I have spent a bit of time this afternoon looking into QR codes, and how they can be customised to incorporate logos or other information. I think the first I saw of this trend was a BBC logo embedded into a QR code, but numerous people have tried it out, such as these ones from Japan, where the QR code has already been used much more widely than in the UK.

If you haven't come across QR codes before, they are much like barcodes, but have the ability to store much more information in them. Perhaps the most common use is to store a website address in them. When scanned with a mobile app like Bakodo or the Google app for the iPhone, the handset can load up the website it points to, and instantly give the user more information about the tag they have scanned.

These 2-dimensional barcodes have a tolerance for errors, meaning that bits of it can be missing or covered up, while still being able to be read and used. That's quite handy, if you want to make them look a little more interesting and include a logo or something to attract people's attention to them. Even better, it's as simple as generating a normal QR code from the Google Charts API (e.g. one for dankarran.com), downloading it, opening it in your favourite graphics editor, and inserting your logo. Check to make sure your scanner can still read it, tweak it if necessary, and you're set. Set the error correction level to the highest value possible (chld=H in the chart URL) and keep your URL as short as possible to give you most flexibility around your logo and less chance of it breaking barcode scanning applications.

Using QR codes to improve location-based information

QR codes could be quite useful for tourist information signs, to give people quick access to more information about the local area, a map of local amenities, or directions to whatever they are looking for. Most phones that have the ability to recognise a QR code probably also have a GPS or some other form of positioning built in, which could help them find their location on the standard Google Maps, but doesn't necessarily help them get at other detailed information, perhaps provided by the likes of OpenStreetMap or provided by local information sites or the local government. Using these codes to point to targeted local information could be of great use to visitors (as long as there's a note to tell them how to make use of the QR code).

A QR code like the one at the top of the post could be useful for someone standing at a tourist information point in the Sea Terminal in Douglas, Isle of Man, as it takes them to a map centred on that point. The site it points to doesn't do much more than providing maps of the Isle of Man at the moment, and doesn't work too well on a mobile yet, but could (and hopefully will, before too long) provide much more information that could be of use to visitors. Similarly, the one to the right points to a map of Douglas on the OpenStreetMap site.

I haven't seen many QR codes in use yet, but hopefully they could become much more widespread in coming years. Could you see yourself making use of codes you found out on the street?

There are a number of iPhone apps - such as OffMaps - which let you use OpenStreetMap data, and view the maps, on your iPhone and iPod touch, but there hadn't been any apps which let you edit the data, until now.

If you are a member of the OpenStreetMap community, you've probably been out and about at some point and looked at something and thought 'hmm, I wonder if that [insert interesting thing here] is already on the map?'. Well, now if you have an iPhone you can quickly check whether it is or not, and either add it or update its details directly in the OSM database.

The first iPhone editor to launch on Apple's App Store is Little OpenStreetMap Editor (iLOE), an app that allows you to add or edit OSM nodes wherever you are. While its user interface isn't very friendly at the moment, hopefully it will improve in the future and make it easier for users to edit the data around them. In the mean time, it does do the job, so if you're desperate to edit OSM on the move, give it a try.

Cloudmade are also working on an app - the Mapzen POI Collector - which aims to give a quick, user friendly way of editing OSM data. The app tries to make it as simple as possible to contribute to the project from your iPhone, whether you were an OpenStreetMap contributor before or not. The only thing you need to do is sign up for an account at openstreetmap.org, and the app will let you add all sorts of information without having to know anything about the tagging scheme used in the project.

Currently awaiting moderation to get into the App Store, the app should be available very soon, and is definitely worth trying out when it's available. If you're interested, you can sign up to be notified when it's out. I've tried out some pre-release versions which have been shaping up very well, as these screenshots in their tutorials show.

A number of apps are available on other mobile platforms which will let you view OpenStreetMap data, and a few of them also allow editing, including the Java-based TrackMyJourney app which I recently tried out on my Nokia N95 phone.

Update (26 November): Mapzen POI Collector is now available for the iPhone from the App Store

I was looking recently to see what applications were available for the iPhone (or iPod touch) relating to the Isle of Man, and was pleasantly surprised to see that a mapping application had been released.

The application, simply called 'Isle of Man', gives users a map of the Island for use on their iPhone while they are visiting. In addition to the map, it lets users find amenities and streetnames that have been added into the OpenStreetMap database. I decided this morning to pay the 59p to download the app and try it out, but beyond the initial excitement of seeing OpenStreetMap data being used for mobile maps of the Isle of Man, I haven't been so impressed with the execution of the idea for a number of reasons...

The Mobile-Streetmaps.com website promotes this app and hundreds of other similar ones from around the world, each just a download of OpenStreetMap data packaged into an application, for which they charge 59p. While it's not a large amount to pay, the company producing the applications is profiting off the generosity of the OpenStreetMap community (and in the case of the Isle of Man, Cloud Made as well, thanks to their donation of data) with little attribution, and no mention within the app itself of the license under which the data is available.

Hopefully the company will fix the attribution issue soon, by adding a mention to the pages in the iPhone app store that the data is from OpenStreetMap, and also by adding information about the license to at least the about page of each app, and to the side bar of the pages on their website.

The app itself could be quite useful if you're visiting the Island, but it has quite a few usability issues that hamper its use:

• Zooming in to the map, you are not shown beyond a certain level, leaving many streets in the center of towns and villages left without names.
• Navigation within the app could really be improved... there's not even a back button to get back to the map from various other screens.
• After searching for items, you're taken to the map, but you are left looking at the place you were looking at before, with no obvious indication that pins have been added to the map outside of your current view.
• There is no way of clearing the pins from previous searches from the map, leading to possible confusion when searching for other things.
• Clicking on the pins for search results doesn't give any more information to the user. It would be nice to be able to get contact details where available, what the nearest street is, etc.

If you would like to access maps offline for more than just a single place, and be able to take advantage of recent updates to the maps, you will probably be better off downloading the OffMaps app which I have yet to try, but costs just a little more at £1.19 and lets you choose the area and level of detail you wish to download, and lets you do it for as many places as you wish.

While free and open geodata from OpenStreetMap gives a great boost to these applications, it also has its downfalls in that it's likely not (yet) complete for any given area. To give an example, searching for 'cafe' amenities in the Isle of Man resulted in just the Silverdale cafe being shown on the map, where in reality there are many more cafes that aren't (yet) listed.

To help improve the amount of data in the Isle of Man that's represented in OpenStreetmap, in particular relating to points of interest (POIs), I'm planning to hold another mapping party on Saturday 1st August. I'll post more information about this soon, but put the date in your diary if you're interested in helping put some of these amenities on the map. If you'd like more information in the mean time, please get in touch.

Update: having contacted the author of the apps, he's already been working with the OpenStreetMap community and has agreed to improve on the attribution, which is good. I also tried out OffMaps and liked it, but one thing it doesn't give you that the individual place-based apps do, is the access to find the location of POIs and streets while you're offline (though it does work when online).

A few days have passed since returning from my weekend visit to Hannover and CeBIT, and I'm nearing recovery from the night-travel induced sleep deprivation over the two days. It was a good trip, if only to learn how not to spend the day at large fairs - and that a day probably isn't long enough.

I was visiting the fair with a colleague, who, like me, was hoping to see all the new gadgets that had been hyped in the run up the event. What we didn't realise is that visiting a fair requires some planning before the event to make sure you can fit in the things you want to see as well as a good selection of the other stands. We missed out on a big chunk of the stuff we wanted to see having lingered for too long in the other sections. Seeing everything on display is not an easy task in an area that's almost half a million square metres in size, and it's unbelievably easy to get sucked in to the stands as you go along.

Personally, I was amazed at the amount of geo-related goods and services that were being exhibited - from data providers such as Navteq and Teleatlas, through handheld GPS, mobile phone integrated GPS navigation systems, in-car navigation systems like TomTom (this was probably the biggest share of goods, including many models from China hoping to take a chunk of the market) and a variety of other things. There was also a lot of information from government entities, from both regional and national mapping authorities in Germany and from other European countries. At some point I will attempt to wade through the German literature and find out what's going on in the geospatial world here in Germany.

Perhaps I'll write more about some of the exhibits as and when I get a chance, but for now, check out some of the CeBIT photos from PocketGPSWorld.com.