Monday, November 26, 2007

Capture Birds With Your Mobile Barcode Reader

A group of Taiwanese college students from Tatung University recently added a new element to their already live system for bird ecological information: playing cards with QR Codes. At first glance this might seem like a pretty simple m-learning application as it allows the user to look up various information about the birds in Taiwan via QR Codes. However, these students are smarter than that. They are actually making money out of this. How? By leveraging their rich bird database that they've worked so hard to collect: they turn the birds' photos and recordings into mobile phone wallpapers and ring-tones (they also charge for searches on their database). Their WAP download service has somehow won them first place in a student competition sponsored by CHT a while ago, and the service is still running on CHT's emome site. Their usage of QR Codes may not be particularly innovative (perhaps all mobile content services should provide 2D barcodes for easy access), therefore the key must be that their content and search system are really compelling/interesting for bird lovers. For those interested, you can visit their WAP site here.

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