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struggle4progress

(118,338 posts) Mon Jan 28, 2013, 02:54 PM Jan 2013

Brazil: bar codes on sidewalks give tourist info

Posted on January 25, 2013

... The first two-dimensional bar codes, or QR codes, as they're known, were installed Friday at Arpoador, a massive boulder that rises at the end of Ipanema beach. The image was built into the sidewalk with the same black and white stones that decorate sidewalks around town with mosaics of waves, fish and abstract images.

The launch attracted onlookers, who downloaded an application to their smartphones or tablets and photographed the icon. The app read the code and they were then taken to a web site that gave them information in Portuguese, Spanish or English, and a map of the area.

They learned, for example, that Arpoador gets big waves, making it a hot spot for surfing and giving the 500-meter beach nearby the name of "Praia do Diabo," or Devil's Beach. They could also find out that the rock is called Arpoador because fishermen once harpooned whales off the shore.

The city plans to install 30 of these QR codes at beaches, vistas, and historic sites, so Rio's approximately 2 million foreign visitors can learn about the city as they walk around ...

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-01-25/brazil-bar-codes-on-sidewalks-give-tourist-info

A two-dimensional bar code, or QR code, as they're known, made from black and white stones covers a sidewalk near the beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. The QR codes are being placed at tourist spots which can be scanned with a mobile device for information about the site. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Brazil: bar codes on sidewalks give tourist info
Saturday - 1/26/2013, 7:20am ET
http://www.wtop.com/1226/3207205/Hi-Tech-Sidewalks

6 replies

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Brazil: bar codes on sidewalks give tourist info (Original Post) struggle4progress Jan 2013 OP

Thats going to be bizarre to a post-human archaeologist NoOneMan Jan 2013 #1

Just think an archaelogist only needs to scan the bar code to LiberalFighter Jan 2013 #2

Presuming any such database would be preserved or remembered NoOneMan Jan 2013 #4

I would imagine most of what we do will be bizarre BainsBane Jan 2013 #3

"And here was the markings of worship for the God 'Tem' Dash87 Jan 2013 #5

Without extra-terrestrial influence, how could humans have figured out the barcode? NoOneMan Jan 2013 #6

NoOneMan

(4,795 posts)

1. Thats going to be bizarre to a post-human archaeologist

Reply to struggle4progress (Original post)

Mon Jan 28, 2013, 02:57 PM

Jan 2013

LiberalFighter

(51,084 posts)

2. Just think an archaelogist only needs to scan the bar code to

Reply to NoOneMan (Reply #1)

Mon Jan 28, 2013, 03:01 PM

Jan 2013

find out the history of the site at that time.

No guarantee it will direct them to the right website though in 1000 years or even 20 years. Or that there won't be a more efficient method. Probably no different when people won't know what is a typewriter.

NoOneMan

(4,795 posts)

4. Presuming any such database would be preserved or remembered

Reply to LiberalFighter (Reply #2)

Mon Jan 28, 2013, 03:06 PM

Jan 2013

100 years ago, a human archaeologist would have no idea that was a "bar code", nor would they have the ability to scan it. What comes next (maybe in a hundred thousand years) will not necessarily retain the knowledge or tools that we have today.

Data and our modern knowledge is pretty fragile. Just recently we've started exploring the idea of encoding it into quartz

BainsBane

(53,066 posts)

3. I would imagine most of what we do will be bizarre

Reply to NoOneMan (Reply #1)

Mon Jan 28, 2013, 03:03 PM

Jan 2013

to future archaeologists. You know how archaeologists are always deciding how something they dig up relates to worshiping a deity. During inauguration coverage I saw an image of people holding their phones up taking pictures of videos of the President and the First Lady's dance. I thought, some archaeologist from the future will see that and think they were worshiping their deity. They'll be a million cases like that. They'll probably think the bar code is a glyph representing a god.

Dash87

(3,220 posts)

5. "And here was the markings of worship for the God 'Tem'

Reply to NoOneMan (Reply #1)

Mon Jan 28, 2013, 03:07 PM

Jan 2013

Or there will be conspiracies that they were made by aliens.

NoOneMan

(4,795 posts)

6. Without extra-terrestrial influence, how could humans have figured out the barcode?

Reply to Dash87 (Reply #5)

Mon Jan 28, 2013, 03:10 PM

Jan 2013

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