of the irrelevant.
- Scott Kim
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They said "What is this thing, and where are you going with that shark?"
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Considering that motion-capturing game controllers are quite the rage in the industry these days, and given that it's a possible application for these Bokodes (they expressly state so in the article), there's obvious potential there.
UPDATE THE SUMMARY!!! (Score:5, Informative)
Can a modmin please edit the summary to include the passive bokodes that DON'T need batteries? About half of the repliers to this thread DNWtFV*, and missed that bit.
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DNWtFV*
Do Not Want to Fone Verizon?
Dance Naked Where the Frogs Vomit?
Did Not Wait to Fully Vest?
Inquiring minds want to know!
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Did Not Watch the Fine Video.
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Bar codes are better dirty... (Score:4, Interesting)
It seems to me that even a small obstruction, dust, or damage to the led lens would wipe out a lot of the displable data of this led device.
Why the need for a special barcode for cameras? (Score:2, Informative)
Bad business (Score:2)
For example, they could be used to encode nutritional information or pricing offers.
"One to the side may say 'hey, look at me, I'm a dollar cheaper'," said Dr Mohan.
Why exactly would a manufacturer want to put this on their products? Why would a store want to have this on their shelves? No store owner is going to want people in their store, looking at their fancy barcodes, and finding out that something else is cheaper, or worse, the store across the street has the same thing for less.
The solution to where the book is... (Score:2)
"Don't you know the Dewey Decimal System?!?!?!?!", Conan The Librarian
RFID (Score:2)
Yes, I know they have a prototype unpowered version
So the current powered version has all the disadvantages of being powered coupled with all the disadvantages of traditional barcodes (you need a line-of-sight). Passive RFID tags need no battery and need no line-of-sight to the tag, although their range is limited.
this isn't for barcodes - this is for advertising! (Score:4, Insightful)
it's for advertising. If that isn't obvious to somebody who saw the top-most picture in the project page, then they need to think inside the box more.
Nobody's going to use this for barcodes-as-we-know-them.
They *might* replace something like a QR code encoding lots of information (rather than effectively a link to more information), but for almost anything worth describing, it's worth putting it there in plaintext.
( what, I'm going to go to a museum of modern art, and 'admire' a sculpture from 20 yards away just because the bokode can be read from that distance? I think not. )
No, this is gonna be for advertising. Imagine you're taking some casual pictures of some friends in a night out in town. You just snap the shots, come home, and whoa - the entire out-of-focus background is laden with Coca~Cola, McDonald's, Ford and whatnot logos and other texts.
The beauty of it is that they could combine it with existing light-based advertising displays. Every LED in the matrix displays at Times Square could easily have this bokode applied so that even if somebody's taking a picture of a competitor's matrix display making yours out of focus - yours will still stand out.
( I sure -hope- this won't actually be the case, but you know them wiley advertising people. )
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No, this is gonna be for advertising. Imagine you're taking some casual pictures of some friends in a night out in town. You just snap the shots, come home, and whoa - the entire out-of-focus background is laden with Coca~Cola, McDonald's, Ford and whatnot logos and other texts.
Wha? How exactly would that happen unless you're using some ad-driven application sponsored by Coca-Cola McDonald's and Ford that alters your image to highlight their products?
The beauty of it is that they could combine it with existing light-based advertising displays. Every LED in the matrix displays at Times Square could easily have this bokode applied so that even if somebody's taking a picture of a competitor's matrix display making yours out of focus - yours will still stand out.
( I sure -hope- this won't actually be the case, but you know them wiley advertising people. )
I don't think anyone is going to be altering your images in any way. Unless you deliberately use software to read these images and perform certain types of operations based on that information, then you'll still just have a regular old picture.
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Let's Say... (Score:2)
"Let's say you're standing in a library with 20 shelves in front of you and thousands of books. You could take a picture and you'd immediately know where the book you're looking for is."
Dewey Decimal System already does that.
Are books ever where they're supposed to be?
This shit is about as useful as barcode scanners for home use. We already have 2D barcodes if we need more information. All this will be used for is advertising.
Finally, a solution to finding books in libraries (Score:2)
I can't believe it's taken so long to come up with a solution to for finding books in libraries [wikipedia.org]. Maybe they can even find a way to extend this to allow online searches for books [loc.gov].
Re:Finally, a solution to finding books in librari (Score:2)
You mention the Dewey Decimal System, while also linking to the Library of Congress, which uses its own numbering and classification system.
In fact, most academic libraries prefer the LOC's system over Dewey's.
And the best part.... (Score:3, Funny)
/baaaa code/
Extremely cool tech - read the paper!!! (Score:2)
Read their paper. It is very cool! It isn't a photograph but seems to be using micro lenses positioned a focal length away from their matrix of matrix codes, to define a kind of light field where you can acquire information at arbitrary magnification by stepping farther away from the object. Limited only by your camera's resolution I suppose. They even have a prototype lens array based on ANTARCTIC KRILL eye which looks like a bulging disc shaped eye covering 180 degrees horizontally and a good number of de
This is Dumb (Score:2)
Keep trying... (Score:2)
Somebody should tell these guys there's a thing called Kindle. Are you sure they are MIT??
Some clarifications (Score:5, Informative)
Disclaimer: I am one of the authors of the paper.
The story title and summary are a little unfortunate. We do not imagine the Bokode to replace traditional barcodes anytime soon. However, the real strength of the Bokode are:
- you get extremely accurate pose estimation of the camera relative to the Bokode. This means that the camera knows its position relative to the Bokode. This is something a standard barcode just does not provide. This opens up interesting applications in the areas of augmented reality, motion capture, and human-computer interaction (such as multiple people interacting with a large display from a distance).
- they are nearly imperceptible to humans, yet can be read by a standard camera. Unlike RFIDs, you don't need to carry an RFID reader. You can read them with a standard camera, or even by looking into them with your eye really close to the Bokode.
- We are actively working on completely passive and flat bokode prototypes, and have some results with passive bokodes in the paper.
Need Geolocation, not new barcodes (Score:2)
The advantages of this are questionable over what we already have.
What we need is the ability to stand in the doorway of library or a warehouse and know where something is relative to your current position. Kind of like how google maps works. We need to be able to not just index but locate, and do it in such a way that dead batteries are not an issue. Perhaps some sort of radioactive isotope or something. Something that later as things get automated more, a machine can easily locate. We don't want to just i
Dr. Mohan Making Strange Statements (Score:2)
We scan bar codes from 5 feet away regularly in our DC. All of the cartons and locations and upc's, you don't have to be that close, not sure why Dr. Mohan would make such an incorrect statement like that.
Re:Not for Archival Purposes! (Score:5, Interesting)
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At the end of the BBC article, they mention that there are already prototypes based on reflectivity. Presumably, this would make the tags easily readable with an on-camera flash, possibly an infrared one.
This part could make the tags a viable, low-cost alternative to RFID -- as long as your application involves line-of-sight, a 5-cent bokode looks pretty appealing next to a two dollar RFID tag.
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At the end of the BBC article, they mention that there are already prototypes based on reflectivity.
Isn't that how bar codes work already?
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And the new ones require something like a flash so they are bright enough for the camera.
Lasers draw very little power compared to a flash. As a barcode these things bite. But they may find a niche.
Re:Not for Archival Purposes! (Score:4, Interesting)
but still stupidly expensive next to the near nothingness of a standard barcode.
its lunacy
That depends entirely on the application though. For uses that would require vastly larger amounts of data than a barcode or even QR code can convey, the bokode could be well worth the cost. It just depends on the return you're going to get from it. I think the case for putting them on cereal boxes is probably not a good one, but the example of using them on storefronts and buildings to allow information to be conveyed to services like Google would be a fantastic use for them.
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For vastly larger amounts of data, you'd have a database and use the barcode to reference that data.
You don't need megabytes of optically encoded data on a cereal box, nor a book for that matter.
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I suggest you RTFA before commenting on it:
"We already have prototypes which are completely passive," said Dr Mohan. In this form, they could cost around 5 cents each, he added.
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Because its much more difficult to modify or remotely delete a paper book without the "owners" knowledge or permission?
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RTFA. They already have a passive prototype.
Beyond that, I agree with your sentiment.
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That's where you go when Wikipedia is down. Is Wikipedia down for anyone else?
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Just you [downforeve...justme.com], I guess.
retroreflector (Score:2)
a package including an LED, lense, and a battery pack?
They've been looking into a scheme using a retroreflector so you can illuminate the code with a camera flash.