Comments on: Microsoft gives bar codes a splash of color

Software maker is licensing a new format that uses colorful triangles, rather than black and white lines, to pack more data into less space.
Images: Microsoft's multicolor bar code

[joegerardi]

how much data

Anyone know how much data this is supposed to encode?

[Fireweaver]

Capacity

And for comparison how much data does the old standard barcode hold?
And as long as we're at it- how much more data could a traditional barcode with 8 colors hold? Or vice-versa how much data could one of these barcodes with black and white triangles hold?
And finally, how much data is needed for conducting the business and what additional information does the commercial market demand. The consumers won't likely be scanning barcodes to access content at home- it's the commercial industry that will drive this as they're the ones that will all have to buy new equipment.
Sounds like a hard sell at this point.

[PeterCapek]

Not new....

The railroads in the US used a colored bar code in the 1960s to identify freight cars!

[DemiHampster]

Microsoft Patentd Air

Another f*cked standard brought to you by the King of f*cked
up standards.

[zeusjones]

Clever

New or not, I think this is quite clever. It's nice to see signs of creativity at Microsoft - and no I'm not a fanboy.

[Steven N]

Don't think so...

Like mentioned in the article: you need color printers to make the labels. So you can throw away those thermal printers, the inkjet based printers that print barcodes on objects that pass by in fron of it.

Not to mention the possible problems when the label is read in condition where no white light is present. A black and white barcode can still be read if the environment illumination is yellow or red. Try that with a colored label.

The barcode will be replaced eventually, but I don't think it will be replace by a color book... RFID seems a more viable option.

[jessiethe3rd]

RFID... no.

With RFID's current security problems I think the hype is starting to die down... significantly.

[jessiethe3rd]

RFID... no.

With RFID's current security problems I think the hype is starting to die down... significantly.