Barcodes

Modern mobile phones or smartphones have multipurpose functions apart from being used as a device for voice and text communications. They are also embedded with many useful sensors, including camera, barometer, ac-celerometer, and digital compass. Unlike other types of sensor, the smartphone camera has been underutilized. This paper aims to fill the gap by analyzing and reviewing the hardware and software components of smartphones and highlighting the potential uses of the smartphone camera to support human daily life activities. A simple search of research papers indexed in Google Scholar was carried out using guided terms. The papers were filtered to match the research questions for this study. Only relevant papers were analyzed and reviewed. The results of the analysis suggested that the rapid development in the smartphone hardware has extended the use of the smartphone cameras beyond personal and social photography. Consequently, applications (apps) based on smartphone cameras emerge, such as barcode readers, document digitizing tools, augmented reality, translation tools, and indoor positioning device. These apps benefit users and facilitate them in their daily life activities.

In 1994, Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota developed a code similar to barcode to identify cars during manufacturing process. This code is called QR (Quick Response) code. Today, QR codes are seen everywhere, from newspapers to wrappers used for packaging of a commodity. You just need a phone with camera and scanning capability and the software to read what’s hidden in these codes. QR codes may encode URL, music, images, virtually anything. Some advertisers use QR codes to promote their web presence since the smartphones can read and immediately access the URL encoded in it. Now, imagine a QR code that when read may destroy your phone by infecting it by a malware hosted on a website.
In this paper, I will show the design and applications of QR codes, the data that may be encoded and outline the obvious threat of a malicious QR code. This paper will demonstrate some attack scenarios where QR codes could be used. Since the QR code first interacts with the reader software, attacks on automated processes are possible. The second category of attack could be on human interaction such as phishing. The concluding part stresses on the need of more research and adding a security feature to the QR code.

Modern mobile phones or smartphones have become a pervasive and affordable device for users at different levels of age around the world. Smartphones equipped with many useful sensors, including camera, barometer, accelerometer, and digital compass. The sensors on smartphones attracted researchers and developers to develop mobile applications (apps) and study the potential use of the sensors to support daily life activities. Unlike other types of sensor, the smartphone camera has been underutilized. Analysis of the literature suggested that smartphone camera mainly serves for personal and social photography. Practically, a smartphone camera can be used as an imaging device for reading a barcode. Although barcode has been used for identifying products and items, the use of a smartphone camera as a reading device has not been explored thoroughly. Further, scholarly resources describing the fundamental knowledge of smartphone camera barcode reading is not available in the literature which could be the reason contributed to slow research progress of the domain. Therefore, this study aims to review the current trends and future directions of smartphone camera for barcode reading. Specifically, the study reviews the literature on the types of applications that are currently available and run on the standard mobile platform for reading a barcode. It also analyzes the necessary components that made up barcode reading apps. Further, the review identifies technical and non-technical issues that are critical for the development of the apps. The contributions of this work are twofold, first, it provides the fundamental knowledge on the building blocks of camera barcode reading apps, and second, it explores the issues in the current camera barcode reading apps that could encourage exploration towards addressing the issues. Practically, the findings could spark new research ideas to address the current issues related to the use of smartphone camera for barcode reading in the near future.

We introduce a novel use of 2D barcodes for storing facial biometrics. To accomplish this, we design 2D color barcodes with larger storage capabilities than traditional 2D barcodes. Biometric data are secured through digital signature so as to be protected from malicious tampering. In order to improve the quality of facial recognition, we combine eigenfaces, shape landmarks identified through statistical models and local features such as SURF descriptors. The use of color barcodes is crucial in this setting, as traditional barcodes cannot store all data required for discriminating faces (e.g., a suitable number of SURF descriptors). We report the results of an experimental evaluation of our system on real-world datasets (i.e., a face database). In spite of the reduced storage available on 2D barcodes, we do not observe any degradation in precision and accuracy

In an increasingly hybrid world, the digital grows more pervasive. 2D barcodes called “QR codes” epitomize the tendency as they flourish in everyday environments. One of their practical applications is to take users directly to a webpage upon “scanning” them with a compatible mobile device. We analyze uses of QR codes in visual communication ranging from shop signs to advertising campaigns. Serving as interfaces between the physical and the digital, matrix codes are signs aimed at two distinct types of interpreters. For a non-human interpreter, the signified is univocal: it points to precise information and may operate technically as a “switch.” For a human interpreter, the signified is equivocal: visually indecipherable without the proper equipment, the code is a symbol of and a prescription to use new technology. As visual and technological artifacts, matrix codes are hybrid objects that perform a double mediation, technical and semiotic, intertwining the functional and aesthetic. Their use in public communication at an early, trial-and-error stage requires that producers and viewers negotiate the double mediation and integrate it into their visual communication strategies and experiences. The hybridization with machine code also queers public spaces in a Harawayan sense.

The Anopheles species identification is complicated by the presence of several complexes of species and species whose specimens are difficult morphological distinction. We use 393 mitochondrial DNA sequences, Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) of 36 Neotropical species of Anophelinae deposited in GenBank and by constructing phylogenetic trees using maximum parsimony the objective was to corroborate or correct the molecular identification of five sequences/species of Anopheles collected in Ecuador and also availables in Genbank. We identified the taxonomic units, based on monophyly, phylogenetic species definition, tree topology, ocurrence of sequences from the type locality and genetic intra/inter divergence of clades. The topologies of the resulting trees corroborate the identification of sequences of Anopheles (Anopheles) pseudopunctipennis Theobald, An. (Ano.) eiseni Coquillett y An. (Nyssorhynchus) albimanus Wiedemann, while the molecular identification of An. (Nys.) rangeli Gabaldón, Cova-García y López (not “oswaldoi”) is corrected and remains in doubt the correct identification of related sequences for sequences belonging to Punctimacula group, until have available a greater number of COI sequences from related species. However according to the criteria of type locality, these are not punctimacula in sensu stricto. Finally, the matrix of alignment DNA-COI haplotypes sequences of 241x36 species built for these analyzes will be useful for molecular identification of Anophelinae species from Ecuador and the Neotropics based on the portion of 520 bp COI (between 2,272- 2,792 bp).

Paperback 1.10 may be the 1st outright case of state sponsored encoding of the crypto encoding stage on x86 Windows 10 PCs. The code being attacked has been around for some time -- the adage of updating often is a good security measure seems to be the rule here...

The concept of globalization has become ubiquitous in social science and in the public consciousness and is often invoked as an explanation for a diverse range of changes to economies, societies, politics and cultures - both as a positive liberating force and as a wholly negative one. Whilst our understanding of the politics, economics, and social resonance of the phenomenon has become increasingly sophisticated at the macro-level, this book argues that globalization too often continues to be depicted as a set of extra-terrestrial forces with no real physical manifestation, except as effects.

The essays challenge this dominant understanding of 'globalization from above' through explorations of the mundane means by which globalization has been achieved. Instead of a focus on the meta-political economy of global capitalism, the book concentrates on the everyday life of capitalism, the not-so-'little' things that keep the 'large' forces of globalization ticking over. With its eye on the mundane, the book demonstrates that a series of everyday and, consequently, all but invisible formations critically facilitate and create the conditions under which globalization has flourished. The emphasis is on concrete moments in the history of capitalism when these new means of regular reproduction were invented and deployed. Only by understanding these infrastructures can we understand the dynamics of globalization.

In short, punchy essays by distinguished researchers from across a range of disciplines, this book provides a new way of understanding globalization, moving away from the standard accounts of global forces, economic flows, and capitalist dynamics, to show how ordinary practices and artefacts are crucial elements and symbols of globalization.