Two-dimensional barcodes displayed on a mobile phone screen serve as tickets to exhibitions or events under a service from Japanese firm, Index Corp, whose systems authenticate the barcode prior to entry. Index’s ASP architecture provides increased event security by matching the ID of a mobile phone to each barcode used to access a venue, which reduces the possibility of counterfeiting. Barcode reader, authentication devices and staff are to be deployed at each venue by Index, which also supplies an ASP-based service for mobile phone-based e-tickets facilitated by an infrared data communication function.



Fees for Index’s service depend on the duration of an event, with a two-day event with staff of 20, for example, costing about five million yen. Events organizers simply have to prepare a CSV file of users’ e-mail addresses and from that point, Index will oversee the delivery of barcodes to consumers. The use of mobile phone-based barcodes as a data access medium is growing in Japan, with NTT DoCoMo, for one, building a digital camera-based barcode reader into its latest Mova series handsets. If a business card has a barcode printed on it, for instance, the NTT handset can retrieve and store this data for future use.

Motorola and Fujitsu are similarly collaborating to facilitate biometric fingerprint authentication in an advanced PDA solution for the secure access of data in the mobile eCommerce environment. In time, fingerprint authentication could feasibly replace barcodes as an authentication method, but again, this depends on hardware and interoerability issues. The joint Motorola-Fujitsu solution provides a capture of a clear image with single-touch fingerprint authentication for all users, while an automatic finger detect and low-power consumption facility allow users to operate their PDA without draining the power supply.

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