It’s not a velcro patch (at least not at the moment) but it’s similar in concept.

http://blog.section9.co.uk/2009/12/qrcodes-with-t-shirts-its-new-fashion.html

Much MUCH cheaper and you can embed any code you like thus not relying on a third party server

I had written an article on both QRCodes and Microsoft’s Tag for our company.

http://cnwi.net/2010/06/01/qr-codes/
http://cnwi.net/2010/07/06/microsoft-tags-qr-codes/

I was exploring the use of QRCodes and how they are used by some of our customers. It’s quite a fun side of computing.

I will definitely have to get some of these patches for our jackets at work. Thanks for the information.

But that’s, of course, besides the point. My goal here is to play with barcodes, and the more the merrier — everyone should be aware that this is an open standard!

http://www.nerdlepoint.com/

We-ell… that’s pretty good. ‘s still not a knitted jumper, though.

Probably the best thing to do is to run your final target URL through an URL *lengthener* service first, like urlshorteningservicefortwitter.com or shadyurl.com.

Then, set your custom URL at p8t.ch to point to that carefully pre-LENGTHENED URL. Which, finally, points at your website.

That way, things average out, you see, and you’re *totally protected* from single points of failure.

http://www.toynbeecodes.com

You’re a tough crowd! A jumper it is, then. *takes book on knitting out of the library*

But in reality:
A: “you’re cool”
B: “wanna internet stalk me? does your phone do QRCodes? you can download an iphone app and take a photo of this patch”
A: “but I don’t have an a) an iPhone, b) a phone does this c) the time to download some app right now and d) any desire to stalk you anymore.”

That said I saw these all over Tokyo, so… some large techie population is using this sort of thing.

RAD TECHNOLOGIEZZ

While I have no reason to believe that our humble and charming merchant here intends any evil, his product has exactly the same architectural features: instead of getting the advantage of QR code’s arbitrary encoding ability to point to my URL of choice, I get a fixed-purpose tag that points to a server I don’t control. I have no idea what that server is doing with the information about when and how often my tag is scanned, nor do I know how long it will remain up, and whether it will obey my redirect preferences in the future.

I’d definitely pay to have the string of my choice, QR encoded, embroidered on a snazzy patch, with that string being a URL that I control. Being tied to somebody else’s URL shortener, though, makes me nervous.

That would be everyone – basically all phones have a QR code reader built into the baseline software. Once it becomes ubiquitous it’s really, really useful.

“I therefore come to you asking for a proper QRCode app, as using the search function turns up a few low-rated apps.”

I use QuickMark and have been very happy with it. Costs a dollar but has worked very consistently for me. It suffers from the usual idiots who give something a 1-star rating when they don’t understand what it does.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quickmark-qr-code-reader/id308650613?mt=8

BTW, anyone else noticed that the QR code on the right above links to a dead MobileMe account?

I’m the vendor, and I just say “patch”, the eight was so I could register the domains “p8tch.com” and the very short “p8t.ch” swiss domain, which fits in a small area.

This is my FAVORITE thing that I did with my own patch:
1) Recorded a short video of my friends’ mom, saying “hi honey! is THIS your card?” and holding up the seven of hearts.
2) Posted the video to YouTube, and linked to it from my p8tch.
Okay, with setup over, I
3) Asked my friend to pick a card, any card. They picked the seven of hearts (there are many ways to force a choice, starting with the least elegant but most effective method of purchasing a deck that is 100% seven-of-heartses; you can use your favorite method.)
4) Triumphantly held up the two of clubs. “PRESTO! This is your card!”
5) Acted extremely chagrined to be told that this is not their card.
6) Trying to change the subject from my embarassment, show them my spiffy new p8tch
7) They scan the QRcode with their iPhone, and up comes the YouTube video OF THEIR OWN MOMMA HOLDING UP THE SEVEN OF HEARTS

That was worth EVERY MOMENT of the setup it took.

I kinda wish I had it install when I was in Tokyo though.

I imagine this will take off just slightly more than exchanging PGP (GPG) keys with people. The patch thing still seems weird tho. I don’t rock any article of clothing enough…

oh wait:
TATTOOOOOOO!

Perfect. Google images say there’s one dude with one on his arm. Nice.

I sure as hell wouldn’t put in some shortened domain from some company that will not last as long as the tattoo, though.

I completely agree with you that open formats are crucial. In this case, the p8t.ch server serves two purposes:
1) The domain is short enough you can use a small QRcode (for those that don’t know, QRs can hold any amount of data; they just get bigger the more data they hold), and
2) Since the URL is “recyclable”, you can use the same p8tch to point to your RSS feed in the morning, your LinkedIn account in the afternoon, and, um… your DeviantArt profile at night?

You only have my affirmation that I’m not doing Anything Nefarious(tm) with the data, which you’d be completely right to treat cautiously. And by all means, we should encourage folks to get out there and make crafts with their OWN urls, using this open format!

Plus, the desire to maliciously rickroll (or Goat-roll, or Keyboard Cat-roll) your tramp stamp would be almost impossible to resist, from my sysadmin’s chair. Please — don’t make me have to fight that kind of temptation.

In addition to velcro-backed p8tches, I also make and sell needlepoint patterns, so you can stitch up a cunning little pillow with a redirectable barcode on it. This is COOLER than a jumper, because QRcodes _can_ be machine-knit, but no such technology exists for needlepoint and other hand embroidery yet!
*beats chest* :)