John Young has written some cool projects for Make, such as this helmet-mounted water gun. He just alerted me to another nifty thing he made: Commando Nerd patches, which can be scanned with an iPhone.
Here's how he describes them:
You have an iPhone. And that means you're just HOURS away from being able to put a QRcode reader on it (there's one currently under review at Apple.)
Once you have a QRcode reader, what will you do then? Why, you'll wear a stylish Commando Nerd patch all around town, naturally! You can configure the patch to link to anything you want. People can scan your code to see your blog… or buy your art… or watch a YouTube video of you giving them the finger. Here's my blog post taking it out from under wraps.
I have about five or six velcro-backed patches left in the prototype set before I start making and selling them For Real.
This'll be fun; the iPhone provides a lot more, and a lot more interesting, opportunities for offline to online integration than just "here's a link to my facebook page." One thing I want to do is link the patch to a paypal "subscribe to me" link. You know, you could offer help-desk services right there in person:
THEM: "Excuse me, could you install a virus checker on my computer?"
YOU: "Certainly! Just take your mobile phone and scan my patch right here…"
THEM: "What's that?"
YOU: "That will subscribe you to my IT services. Only ten dollars a month for up to three incidents!"
THEM: "Uh… how about I just take my laptop to the Geek Squad?"
YOU: "Oh, gosh, okay."Or maybe:
THEM: "Hey, man, what happened to your leg?"
YOU: "I broke it in five places. Scan the patch on my cast with your iPhone and watch a YouTube video of me ALMOST making the jump!"
