High Capacity Color Barcode

[1] Data density is increased by using a palette of 4 or 8 colors for the triangles, although HCCB also permits the use of black and white when necessary.

Microsoft claims that laboratory tests using standard off-the-shelf printers and scanners have yielded readable eight-color HCCBs equivalent to approximately 3,500 characters per square inch.

A Microsoft Tag is essentially a machine readable web link, analogous to a URL shortening link: when read, the Tag application sends the HCCB data to a Microsoft server, which then returns the publisher's intended URL.

Two-dimensional tags can be used to transform traditional marketing media (for example, print advertising, billboards, packaging and merchandising in stores or on LCDs) into gateways for accessing information online.

The Microsoft Tag reader application is a free download for an Internet-capable mobile device with a camera.

Scanbuy, a company founded in 2000 by Olivier Attia, has been selected to support Microsoft Tag technology on the ScanLife platform beginning September 18, 2013.