MS presents... E-Reader 2.0?!

[Space Pirate Roberts]

Well, not really, but that's the first thing to come to mind:

Microsoft Unveils New Barcode System
By Tom Ivan

Microsoft has developed a new barcode with extensive storage space that is set to be introduced to Xbox 360 games and DVDs later this year.

Image Consumers will be able to interact with the newly developed high capacity color barcodes (HCCB) using webcams and mobile phones with cameras, reports the BBC.

Websites or email addresses could be stored inside the HCCBs that once scanned would direct users to promotional pages or websites offering downloadable content.

While each square inch of the new barcode can house up to 3,500 alphabetical characters, far outstripping the capacity of the current black and white striped codes, Gavin Jancke, the Microsoft research engineering director who developed the HCCB said that the company isn't trying to replace the traditional barcode.

"The UPC barcodes will always be there. Ours is more of a niche barcode where you want to put a lot of information in a small space."

[Yoshi]

$10 says Master has one of these on the back of his neck already.

[Razor Ramon]

Dark Angel?

[GohanX]

I beta testing something like this a few years ago. The idea was that if you had a magazine, you could hold an ad up to your webcam, and then your browser would direct you to a website for information on the product. Or, it would give you links to exclusive content, etc.

It didn't work worth a shit, but I got a free webcam out of it.

[Cheebs]

Websites or email addresses could be stored inside the HCCBs that once scanned would direct users to promotional pages or websites offering downloadable content.

Holy shit dawn of a new era where do I sign up?!

[Korly]

Click for full size

[gamevet]

The company I work for, set up the network for a company called Digital Convergence. They had the same idea, but with magazine ads and bar codes off of products on the shelves. It never took off though, but they did have companies like Compaq putting money behind the project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

The CueCat (trademarked :CueCat) is a cat-shaped handheld barcode reader developed in the late 1990s by the now-defunct Digital Convergence Corporation, which connected to computers using the PS/2 keyboard port and later USB. The CueCat enabled users to link to an Internet URL by scanning a barcode appearing in an article, catalog or on some other printed matter. In this way a user could be directed to a web page containing related information without having to enter a URL. The system that supported this functionality is no longer in operation.