On January 16th.The company Alpus released their cell phone application "Keitai Mini Tokyo Map", which uses QR code to allow for very user oriented content delivery. The price is 714 yen.

The company Alpus released their cell phone application "Keitai Mini Tokyo Map", which uses QR code to allow for very user oriented content delivery, on January 16th. The price is 714 yen.

This "Keitai Mini Tokyo Map" software contains data on Tokyo and the surrounding area. In addition to Tokyo, information about Saitama, Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Makuhari are included. There is also extra detailed information available on more than 100 key spots in the Tokyo area available.

Because this program supports QR code, if you are using a cell phone with an attached camera that has "reading" capabilities, you can get information catered to your location, such as restaurant menus or hotel information, via the internet.

This is a note from Harvey, I believe the way that this works is that when you take a picture with the camera, it will send your location coordinates to the remote server in order to pull down the information of stores within your area. Already, keitai cameras in Japan have the abliity to include the location where the picture was shot in the caption of photo. Pretty creepy.

When you access this service's website, first you are directed to their companies main page. From there, you can select "gurunavi" for the restaurant information, or "tabi no madoguchi" for information for travelers. In addition to this, QR Code allows for more user specific information to be pulled from pages supporting this technology.

Alpus will also be releasing a roadmap including a CD-ROM which uses this same QR code technology on the 20th of January. Two different types of this will be released, a more advanced version costing 3600 and a lower scale version at 2800 yen. This software package will support a wilder area, including Fukushima, Nagano, Aichi... and many other places in Japan. Just like the "Keitai Mini Map", this will also allow user location specific restaurant and lodging information when accessed from cell phones.

The company plans to release more tools taking advantage of this QR code technology in the future.

http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/17062.html