A bokode is a type of data tag which holds much more information than a

barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or o ...

over the same area. They were developed by a team led by Ramesh Raskar at the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...

.Barcode replacement shown off
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BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

'', 27 July 2009. The bokode pattern is a tiled series of Data Matrix codes. The name is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsbokeh In photography, bokeh ( or ; ) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image. Bokeh has also been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". Differences in lens aberrations and ...

—a photographic term—and barcode. Rewritable bokodes are called bocodes. They are circular with a diameter of . A bokode consists of an LED covered with a

photomask A photomask is an opaque plate with holes or transparencies that allow light to shine through in a defined pattern. They are commonly used in photolithography and the production of integrated circuits (ICs or "chips") in particular. Masks are used ...

and a

lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...

. They are readable from different angles and from away by any standard digital camera. Powered bokodes are relatively expensive because of the LED and the power it requires. However, prototypes have been developed which function passively with reflected light like a typical barcode. Bokodes convey a privacy advantage compared to

radio-frequency identification Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically Automatic identification system, identify and Tracking system, track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver ...

(RFID) tags: bokodes can be covered up with anything opaque, whereas RFID tags must be masked by material opaque to radio frequencies, such as the sleeve provided by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles when issuing their enhanced state IDs.Ankit Mohan, Grace Woo, Shinsaku Hiura, Quinn Smithwick, Ramesh Raskar
Bokode: Imperceptible Visual Tags for Camera Based Interaction from a Distance
, Camera Culture Group,

References

External links

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Camera Culture Group

Didactic article on Bokode "The Future of Barcodes"

Bokode FAQ
{{Barcodes, state=expanded Automatic identification and data capture