Sebastian Krumhausen

A bokode is a type of data tag which holds thousands of times more information than a barcode. They have been developed by a team at the MIT Media Lab. They have come up with a few application sketches such as meta data that shops can provide for Google street view and as an interface for displays to be used in games and conferences. To learn more click on the bokode link.

I like the bokodes because they don’t take up so much space as normal barcodes and can be read at at a distance. I have thought of several other user scenarios for Bokode tagging. The ideas don’t necessarily have to be associated with Bokodes but can be used with normal barcodes or even a third technology. My ideas are as follow:

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A T-shirt where the front is a Bokode or normal barcode. When someone takes a picture the information about the person, a picture, graphical content or an advertisement is shown on the screen.

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Imaging yourself walking down the isles in a supermarket without the slightest clue of what to cook for dinner. You could simply take pictures of interesting groceries and a program would find you a delicious course based on the specified object and other suggested groceries. This works best with normal barcodes or RFID chips that does not require any power.

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Often in airports the airlines put a sticker on your t-shirt to keep an eye out for you. What if this sticker contained meta data about your flight and the surveillance cameras recorded your path through the airport. Information would be sent to your phone whenever you took a wrong path, you were moving to slowly on your way to the gate or if your flight changed. You would never get lost and never miss a flight.

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In a warehouse as IKEA it is essential that the consumer is persuaded to buy the products. There is of course a limited space in every shop thereby making it difficulty to create the ideal context for the product for the individual consumer. With bokodes the company are able to create multiple virtual locations and contexts for every product. Using Bokodes and perhaps in the future augmented reality the user is able to live out the fight club experience where the furniture are price tagged in real time.

In the zoo you could take a picture of the sign near the animals and a film showing the animals in their natural habitat would show. There could even be a device or software on your phone that showed the actual animals in their natural habitat using augmented reality.

The municipality of Copenhagen have developed a method where the owner can regain his or her stolen bike by locating it with GPS. Although this feature brings the bike and owner back together it doesn’t necessarily finds the thief. By installing bokodes on the bike and using the existing surveillance cameras the thief can be tracked and recorded when using the stolen bike. Thereby being caught in action.