The world of modern information access is an exciting one that is host to a paradigm shift in how we think about data retrieval. Physical world hyperlinking is an example of just such a shift in thinking that is riding the wave of cell phone technology advances.

Imagine this. You are driving on a busy highway during a typical rush hour and inevitably, you are stopped in heavy traffic. To eliminate boredom, you browse the billboards with one catching your interest. This particular billboard is by Textron, the makers of the Bell helicopter. You notice at the bottom of that billboard an alphanumeric combination, UH1, proceeded by two slashes. The identifier is prominent and seems to have a purpose - but what?

This alphanumeric combination is called a physical hyperlink or hardlink and is a real world connection to more information about the object it is found on. In this case it tells you how to fly the helicopter - how's that for additional information. As a side note, the two forward slashes are not part of the link, they are there only to alert the viewer that what follows is a hardlink.

This concept of physical world hyperlinking, while fascinating, is not new in Japan and some Scandinavian countries that have been using a form of it that utilizes two dimensional (2D) barcodes known as QR Code. Japans approach to this is quite different from the UH1 example described above. For starters, the Japanese approach would have resulted in the billboard having a 2D barcode and not the UH1 example. In such a case, pulling information from the sign would require that you have special software on your phone that could, in effect, scan the billboards barcode with your camera. The result is that your phones web browser is redirected to a web site. The 2D barcode model does work and even wins out from a cool factor standpoint, but it introduces a number of complexities that can be challenging for both advertisers and end users.

Getting back to our UH1 example, we find that it's not a barcode based approach at all, it is text-based. What is so unique about it is that you do not need to upload any special software to your phone, you don't need a phone camera and you can even create your own links in minutes by visiting one of several build sites such as buildhardlink.com. The way it works is you point your phones browser to a rather simple, even bland looking, database gateway at hardlink.mobi. Once there, you enter any link identifiers you may find. Once a link identifier has been entered into the gateway, it retrieves, not so much a web page, but a database file about the object that the link is associated with. The potential of what you can do with this application is huge.

Give it a try. Point your phones web browser to hardlink.mobi and save that as a favorite. Once there, enter UH1 and learn how to fly a Huey while you wait in traffic.









This concept of physical world hyperlinking, while fascinating, is not new in Japan and some Scandinavian countries that have been using a form of it that utilizes 2D barcode known as QR Code.