NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[lesnshawn]

ALYNNB: Competitor? This whole game's coming down to the patents, right?

1st patent on Neomedia's link: http://www.paperclick.com/patents.jsp

United States Patent 5,933,829
Durst , et al. August 3, 1999
Automatic access of electronic information through secure machine-readable codes on printed documents

Abstract

The present invention is a secure system and method for providing automated access to electronic information stored in a database in either a local or remote location. The system utilizes a machine-readable code printed on a document, referred to herein as an intelligent document since it stores information used to automatically access the information. The machine-readable symbol is encoded with source data (including a file location pointer) that is first obfuscated by generating a checksum of the source data, encrypting the source data by using the checksum as an encryption key, and assembling the checksum with the encrypted source data prior to encoding. The machine-readable symbol is then printed and distributed by the vendor by any logical means to the end user. The end user then scans the code via appropriate code scanning (e.g. bar code scanning) equipment, and de-obfuscates the scanned data by parsing the checksum, decrypting the remainder of the scanned data string (which includes the file location pointer) using the parsed checksum as a decryption key, computing a checksum of the decrypted data string, and comparing the computed checksum with the parsed checksum to determine the validity of the code. The file location pointer is then used to access the appropriate file. In a preferred embodiment, a Web browser program is launched, and the URL of the vendor's Web site is accessed through the Internet.


Compare that to this...

From the semacode link: http://semacode.org/about/technical/

4.�URL barcodes

The fundamental concept of semacode is the URL barcode. A barcode is a machine readable visual tag, and a URL is an internet address. At the most fundamental level, semacode is the encoding of URLs into barcodes and the associated machinery to read those codes and load the associated resource onto a user device.


Who owns the bridge?