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Encoding: "This is an example Aztec symbol for Wikipedia."
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Aztec Code is a 2 dimensional matrix style bar code symbology. Aztec Code was invented by Andrew Longacre, Jr. of Welch Allyn Inc. in 1995 (later Hand Held Products Inc., now Honeywell Imaging and Mobility). The code was published by AIM International in 1997 and although the code is patented, it has been released to the public domain.

Contents

Encoding

The symbol is built on a square grid with a bulls-eye pattern at its centre for locating the code. Data is encoded in a series of circles around the bulls-eye pattern. Each additional circle completely surrounds the previous circle causing the symbol to grow in size as more data is encoded. A dark module is a binary 1 and a light module is a binary 0. The code is orientation independent.

The smallest Aztec Code symbol is 15x15 modules square, and the largest is 151x151. The smallest Aztec Code symbol encodes 13 numeric or 12 alphabetic characters. The largest Aztec Code symbol encodes 3832 numeric or 3067 alphabetic characters or 1914 bytes of data. No empty zone is required outside the bounds of the symbol.

The level of Reed–Solomon error correction[1] is configurable, from 5% to 95% of the data region. The recommended level is 23% of symbol capacity plus codewords.

Aztec Code is supposed to be robust according to various printer technologies. It is also well suited for displays of cell phones and other mobile devices.

Character set

  1. All 8-bit values can be encoded. The default interpretation shall be:
    1. for values 0 - 127, ANSI X3.4 (i.e., ASCII) and
    2. for values 128 - 255, ISO 8859-1: Latin Alphabet No. 1.
      This corresponds to ECI 000003.
  2. Two non-data characters can be encoded, FNC1 for compatibility with some existing applications and ECI, escape sequence for the standardized encoding of message interpretation information.

Usage

Transport

Land transport

Airlines

  • The Aztec Code has been selected by the airline industry (IATA's BCBP standard) for the electronic boarding passes.
  • Several airlines send Aztec Codes to passengers' mobile phones for ticketing purposes, relating to online (or paperless) ticketing.
  • Air New Zealand will be using the code domestically for ticketing, but this deployment is still in process. [2]

Governmental

Governmental deployments

  • Polish car registration documents bear an encrypted summary encoded as Aztec Code. Works are underway to enable car insurance companies to automatically fill in the relevant information based on digital photographs of the document as the first step of closing a new insurance contract.
  • Japan, rather than stamping foreigners' passports upon entry, issues stickers into foreigner's passports containing Aztec Code, linking the passports to each unique sticker in an effort to combat fraud.

Mobile phone reader support

This code has limited mobile phone reader support. Please feel free to keep and updated list of phones supporting the feature here.

An Aztec code can be displayed and scanned from the screen of any phone with a high enough screen resolution.

See also

External links

Related websites


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