Fujitsu Labs Develops new mobile Technology

The technology can "bury" numeric characters of up to 12 digits, such as a telephone number and a URL conversion code, in an image the size of 1cm x 1cm.

"People won't need to have dedicated space for things like barcodes," said Tsugio Noda, research fellow, Peripheral Systems Labs, I/O Systems Labs for Fujitsu Laboratories.

The technology puts an original image and data to be embedded together into code, and then prints them as one picture. The printed picture can be taken into a phone camera and decoded by specific software for the user to make a phone call or access a Web site. For example, it takes 0.4 seconds for Fujitsu's PDA to read the picture. "We expect an ordinary mobile device to take one second for this reading," said Noda.

The key to development of the technology is to embed information in the form of yellow dots, by dividing an original image into small blocks and adjust them to have gradation in line with gradation levels of adjacent blocks. Specifically, an image is divided into a block size of 0.8mm square or less; an average gradation level of each block is analyzed; and then information is put into the block with lower gradation. Leveraging the property of yellow that human eyes cannot clearly see (and degradation of this color as well as the effect of using the space not over 0.8mm square), Fujitsu Laboratories succeeded in putting "imperceptible" data in a printed picture.

 
User can get product information
As another merit, the reading performance of a reader would not be affected by a printer. For example, no matter if the whole printed picture becomes dark or pale due to poor capability or the state of a printer, there is no significant influence on gradations between small blocks. Even a home color printer can print the picture.

Fujitsu Laboratories expects the following applications: users can make a phone call by reading a phone number from a picture on a name card they obtain from a business; download ring melody data for their mobile phone by scanning a picture on a CD jacket they like; and collect information on a shop/restaurant while reading about them in a magazine.

The company will consider when to commercialize and how to sell the technology.