The online and offline worlds are becoming increasingly interconnected, as our sister site trendwatching.com recently noted. Now, a new venture from Alcatel-Lucent is using a version of RFID to give consumers the ability to make such connections for themselves.
Released into beta earlier this month, tikitag uses short-range, high-frequency RFID to let consumers and third-party application developers connect everyday items to online content or applications. To tap the connection, users of the technology need only touch a compatible device such as a cell phone to an item tagged with a corresponding sticker. Parents, for example, can use tikitag to link their toddler's teddy bear to an online story about that same bear; museum visitors can wave an enabled mobile phone at a painting to call up the painter's Wikipedia profile. In a business/logistics setting, meanwhile, a cleaning company could use tikitag to record that a room has been successfully cleaned by touching an enabled mobile phone to a tikitag-linked sticker that has been placed in the room. Such connections are made possible by the tikitag Application Correlation Server, which directs enabled devices (computers or mobile phones) to access the appropriate online content and applications when they touch a tag.
Tikitag uses technology known as Near Field Communications (NFC), which operates at 13.56MHz and covers distances less than 4 cm—as opposed to the longer-range, ultra high-frequency RFID used by many retail chains. NFC is already built into several cell phones from Nokia and others, and a tikitag starter kit, available from both tikitag and Amazon.com for USD 49.95, contains one USB-enabled RFID reader and 10 RFID tag smart stickers. Client software for most operating systems is available by download, with a Linux version currently in development. Users of the technology also get access to a community website where they can create, share and rate new and off-the-shelf tikitag applications. Initial examples already available for download include one that lets users link physical souvenirs with online photo albums; another lets them steer an online music services player to perform preprogrammed actions via a tikitagged object. A raft of other ideas are also listed on the site, ready for developers to implement using the product's flexible API.
Anthony Belpaire, general manager of Alcatel-Lucent's tikitag venture, explains: "Over the last few years there has been explosive growth in the range and types of online content—much of it related to real world objects, events or activities. But how do you connect this online content with a person's business card, for example, or a concert poster, or a work of art? Tikitag provides this missing link."
By supplying a constant stream of new ways to connect the online and offline worlds, tikitag may just be the ultimate digital lifestyle lubricant. One to watch—and try out!
Website: www.tikitag.com
Contact: info@tikitag.com
looks very interesting and fairly cheap.
I'm thinking about a use within stores to help customers receive further info on the products they are interested in.
anyone knows of any downside?
This looks like a great idea to me, and once all cell phones have this technology built in, (they estimate 2012) i think it will become very popular. As a travel writer I could imagine using this to get extra information on a visitor attraction, or how about a tikitag at an airport that takes you to the booking webpage for a hotel - there's great potential with this.
www.jamblemag.com
This also might do the trick.
www.shotcode.com
Mobile tagging uses ShotCodes, special 2d barcodes, to link people from offline materials to mobile internet pages
just my 2c.
Colin
Let’s bring with tikitag the concept of TagLIVE reality!
www.fusedspace.org//show_contribution.php?id=40
I was pretty excited by the potential of this.
But wait. I need a reader to connect tags to my computer? Fail.
So if I stick a tag on my business card and then give my card to someone without a reader, it won't do anything? Fail.
They're marketing this thing in the wrong way IMHO. I can envisage industrial driven use rather than the consumer/hobbyist approach they're pushing.
Take at look at www.over-c.com. They provide NFC technology to various sectors including; retail, security & healthcare. There are also some good movies of NFC being used.
@alex pooley: Exactly right!
RFID is great but the situations outlined can all be done with existing QR Codes which work on nearly any camera phone.
Check out my utube video where i demonstrate how easy it is to visit a mobile site by clicking on a QR Code.
http://www.youtube.com/user/the3gdatingagency