OMA Mobile Codes White Paper V1.0

This document outlines the materials that constitute the Reference Release Definition for the Mobile Codes White Paper.

The white paper included in this Reference Release aims to stimulate a global market in which barcodes act as enablers for camera-equipped handsets to access content and services. Some technologies already exist; for example, in Japan, 2D barcode scanning is in widespread use. However there is fragmentation in the worldwide market currently, due to the variety of approaches to the questions of which barcode symbologies should be supported, what format of data they should contain, and how reader software should behave when barcodes are read. The Open Mobile Alliance aims to halt fragmentation by providing guidelines on existing standards as well as creating specifications to address interoperability needs as they arise. This white paper is intended to serve the mobile industries by highlighting some important existing standards to be considered and problems to be solved if full interoperability is to be achieved. It also makes recommendations concerning backward compatibility, and concerning the issues that normative specifications should address.