Data Matrix webimage analysis

After I decoded a lot of QR Code images, it was an easy step to download Data Matrix Code images and find out, what kind of content people encode in these. For those, who are interested, for the decoding, I used the libdmtx library. As a backup, I used other libraries to check, if the code was really a Data Matrix or if the content of the image contained other types of codes. Therefore in some cases, I found QRcodes and 1D Barcodes, which is effected by the results of the image search engines. Here is a little distribution of the code types. Due to the small rate of images with 2d codes, only small numbers:

Decoded

All in all, I downloaded 2268 images from the webservices (Google Image Search, Yahoo Image Search, flickr) and 255 were decoded successfully as Data Matrix Codes (11.24%)

Words

The following tag cloud represents the 200 words, which the Data Matrix contained most often. By clicking one of the words, you will see a random selection of links to images with a Data Matrix, which the word contains. At the moment, some normal stop words are used.

BEGIN Colbert libdmtx DEMO Waveform Maxicode Pleased linkbox data DataPaq Code Omniplanar rdf Fax malcolmhall 63250Y43 world Ihrem reads schloesser Flickr Bar END badfacture Drupal API Associates OPAL Barcode Distributor von Parkwest science student university malaya lumpur kuala meng swee Report Nation Fan Site colbertnation Sample Company Canal Unit Bank Hume Dublin Ave Solutions meet Knapp Donna Abdullah Eyles Ireland

Content

The content, which more than one image contained, were:
  • 12 (15 times)
  • www.tagmore.com/esmadrid (7 times)
  • Barcodesoft | autoid, bar code, RFID (6 times)
  • http://www.aipsys.com (5 times)
  • 12345678 (4 times)
  • IDAUTOMATION DataMatrix Font and Encoder (3 times)
  • 01234567890123 (3 times)
  • 123451234567891234567891234567891234567896789123456789123456789123456789123456789123456789123456789123456789123456789123456789123456789123456789 (3 times)
  • 123456789128 (3 times)
  • www.sample.org.uk/blog (2 times)

    • Domains


    the domains of links, that the codes link to, show the following distribution:

    Special Code Types

    Conclusion

    Data Matrix Codes are already known to be used in industry like postal services and logistics. In comparison to QR-Codes, they are not or rarely used to share social information like a link or contact data.

    matez.de | March 10th 2009