Gizmodo: qr codes

Takashi Murakami and Louis Vuitton Create First Designer QR Code

Adrian Covert — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:18:11 EDT

Let's face it, QR Code hasn't been very exciting. Just dots and squares. But this QR facelift, combining the designs of Louis Vuitton with Takashi Murakami, just made Kanye make a mess in his shoes.

Jean Snow says the stylized QR code works like the standard, barcode-like graphics, while Dvice adds that its the first time Murakami's work has been interactive. Created by Japanese ad firm SET, the project is mostly just to promote other work the two companies have done together. But the creativity factor can't be denied. It's pretty neat. [Jean Snow via Dvice]

QR Code Jacket Patches Take Strangers On the Street to Your Blog, Stat!

John Mahoney — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:31:00 EDT

We're sad that after all these years, the only place QR codes are actually useful is still good ol' Japan (where they're everywhere). That said, San Francisco has recently dabbled, and there are readers available for just about every mobile platform (including iPhone)—which you'll have to make sure all of your friends have installed if you're going to wear one of these. The $20 patch points to a proxy server which redirects phone browsers to the URL of your choice when someone takes a photo of your shoulder, back, um, wherever. Which means you can take them to your innocent little blog, or perhaps something a bit more nefarious. You wouldn't do that though, would you? [p8t.ch via Pocket Lint]

Japan's QR Codes Being Tested in SF

Jason Chen — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:30:00 EDT

You know those QR codes that Japan has? The ones that look like fancy bar codes that you take a picture of with your cellphone that brings up some bit of info or trivia on the display. Those are being tested in SF right now on 500+ restaurants/shops/businesses reviewed by Citysearch.

Once you snap a picture of the code, your phone will bring up the Citysearch's review page, letting you know whether you should go in. Also, a tourism company is shoving these onto some tourist locations, bringing up a 15 to 20-second audio snippet of what you're looking at. If they could stick this on things like busses, taxis, waitresses, drug dealers and prostitutes (all common in SF), we'd gladly use this service. [SFGate via New Launches]

Four Crazy Radio Concepts to Celebrate National Inventor's Day

AddyDugdale — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:53:59 EST

Today is National Inventor's Day, in honor of Thomas Edison, and Giz is going to celebrate it with some designs from the Work In Progress show by students at London's Royal College of Art. There are no less than four concept radios in the show, including this one by Mikael Silvanto, which melds a slide rule with an iPod-esque analog radio. The other three, including one which uses QR codes to hook up graffiti artists with pirate radio stations, are below.

Yuri Suzuki's design uses a Post-It pad to mark out the frequencies of pirate radio stations that caught her ear while living in North London. "My radio enables you to make notes about the radio station and mark its position," she says. "The radio looks like a memo pad, but underneath is a speaker; the pencil acts as the antenna that controls tuning and volume."

Yuri feels there is a connection between graffiti artists and pirate radio stations, as both are art forms that hack into public spaces. Her Future Pirate Radio lets you tune into pirate radio via QR codes. First, the graffiti artist stencils a QR code onto the wall, incorporating it into their work. Anyone who takes a picture of the graffiti will then be able to tune into the pirate radio station that inspired the artist via the internet.

Finally, Jochem Faudet's work consists of a pair of radios whose controls are grouped together in order to make it easier to use. Actually, it's rather complicated, so here's Jochem's own explanation.
"Radio 1: All the tuning and volume functions are grouped around the speaker. The On/Off switch and volume function is situated closest to the speaker. The AM/FM switch is situated at the end of the tuning circle, by flicking the switch down it points to the FM numbers situated on the outside of the circle or by flicking the switch up it points to AM numbers on the inside of the tuning semi-circle.

"Radio 2: The tuning function and volume function are separated from each other in this concept. To adjust the volume one has to turn the wheel with the integrated speaker, by sliding the AM/FM switch to FM it hides the frequencies of the AM and vice versa."

Nope, still too complicated for me, I'm afraid. [Dezeen]