Bokode

A bokode is a type of data tag which holds much more information than a barcode over the same area.

They were developed by a team led by Ramesh Raskar at the MIT Media Lab.

[1] Bokodes are intended to be read by any standard[vague] digital camera, focusing at infinity.

However, prototypes have been developed which function passively with reflected light like a typical barcode.

[3] Bokodes convey a privacy advantage compared to radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags: bokodes can be covered up with anything opaque, whereas RFID tags must be masked by material opaque to radio frequencies, such as the sleeve provided by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles when issuing their enhanced state IDs.

Bokode encodes information in the bokeh of an image
A Bokode tag between other bar codes, seen as a red dot in focus, but a large patterned circle out-of-focus.