The following table shows the most relevant information about the main 2D barcodes and its pros and cons. If someone has extra information (technical, legal, etc…) or wants to point at any error we will be glad to update this post.
We also highly recommend reading this .pdf MC2 - Mobile Codes Consortium. Standards discussion.
| QR-Code | Datamatrix | Shotcode | BIDI | MIR* | |
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| ISO certified |  ISO/IEC 18004:2000 |
ISO/IEC 16022:2000 |
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| Supported by MC2 | |
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| Can be read and generated without a provider | |
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| Can be read without internet access | |
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| Embedable information | URL Text SMS |
URL Text SMS |
URL | URL | URL |
| Coolness |  |
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* Mobile Image Recognition. User captures an image which will be sent to a provider that will recognize, decode and send back the associated info.
what does BIDI mean ?
I’d say that BIDI stands for BI-DImensional code.
There more info in this post we recently published…
http://qrcode.es/?p=119&language=en
… or directly in movistar website….
BIDI Codes Movistar
Would like to see someone compare Microsoft’s solution(s) to microcodes; their coloured triangles approach looks highly prone to errors, and expensive to implement with higher spec cameras needed. And their Surface object id system is similar to shotcode (it only stores a number), so provider dependant.
I think you forgot some very important aspects in this analysis…
Supposing the URL represented by the code changes, which ones among those allow you to change the URL without having to reprint the codes?
Also, which ones can be read in any angle? Which ones have the best detection accuracy? Which ones are more supported (in terms of implementing devices)?
Responding to Herbal…
Q: Supposing the URL represented by the code changes, which ones among those allow you to change the URL without having to reprint the codes?
A: You have the same problem everytime you print a URL, whether is a QR or traditional alphabet.
There are solutions based on a central DB such as shotcode but they have a cost and it’s up tp you to decide if it’s worth it or not.
In any case, it’s never a good thing to change URLs (search engines)
Q: Also, which ones can be read in any angle?
We think most of them can, but we have not tested the degrees
Q: Which ones have the best detection accuracy?
Q: Which ones are more supported (in terms of implementing devices)?
We want to improve the table as time goes by and we get more information, but we are not focused on technical issues.
If anyone provides this information we will post it.
Herval:
HTTP supports redirection headers. If you’re a good webmaster, once you’ve choosen a URL, you should keep it. If you do ever change it, set up an automatic redirect.
Of course, if the site shuts down… you’re out of luck. (www.archive.org isn’t the best solution for mobiles)