Knowtate wants to tag the entire world

May 7, 2008 | Dan Kaplan | Comments | |

If Knowtate, a San Jose, Calif. company, has its way, every interesting object in the world would feature its sticker. These stickers, “talk bubbles” with 2-3 digits in them, are called “knowtations,” and would enable anyone with a mobile phone to type those digits into an application and instantly receive relevant information.

For example, a knowtation on a car in a car show could deliver reviews of the car from Car and Driver, its estimated blue-book value and a targeted marketing message. A knowtation on a billboard could tell why you should buy the product and perhaps even offer a link to a retail outlet from which to do just that. Knowtations can be educational, they can be entertaining, they can deliver multimedia to your mobile phone.

In principle, this kind of thing could change the way we interact with the world. Mobile phones have changed our lives by reducing the friction in communication, but have not altered our engagement with static objects. A technology that seamlessly enables us to get rich information, on demand, about any object around opens up all kinds of doors.

There are a number of technologies designed to “mark up” the physical world and link it to your phone. The most prominent technology, moderately successful in Japan, is QR Codes, created by an automotive parts conglomerate called Denso to replace conventional barcodes. These contain far more information than a barcode, but unlike Knowtate, QR codes require you to take a picture of the code or have scanning abilities built into your phone.

Knowtate’s approach is much simpler. It takes an index of 2-3 digit codes and ties each one to an object in a specific location. Using the location awareness capabilities of your phone (either triangulation or GPS) it knows that a knowtation with “12″ in my neighborhood is different than the same knowtation on an object 5 miles away. By combining the index of possible numbers with geo-tagging, Knowtate can effectively re-use any of the possible 3 digit numbers to an almost infinite degree.

The company intends to make money “renting” the knowtations that are used for commercial purposes and charging a small transaction fee each time that knowtation delivers a lead.

The big, ugly hurdle in front of Knowtate that it requires a step-change in consumer behavior: Convincing the mass market to recognize that a three-digit number on a sticker on a car or a billboard means it’s time to type those digits into a cell phone is a Herculean task. Fortunately, Knowtate seems to have a reasonably sound strategy in mind. It will start with product-oriented conventions and college campuses, educate the target audience like mad and hope it sticks. Using the product is simple enough, and if it truly delivers value in line with the required effort, it might actually work.

The company has been bootstrapped until now, and is looking to raise around $6.5 million.

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About the Author, Dan Kaplan

Once upon a time, Dan considered himself a magazine journalist with dreams of "The New Yorker" and a couple of well-reviewed but only mildly successful books. Then one day, life, as it is known to do, decided it was time for rebirth. Like so many things before it, this rebirth was conceived on a mostly-empty plane to Reno. Now, instead of magazine writing, Dan would plunge into the world of New Media and write for Matt Marshall's blog.

It's funny how it goes.

  • sengseng
    what about mobile to mobile, connecting your mobile number to your virtual profile/digital exhaust?
  • Ouch. They want to raise USD 6.5 million for sticker-making software and an online index?

    The idea in itself isn't bad. I explored this in a master's thesis in 2004-2005 and created a system that lets you create an alias for a location, area, physical item, or even a page in a book, and then link this alias to an indexing system that's accessible via the web.

    We didn't create a commercial version of the system because in practice it just a nifty thing, not a game-changer. Thinglink (http://thinglink.org/) does the same thing, btw.

    QR codes are pretty darn cool. You can fit a large amount of information inside a QR code; not just a URI, but a recipe, poem or directions if you wish. Unfortunately, QR codes and Semacodes (and all 2D codes of their ilk) require custom software to be read, so it's a chicken-and-egg situation that only gets off the ground in certain markets.

    Knowtate's system promises to be simple to use by virtue of requiring just a few keystrokes to enter the 3-digit ID, and then using the magic of GPS (or other location-sensing technologies) to present you with the right note. This means that the information remains inaccessible for those who lack the appropriate device, which then makes it pretty hard to make this platform take off.

    RFID chips seek to do much of the same, with less involvement required of the user. You'll need that special device, of course, but the interaction is far simpler than what a QRcode, a thinglink, a Knowtation or a Loqus (what we built) can provide.

    Last, but not least, all of these systems assume that we are simply thirsting for more, more, more information at all times and all places. And that's a proposition I don't buy.
  • I read with interest Fredrik Matheson’s comments and wanted to provide some clarification.

    Thinglink – thinglink is markedly different that Knowtate. Thinglink enables users to create online ‘things’ and provides mechanisms for people to find each other’s ‘things’. Knowtate creates a way for users to interact with physical objects in the real world. Both the target and method are different.

    Fredrik appropriately points out that QR codes and RFID can also be used to allow users to interact with physical objects. He accurately points out that the special hardware device requirements create a major blocker to adoption – the economic justification for handset manufacturers / carriers to enable these targeted hardware extensions is unclear.

    There are other critical differences that make Knowtate a much more viable market solution than either QR Codes or RFID. Both RFID and QR Codes have limitations on the types of objects and use cases they can service. Knowtate does not have these limitations.

    RFID and scanner-based QR Codes can only be used in close proximity situations – you have to get the device close enough to read it. Further, there are technical challenges to manage RFID communications when there are many items with RFID tags (which one did they want?). Managing these conflicts requires complicated signal error handling. The easy way to solve this is to force the device and the tag to be very close together but this further decreases the use cases that can be addressed by RFID.

    It is true that photo-processed QR Codes can be used in more distant applications than RFID / scanner-based QR Codes. However, photo-processed QR Codes have difficulty if there is more than one QR Code in the photo (which one did the user want?). Lighting, angle, and QR Code degradation also create recognition problems. Finally, the photo-processed QR Code user experience is convoluted – the user takes a picture, sends it for processing and then receives an SMS with a URL to go do something. This type of user experience will only work in specific situations (mass transit applications in Asia, for instance).

    Another key limitation for both RFID and QR Codes is that they require the users and object to be relatively stationary. It would be difficult or impossible to use RFID or QR Code on a billboard from a moving car, or a QR code on a moving bus.

    Knowtate’s patented solution addresses all of the above issues. A user can connect to any Knowtation as long as they can see it – up close or far away, stationary or moving. There are no difficult technical communication problems to solve (signal corruption, image issues). Knowtate does not require expensive handset upgrades and can operate with network-based location accuracy (Knowtate can work with non-GPS phones when we can receive network-based location for them). Additionally, because Knowtate’s short 1 – 3 digit indexes can be easily spoken, Knowtate can support voice-centric, hands-free interactions. The user experience couldn’t be cleaner … simply enter a 1 to 3 digit number and directly interact with the desired object.

    Because of the network effect, the solution that brings the most users and objects together brings the most value. Knowtate can address more objects because it avoids the limitations of either RFID or QR Codes. Knowtate can engage the most users because it does not require expensive hardware upgrades that have difficult economics for the carriers.

    As for 'who wants more info', there are a few thoughts. First, the early market data is positive … our beta test user engagement exceeded 40% and QR Code adoption in specific uses is positive. Second, we learned with the Web that people may not ask for easier access to information but they will use it if it is simple and effective (imagine a website with no hyperlinks on it …). Third, the ‘money’ wants it to happen - companies pay a lot of money to put objects and ads in the world and have been trying to find ways to allow people to connect for years (phones numbers or URLs). The simplicity of Knowtate's solution makes it possible for interested mobile users to quickly and easily connect to that content, either to promptly interact or follow-up later when it is more convenient.

    Ken D’Amico
    CEO
    Knowtate, Inc.
  • Thanks for a thorough and thoiughtful answer, Ken. Thanks to our "conversation" those reading afterwards will have a better grasp of how your solution works.

    Best of luck to you!