NeoMedia and Texas Nameplate create permanent, metal-etched mobile barcodes
Mobile barcoding expert NeoMedia has a new deal with Texas Nameplate. The custom metal nameplates from Texas Nameplates will now have mobile information embedded on them, readable from NeoReader.
The new Digital Nameplate service will provide companies with 2D barcodes etched onto their nameplates, so users can can access company data through any device enabled with NeoReader.
From the release:
“We are very excited to partner with NeoMedia Technologies and bring this ground-breaking capability to the market,” says Dale Crownover, President of Texas Nameplate. “NeoMedia Technologies and Texas Nameplate will co-develop standards and identify new markets for this technology. Our collaborative efforts will propel a traditional manufacturing product into the twenty first century, where information can be accessed and shared anywhere, at any time. New applications of this technology will have a significant impact on customer care, asset tracking, inventory control, compliance, and many more.”
“The partnership with Texas Nameplate is a fantastic opportunity for NeoMedia Technologies and represents another significant commercial application of our barcode scanning solutions,” said Iain McCready, Chief Executive Officer at NeoMedia Technologies. “It is yet another exciting and innovative integration of 2D barcoding and further demonstrates just how adaptable our technology can be. In this case, we will provide customers instant access to significant information in an intuitive and easy-to-use method - speeding up business processes and delivering significant efficiency gains to all parties involved.”
What we think?
Very cool idea! Barcodes tend to be very short-lived items, only existing in digital format, on paper tickets, or as posters or stickers. Having longlasting codes etched onto metal plates adds an air of permanence to the idea.
There’s something else I really like about this. A barcode etched onto a metal plate isn’t going to be seen by many people, but it’s a very cool thing to have on your nameplate. It’ll be great if this service sees a lot of use, because it means people are using barcodes as a status symbol for innovation.
Dear Cian,
Thank you so much for your comment under “What we think?”
Your comment is what we had envisoned about our digital nameplate product. After 60+ years of making “traditional” nameplates that one has to depend on reading; this new concept and innovation will take etched metal nameplates to the next level. Thanks again, Dale Crownover
“”Very cool idea! Barcodes tend to be very short-lived items, only existing in digital format, on paper tickets, or as posters or stickers. Having longlasting codes etched onto metal plates adds an air of permanence to the idea.”"
Unfortunately, this statement is inaccurate. Key institutions in the US have been using this technology for years now. We had some discussions back in early 2006 on this matter, when it was alleged that Aztec codes would become the clear winner in the 2D bar code wars.
At that time it was my argument that they would not prevail as the winner, and the Data matrix and the QR codes would prevail. My reasoning was as follows. QR codes were already in wide spread use around Asia, and contained special character recognition to accommodate the alpha/numeric characters used in that part of the world. Seeing how Asia is a major player in global trading, those codes were not going away any time soon.
On the other hand, Data Matrix was already in widespread use in the US, by governmental agencies to track inventory, by the aerospace industry for similar uses, by the largest global shipping company(UPS) for package tracking etc, and the list goes on.
Metal tagging companies have been deploying these codes on tags for a long time now, and a google search of metal tag companies wil bring up dozens of companies in the US alone, who are already incorporating 2D Data Matrix codes on their tags for their customers. I expect there are hundreds of millions of metal name tags produced in the US annually, as every piece of equipment has at least 1, and many pieces of equipment have multiple metal tags on them, for everything from an electric motor, to valves etc. and Texas NamePlate is but a small player in that arena.