Billboard Barcodes

We've written before about Shotcode and Semacode and other mobile codereaders, but over in Japan -- where QR codes are  commonplace, as shown by a recent announcement from Amazon -- i-mode Business Strategy reports (via Tom Hume) that NTT DoCoMo is working on a cameraphone ad server that would let people snap a picture of a printed ad or billboard, then get sent to a web site or be sent more information from the advertiser.

It's not a new idea: barcodes are already used for this, even going back as far as the CueCat, which failed spectacularly. Although DoCoMo's new technology does require some handset software, it's different because it doesn't require ads to be changed in any way, and will also work with existing advertising. This makes much more sense to me than trying to advertise via bluespamming; this seems like an easy way to offer potential customers a way to reach out to advertisers, rather than just throwing a product or message in their face.