Object hyperlinking, or simply 'phylinking', is a neologism that usually refers to extending the Internet to objects and locations in the real world. The current Internet does not extend beyond the electronic realm. Object hyperlinking aims to extend the Internet to the physical world by attaching tags with URLs to tangible objects or locations. These object tags can then be read by a wireless mobile device and information about objects and locations retrieved and displayed. However, object hyperlinking may also be sensible for contexts other than the Internet.
System components
Linking an object or a location to the Internet is a more involved process than linking two web pages. An object hyperlinking system requires seven components:
A virtual or physical object tag to identify objects and locations. Some tagging systems are described below. To allow the object tags to be located they must be physically embedded in visual markers. For example, the Yellow arrowscheme prints SMS tags on large adhesive yellow arrows, which can then be stuck on buildings etc.
A means of reading physical tags, or locating virtual tags.
A commonly open wireless network, such as the existing 2G and 3G networks, for communication between the portable device and the server containing the information linked to the tagged object.
Information on each linked object. This information could be in existing WWW pages, existing databases of price information etc., or have been specially created.
A display to view the information on the linked object. At the present time this is most likely to be the screen of a mobile telephone.
Tags and tag-reading systems
There are a number of different competing tagging systems. ;RFID tags " " ;Graphical tags ;SMS tags ;Virtual tags ;Hardlink
Applications
The object hyperlinking systems described above will make it possible to link comprehensive and editable information to any object or location. How this capability can best be used remains to be seen. What has emerged so far is a mixture of social and commercial applications.
The publishers of the Lonely Planet guidebooks are issuing yellow arrows with one of their guidebooks and encouraging travellers to leave tags to stories and comments wherever they go.
Siemens see their virtual tagging system being used to tag tourist sites, and also leave messages for friends. They also suggest that virtual tags could be used to link advertisements with locations.
Nokia have demonstrated that when a 3220 phone with the RFID shell attached is tapped against an RFID-enabled advertisement, a URL can be read and information about the advertised product or service returned to the phone.
Japanese consumers are able to read barcodes with their mobiles and download comparative prices from Amazon.
Semapedia have created a system for linking physical objects and Wikipedia articles using the Semacode tagging scheme. Graphical tags can be created that link to the URLs of individual Wikipedia articles. These tags can then be attached to the physical objects mentioned in the Wikipedia articles. Reading a tag with a camera phone will then retrieve an article from Wikipedia and display it on the phone screen, creating a "Mobile Wikipedia".
An alternative to using 2d barcodes is to apply computer vision techniques to identify more complex patterns and images. Companies like kooaba, Daem, or Neven Vision develop image recognition platforms to turn any image into object hyperlinks.
Microsoft has developed a system for creating hyperlinks using image matching.
Google is now planning to tag 100,000 businesses in the United States with QR codes.
