05 July 2010

Westergasfabriek QR Code Park Tour

Westergasfabriek is a culture park located on the former gasworks of the city of Amsterdam. Many of the original buildings have become industrial monuments and house restaurants, meeting areas, television studios, office space and many more things.

This year the buildings have been enhanced with QR Codes. This initiative is part of a larger project: How can digital technology augment and enrich the park experience? This project has been given the name UPlabs and consists of several steps. Step one was to install an optical fibre network and WIFI in the park. The second step is to install interactive projects for the park visitors. The QR Code Park Tour is just one of the tours. The QR Code gives some background information about the building. You need a QR Code reader and access to the Internet. The park offers Free WIFI – the network name is ‘STARTQR’. I visited the park to experience the tour myself.

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Here is an example of how the QR Code is put on the building. This QR Code points to http://qr.westergasfabriek.nl/480

I scanned the QR Codes with a HTC Touch HD running i-nigma reader software version 3.06.01 on Windows Mobile 6.1

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The QR Code actually enhances your visit to the park. For instance, now I now that the original name of the building is ‘Ketelhuis 9’. You don’t see this anywhere else on the building.

Almost all of the buildings have a QR Code. This building

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has this QR Code

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which translates to http://qr.westergasfabriek.nl/278

One of the bridges actually contains two QR Codes.

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QR Code Westergasfabriek

As an exercise for the reader I leave it to you to find out where they point to.

Click on the slide show below to see more photos of the monumental buildings and their QR Codes.

(Visit my Flickr photo set for larger images in case you reader does not recognize the QR Codes. Just click on a photo and choose Actions / View all sizes to get a bigger image).




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