Hardlink (homonymy)

A hardlink establishes a reference link between the physical world and a .mobi web page just as a hyperlink establishes an electronic reference to information on a Web page. This concept is also known as 'physical world connection', Object hyperlinking and Physical world hyperlinks with a number of companies developing, what are currently, non-standardized methods of creating this connection. By comparison, a hard link (two words) is a non-related reference, or pointer, to physical data on a storage volume.

The leading methodologies for this concept revolve around variations of traditional bar codes such as QR Code and Semacode tags with cell phones used as the initiating device. Although bar codes and tags are currently the leading method of creating a hardlink, the definition is much broader and includes any method that allows a mobile device to retrieve information from physical objects.

When custom barcodes or tags are used as the hardlink methodology, a user can photograph the tag with an Internet enabled cell phone and then retrieve the information from .mobi web page or database pointed to by the tag. This process does require that the cell phone be preloaded with the respective companies software allowing the phones camera to correctly interpret the tag.

The consumer use and market for the hardlink concept is a very small and limited one in the U.S. with a slightly larger audience of users in some eastern countries [WSJ Online 2006, The Bar CodeGets a Hip New Life. JESSICA E. VASCELLARO, [http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB114843472842861406-lMyQjAxMDE2NDI4NDQyMzQ0Wj.html] ] . Unlike Japan, few if any US cell phone providers currently offer a tag reader as standard software and will likely continue this practice until a clear software solution is identified.

ee also

*Yellow arrow
*Physical world hyperlinks
*Data Matrix
*Semacode
*ShotCode
*QR Code
*Barcode
*Dot code

References