ScanLife

-Camera phones make it easier to send specialized content-

The internet revolutionized how people in our society send information. With email, instant messaging, blogging, message boards, and more, the online realm has recreated the way we interact with the rest of the world. Now, a new app called ScanLife allows smart phone users to scan a type of specialized bar codes that contain a certain message or type of content that the user can see or be brought to.

These specialized barcodes, called "EZcodes", allow the creator of said codes to encode something special into them, which allows the smart phone user to access the special encoded information just by scanning it with their camera. As the ScanLife website says, "Without typing anything, you can automatically link to a specific website, send an SMS, make a voice call and more".

It not sound useful or very exciting at first, but it has a lot of potential. One great use for an EZcode would be on a business card, where someone can put a code for their personal or company website, which will be brought up on the user's phone as soon as the phone camera passes over the EZcode without any typing or searching. This can greatly increase the potential of a website to be viewed after a business card is distributed, since people are inclined to lose a business card or just lose interest after a few hours or even days. These EZcodes can also be placed on personal websites and encrypted with content for others to see, and it can all be accessible with just a quick view of the smart phone camera.

I think we have here another app that can change how we advertise and spread information to each other in general. As smart phones become more popular, this would be a fantastic way for companies and organizations to include a condensed "link" to information right on their flyers or handouts that people can access quickly and easily before they forget and move onto something else in our busy world. Companies and businesses can also use this sort of thing to encrypt certain types of content online to certain people, such as news organizations who want to give exclusive paid content to subscribers without using text that can be copied and pasted and distributed for free by third parties. Additionally, print newspapers and magazines can use these EZcodes to cross-reference online content and other links that readers can then-easily access with, again, a quick view of the camera. All in all, ScanLife opens up a lot of new doors with regard to how we send and receive information with one another.