Nextcode launches wireless barcode reading service

Wireless startup Nextcode today launched a barcode scanning service for wireless phones that allows businesses to create data-rich personalized barcodes that can be read by an ordinary camera phone.

Called ConnexTo, the application allows virtually anyone to create special barcodes containing WAP addresses, SMS messages, address book entries or even auto-dial numbers. These barcodes can then be printed out, incorporated into advertising or marketing materials or even placed in a website. Those codes can then be read by an ordinary camera phone with a special barcode reader application installed.

While the business applications for the service are numerous, Nextcode officials said one of its primary advantages of the service comes to the average consumer who doesn’t want to hassle with using a 12-button keypad to enter in reams of information or navigate through menus.

“Consumers shy away from taking full advantage of the capabilities of their phones and mobile offerings because they find it too complicated or time consuming,” Nextcode CEO Jim Levinger said in a statement. “ConnexTo turns what could take hundreds of keystrokes into a fast, easy action.”

Nextcode has developed a reader and barcode technology it calls mCode. It claims that the mCode can support much more embedded data than generic barcode formats, and it is designed to support multiple barcode formats that can be incorporated into graphics so the codes don’t show up as black-and-white eyesores on whatever materials they’re printed on.

Nextcode licenses the technology to businesses dealing in mobile content, but ConnexTo is an entirely consumer-centered service intended to popularize the application among users. Customers can go to the ConnexTo website, and generate their own barcodes, which they can then print out, place on a website or incorporate into other materials such business card. Anyone with a supported camera phone can then download the software, which will then read any mCode format.