How barcodes could be the technical author's best new friend

The latest mobile phones in the UK are using barcodes to provide one of the first practical applications of augmented reality. It's technology that could see barcodes appear on thousands of physical items - something which would open up new opportunities for technical authors providing user assistance for equipment.

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In the future, users could use their mobile phone to scan a barcode (like the one below) on an item to call up instructions on how to use it.


The consequence would be that technical communicators would need to write content that can be read easily on the screen of a mobile phone (until pico projectors become more widespread).

See also

Will Nokia's new technology reinvent the manual?

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