I was just looking though the stats for this blog (thanks for reading!) and noticed that one of the search queries that lead here was:
‘How can we use 2D barcodes for cinema?’
Seeing as I have half an hour spare I started thinking about it a little. There are a few obvious things I can think of…
Film Posters– Put barcodes on film posters that link people to more information. Seeing as the clients are likely to be mobile phones, trailers might be pushing it as you can’t guarantee bandwidth; but reviews, character profiles, cast profiles, ‘making of’ features etc. would all be worthwhile.
Bookings – Cinemas could use barcodes on film time posters and leaflets to link people directly to booking forms. Averts in newspapers could include links to the local cinema times and bookings.
Promotions – Barcodes could be used for promotions or competitions. You could put them on the back of tickets to link people to a loyalty scheme. Links to competitions could be put on popcorn or pick-n-mix packets.
Online Content – With devices like the XBox and PS3 now in many homes and able to download movies and content from the web, how about using barcodes to help purchase and schedule downloads of content while away from home? You might be able to set your xbox to download a new film release from an advert on the Tube.
2D barcodes would seem to have hundreds of uses. I recently had a conversation about them at work and we thought of a few good uses in just a couple of minutes. One example would be Asset Management. Stick a barcode on the assets you need to look after so that when one of them breaks down the end user just needs to point their camera phone at it to log a call with the helpdesk.
I guess the success of the technology will depend on a standard comming to the fore and client software being pre-installed on devices by vendors and networks. As useful as barcodes could be, I doubt the mass market will make an effort to download and install the software.