Microsoft is releasing its second-ever iPhone app, one designed to take advantage of the phone's camera to acquire 2D barcode data. The program, called Microsoft Tag, analyzes pictures that you take of High Capacity Color Barcodes. Unlike a one-dimensional barcode, like the UPC on every product you buy, which looks like a row of vertical stripes, two-dimensional barcodes store data in a more complex fashion over a larger area. The elaborate series of dots you'll find on a shipping label from UPS is a good example of a 2D barcode. The HCCB ones that Microsoft Tag uses are made up of colored triangles. By using both colors and shapes, HCCBs can store more data in the same amount of space as black-and-white 2D barcodes.

When you take a picture of an HCCB with Microsoft Tag, the software analyzes the picture and extracts the data embedded in it. This is a URL-like identifier that lets the software go online and pull up more information on the topic. If HCCBs catch on and find more widespread use, you should be able to find them on signs and displays out in the world. One on a bus stop might, once scanned and processed, direct your phone's browser to a page with all the bus schedules listed. A tag on a movie poster might direct you to a list of showtimes, or even let you order tickers online. Microsoft is also releasing versions of Tag for other smartphones, but adding it to the iPhone's lineup should help the tech reach a much larger user base.

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