Comments on: Hacking Microsoft Tag’s HCCB: works in monochrome too!

By: Sparky

Sparky — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:24:14 +0000

Hi! I saw this wonderful article explaining the encoding of the tags, I think it’s really great
I used it for my article about the technology, you can chek it out here, its in spanish though:

http://blog.ktc.com.mx/2009/06/microsoft-revolcando-y-reinventando-los .html

By: Microsoft Tags - Was noch geht | Coded Style

Microsoft Tags - Was noch geht | Coded Style — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:15:46 +0000

[...] http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090109/hacking-microsoft-tags-hccb- works-monochrome-too/ [...]

By: Benjamin Gauthey

Benjamin Gauthey — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:52:41 +0000

You can now customize your Tag! Add your name, your logo, a picture whatever, it’s really cool
http://www.microsoft.com/tag/content/overview/TagSlaps.aspx

By: Benjamin Gauthey

Benjamin Gauthey — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:25:20 +0000

We’ve just released the black and white Microsoft Tag feature!!
http://blogs.msdn.com/tag/archive/2009/03/20/feature-microsoft-tag-bla ck-and-white.aspx

By: Paul Everdell

Paul Everdell — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:39:09 +0000

Not related to the color issue but rather the tag itself, check the video on the site. They show a poster right after the bus schedule and you can capture the code as it is shown clearly enough! Though amusingly it is for the “Red’ version of Vista, not the example it was highlighting. Video is obviously another pontential application though!

By: Craig Dunn

Craig Dunn — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 08:23:45 +0000

I read somewhere that the last four triangles in the HCCB are the ‘palette’ that the decoder uses to resolve the colors in the remainder of the barcode (once it has figured out orientation, etc using the black and white borders). I tested the theory out – seems to work…

http://conceptdev.blogspot.com/2009/02/microsoft-tag-cmyk-or-bust.html

However, while the monochrome and custom-palettes both seem ‘decode-able’, I’m not sure I’d put on into “print” unless I’d been able to test it across all the supported platforms – quite some effort compared to just accepting CMYK.

By: Spade

Spade — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:56:29 +0000

Can someone please explain why Microsoft had to waste time and money coming up with this duplication of already existing (and license-free) technologies? Do they think people are stupid enough to throw money at Microsoft for the privilege of getting locked into Microsoft-only technologies, when they can use QR codes instead to accomplish the very same thing, using whatever technologies they wish?

By: nickel

nickel — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:33:32 +0000

Very nice tests, compliments and thanks for share this with us!

In my article I have decided to link this interesting test !! You can found it on ondare.blogspot.com/2009/01/iphone-microsoft-tag-per-tutti-e-il.html

thanks, bye

By: Kyle Tolle

Kyle Tolle — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:21:39 +0000

I saw your post about Tag yesterday and this follow up is great. One of the criticisms I had in my blog post on thistechnology was the color dependency, so it is nice to see you address it like this! Brilliant!

I tried out all the variations you listed and only had trouble with the orange-tinted one. It eventually worked, but took some time. The black and white one worked immediately.

It will be very interesting to see how this product progresses and if it makes inroads.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:36:42 +0000

The above statement that “the data is not stored in hue or saturation, but brightness alone” is incorrect. There is no difference in the saturation channel (all four colors are fully saturated); however, differences are obviously contained in the hue channel (black: 0˙, yellow: 60˙, cyan: 180˙, magenta: 300˙).

Hue alone or brightness alone is enough to distinguish the triangles. Thus the full color tags contain redundant information and are more robust.