TWO – DIMENSIONAL CODES ON MOBILE DEVICES

AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLATFORM

José Manuel Fornés Rumbao and Francisco Rodríguez Rubio

Department of Telematic Engineering and Department of Systems and Automatic Engineering

Seville University, Seville, Spain

Keywords: Bar codes, Two dimensional codes, Video streaming mobile, RedBox, QR codes.

Abstract: In the last times, the mobile terminals have experienced an accelerated technological development. This

evolution has provided numerous advances in presentation and interactivity in general and it has given rise

to the generation of numerous applications for it. Following this line; this article shows how to incorporate

on mobile terminals a simple interaction with the environment across the technological successor of the bar

codes: the two-dimensional codes. We will use three basic elements -camera quality, growth in data traffic

and increased bandwidth in mobile phones- to create a platform that provides to the user an easy and useful

way of obtaining information multimedia that improves his relation with the environment. We will look for

a complete and global development of the system, that is, the generation of the two-dimensional code; his

interaction with the platform and final obtaining of the information in the terminal.

1 INTRODUCTION

Throughout its history, mobile phones have been

used for more tasks than serving as a voice

communication device Thanks to the quickly

advance of mobile technology, we can add new

applications that solve or improve access to

information or communication. One of these

contributions is the exhibited in this article and it is

related with the two-dimensional codes. These codes

allow to store more data and more efficiently than

traditional bar codes. This new technology, two-

dimensional codes, properly applied, can save the

existing limitations, and give the user an easy way to

interact with the environment and multimedia

information to enrich their relationship with it. This

technique should take advantage of two stimuli easily

verifiable which are the following two:

• Best multimedia and data communication (in

particular, the diffusion of mobile terminals

with built-in camera is growing)

• The forecast for the next years point out that,

while the global voice traffic will increase

linearly, the data traffic will do it exponentially.

That is the reason why it is necessary a work of I +

D + i; in order to design a platform to deploy

services based on two-dimensional codes and that

is also scalable and configurable

2 STATE OF THE ART

2.1 Barcodes and Two-dimensional

Codes

The bar code (IEEE, 2008) is a code based on the

representation by a set of parallel vertical lines of

different widths and spacing which together contain

certain information. Currently, the bar code is

massively deployed globally. There are several

papers studying barcode readers using the camera

device in mobile phones (Ohbuchi; Hanaizumi;

Hock, 2004), (Tasos Falas, Hossein Kashani, 2007),

(Yue Liu; Bo Yang; Yu Yang, 2007). The problem

arises when you want to store a certain amount of

information. In short, traditional bar codes are very

limited in the amount of information which can be

stored and this give rise to another, more appropriate,

codes to the current market. That's when the idea of

two-dimensional codes arises.

Two-dimensional codes (TEC NEWSLETTER,

2008) are matrices formed by the combination of

dots of certain colours allowing a subsequent scan

by a reader in a very quick and efficient way. There

are a lot of types of two-dimensional codes such as

Manuel Fornés Rumbao J. and Rodríguez Rubio F..

TWO – DIMENSIONAL CODES ON MOBILE DEVICES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLATFORM.

DOI: 10.5220/0003481200190022

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Signal Processing and Multimedia Applications (SIGMAP-2011), pages 19-22

ISBN: 978-989-8425-72-0

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

QR codes (Quick Response Barcode), Datamatrix,

MaxiCode, Aztec code, PDF417, RSS or 49 codes.

Figure 1: General structure of a DataMatrix code.

3 OBJECTIVES AND TOOLS

USED

The complete development of the system is reached,

from the generation of the two-dimensional code up

to the final obtaining of the information in the mobile

terminal. Definitively, it will be necessary implement

the following aspects:

• Application for two-dimensional code

generation.

• Architecture and platform for the diffusion of

the application for the recognition of the

generated graph.

• Platform architecture and on-demand video

distribution.

• System for receiving and sending MMS with

images requested by the mobile terminal.

For an overview and anticipate the tools used, in

the following image shows the general pattern:

Figure 2: Basic scheme of the platform.

As can be seen, a number of tools (Darwin

Streaming Server, Tomcat, MySQL, RedBox, etc.)

software and hardware will be required which are

shown here.

3.1 Multi-platform Messaging: RedBox

The operation of RedBox (RedBox-Vodafone, 2008)

is very simple. Basically consists of making a bridge

between the mobile and the applications that are

programmed to send and receive SMS, MMS, etc.

All SMS sent by a mobile terminal to reach the

platform, are forwarded to a particular website.

From these web applications, the user may be

capable of sending SMS, MMS or request the

location of a particular mobile terminal which has

previously been discharged from the service LBS.

3.2 Videos on Demand

The concept of VOD or Video On Demand (VoD)

consist in the possibility of, through a specific

interface, to view a video hosted on a server through

the technique known as "streaming". The

transmission protocol used for distributing video over

the Internet (TCP / IP) is RTSP (H. Shulzrinne, R.

Lanphier, 2007). For this project has been chosen the

so-called Darwin Streaming Server.

4 DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM

The system implemented must meet the following

objectives:

• Generate two-dimensional codes with three

different formats: URL, plain text and SMS.

• A mobile terminal may, by the send of an

SMS, to receive the application made to read

two-dimensional codes.

4.1 Server

The central element of the platform is the server,

which will be equipped with the Ubuntu operating

system 6. It’s necessary to install other tools, yet

explained. It is; therefore; essential requirement to

install:

• MySQL: To collect data from mobile terminals.

• DarwinStreaming Server: Copying the files

properly in the folder, will be possible to access

each of the videos by clicking the following

way: rtsp: / / SERVER_IP: 554/NAME_FILE

 Tomcat: Installation of this web server will

contain all three web applications made for this

platform (generation of two-dimensional code,

the compilation of statistics and management of

RedBox).

4.2 Applications

Applications developed can be divided into two

main groups: Generation of two-dimensional codes

and RedBox management and statistics.

4.2.1 Code Generation

The first application developed will be responsible

SIGMAP 2011 - International Conference on Signal Processing and Multimedia Applications

for generating two-dimensional codes (namely, QR

and Datamatrix) by completely dynamic way and

with a user-friendly graphical interface.

Figure 3: Interface two-dimensional code generator.

The following figures show the two-dimensional

symbols (QR and DataMatrix) associated with a web

address with the URL: www.google.es. This is the

result of this application code generation:

Figure 4: QR Code (left), DataMatrix (right).

4.2.2 RedBox Management

RedBox manages the incoming requests from users

and the SMS or MMS from the application to a

particular mobile phone. The previous set of actions

can be divided into three main blocks:

• Block I: This block is responsible for receiving

information from RedBox. Depending on what

comes, take a particular decision making any

module block II to act.

• Block II. This block will act accordingly,

depending on the orders laid down by the block

I: Send an SMS, send an MMS or store some

information in the database.

 Block III. Block assigned to receive

notifications and subsequent writing them in

the database.

5 RESULTS

5.1 Multimedia Results

Let's start with the request to download a two-

dimensional code reader. To obtain an application

will be necessary to send an SMS from our mobile

to phone number of RedBox (600124XXX) with

content "focuses lectorc2d." Automatically; RedBox

redirect to the application developed and it will pick

up the petition that the user is asking. Thus, the

method adopted is to send an SMS with the URL I-

Nigma Reader. So, the user can access the URL of

the reader and can download the specific application

for his mobile model. The following illustration

shows this procedure:

Figure 5: Process for obtaining a code reader.

With a simple click you can proceed with the

installation and the terminal will be ready to read

QR codes previously generated.

To view a web page through a QR code in the

first place we will start the application. Next, we will

focus on the QR code generated and automatically

interpret what type of content is. Simply; with a

click on the "Connect" will enter the requested

website. In the following illustrations we can see the

process of viewing web through a QR code:

Figure 6: Viewing a web through a QR code.

The next step is to verify that the RedBox system

for displaying images works correctly. Through a

QR code, which is interpreted like a sending of a

SMS with a specific keyword and after the

developed application will send to the mobile

terminal, an image based on the words entered in the

content of SMS.

Figure 7: Image display process RedBox.

It will be necessary hope that RedBox acts

adequately sending to the developed application, the

request that has been requested by the user. This

application will realize how the user are trying to

download a map image and then it will send an

MMS to RedBox to carry out the sending this image

to the mobile terminal.

TWO - DIMENSIONAL CODES ON MOBILE DEVICES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLATFORM

Finally, we check the video display on the

terminal through video streaming. To do so, the user

should access a URL very characteristic since the

protocol to be used will not be "http" but "rtsp". The

terminal N95, used for the development of the

project, will interpret that it is a question of a

transfer for streaming and will automatically open

his streaming video player to start viewing the video.

Figure 8: Video visualization process.

5.2 Statistical Results

This section is responsible for displaying different

statistics generated by the system RedBox. A series

of tables are created where the information stored in

the database appears.

In the first table will display data as total

requests, demands complete, incomplete or

erroneous. In the second table the requested requests

are stored supplying data; as data of the request, the

type, the origin and the message. In the third table

(table 1), a list of all requests sent to the platform

and the type of message requesting will be shown.

Table 1: Mobile table requests.

6 FUTURE WORK

You can study the integration of these codes in

various scenarios that generate added value.

An application of QR codes is the possibility of

incorporating them along a cultural visit, for

example, in a museum next to a sculpture or a

painting, where, to take a picture the code in

question, will facilitate the reproduction an audio

(streaming).

Also, in the poster for a concert you can include a

QR code to provide access to buy the ticket through a

secure payment platform (via web). Then it will be

provided a link to an image with a QR, which is your

e-ticket. Only have to access this link to download it.

7 CONCLUSIONS

The mobile terminals are increasingly smaller sizes

to provide user mobility. But as a disadvantage,

appears to have to enter web addresses in the

browser using a keyboard too small. This article has

been shown how the use of QR codes facilitates this

work. QR codes are based on open standards,

allowing us to use in any environment without

restrictions. This makes the QR useful for mobile

payment platforms and applications through mobile-

oriented web pages. This opens a wide range of

development opportunities in the mobile

environment. It requires a joint effort of all actors

involved in technology development and public

administration to facilitate standardization and

technology integration. Also, the advantages QR

codes have been joined the use of the Platform

RedBox Vodafone. The integration of the two makes

it even easier access to mobile Internet.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge MCyT

Grants DPI2010-19154 and the European

Commission (EC) (FeedNetBack Project, grant

agreement 223866), for funding this work.

REFERENCES

IEEE. Barcode, 2008; /lessons/crackingthecode.pdf

E. Ohbuchi; H. Hanaizumi; L. AH Hock, Barcode Readers

using the Camera Device in Mobile Phones;

International Conference on Ciberworls; 2004. IEEE.

Tasos Falas, Hossein Kashani, Two-Dimensional Bar-

Code Decoding with Camera-Equipped Mobile

Phones, Fifth IEEE Int. Conference on Pervasive

Computing and Communications Workshops, 2007.

Yue Liu; Bo Yang; Yu Yang; Bar Code Recognition in

Complex Scenes By Camera Phones; Fourth Int.

Conference on Natural Computation; 2008.

BOLETÍN INFORMATIVO TEC (TIC). Códigos

Bidimensionales, 2008; www.tec-mex.com.mx

OPEN MOBILE INTERNET ALLIANCE (OMIA).

OMIA Mobile 2-D Bar Code Standard. 2007;

www.meworks.net/

VODAFONE. Red Box, 2008; :/vodafone.es/empresas/

servicios/mensajeria/redbox/

H. Shulzrinne, R. Lanphier. RTSP, 2007; www.javvin.

com/protocol/rfc2326.pdf

SIGMAP 2011 - International Conference on Signal Processing and Multimedia Applications