Technology to "bury" data on printed images

Fujitsu Laboratories are working on a new technology to "invisibly" embed numeric characters (such as a telephone number or a URL conversion code) in a printed colour image.

The picture can be taken into a phone camera and decoded by specific software for the user to make a phone call or access a Web site.

This technology would enable users to make a phone call by reading a phone number from a picture on a business card; download ring melody data for their mobile phone by scanning a picture on a CD jacket; collect information on a shop while reading about it in a magazine.

Fujitsu still has to consider when and how to commercialize the technology.

From NE Asia.