Show HN: A Hand-Drawn QR Code Alternative
meshtag.com
Show HN: A Hand-Drawn QR Code Alternative
1–10 of 140 posts
Re: Show HN: A Hand-Drawn QR Code Alternative
#2I love this!
For it to be compelling, it needs to be readable in a bunch of iOS / Android barcode scanners, though. Any plans there?
Re: Show HN: A Hand-Drawn QR Code Alternative
#3Unfortunately, and unlike a QR code, the data is not encoded in the drawing itself, which means an Internet connection is always needed. For URL sharing the Internet connection requirement is not so much of a problem (you'd always need that connection for browsing to the URL, unless it's a local or data URL), for everything else it may be.
Also, once the Meshtag service goes down or closes for good, all tags become impossible to read, which pretty much puts me off of using this for any permanent purposes. I suppose it will also have to deal with copyright infringement issues (and there would need to be a mechanism for submitting DMCA notices), but don't take my word for it. Related: it's easier to censor.
Whether these disadvantages are enough to make up for the fact that the codes can be drawn by hand, and can expire, only time can tell.
By the way, if this could be made to use squares instead of triangles, I guess it would be easier to draw on grid paper.
Re: Show HN: A Hand-Drawn QR Code Alternative
#4This is really clever, and solves a lot of the problems with QR codes. Not just the hand-drawable-ness, these also look a lot better aesthetically.
Re: Show HN: A Hand-Drawn QR Code Alternative
#5Funny, not long ago I created a writing system that worked on the same principle. It proved a bit too unwieldy for writing but it was a fun exercise.
Re: Show HN: A Hand-Drawn QR Code Alternative
#6QR codes and such I imagine will fade as more applications support live OCR. Its only a matter of time before phones will ship with the native app using text detection to make hyperlinks clickable from the camera app. There's already text grabber and the like on iOS/Android. This seems like a stop-gap. It's cool but I just can't see using it.
Re: Show HN: A Hand-Drawn QR Code Alternative
#7It's a confusing solution for a problem that does not exist, which is how to use a pen to draw readable shapes, a problem many of us learned how to solve in elementary school.[0]
[0] http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/lette...
Re: Show HN: A Hand-Drawn QR Code Alternative
#8I love this! For it to be compelling, it needs to be readable in a bunch of iOS / Android barcode scanners, though. Any plans there?
That would be cool; they'd have to interact with the meshtag database in order to retrieve the data. I can dream though!
Re: Show HN: A Hand-Drawn QR Code Alternative
#9I much prefer QR Codes as there is nothing to buy and their embedded data makes them standalone. Meshtags seem more like a graphical version of bitly or tinyurl.
Re: Show HN: A Hand-Drawn QR Code Alternative
#10Unfortunately, and unlike a QR code, the data is not encoded in the drawing itself, which means an Internet connection is always needed. For URL sharing the Internet connection requirement is not so much of a problem (you'd always need that connection for browsing to the URL, unless it's a local or data URL), for everything else it may be. Also, once the Meshtag service goes down or closes for good, all tags become i…
Very true. And I steered away from squares due to the "swastika effect". Also because the information is slightly more dense with a system based on triangles - 6 bits at a given vertex versus 4 bits.