Digital Root

The Mind-Language-Physiology Link

When I was a boy, I believed that people with blue eyes could perceive the color blue more acutely than people with brown eyes.

This research doesn't exactly prove that, but it does suggest there's a mind-language-perception link going on.

It was clearly the language system interfering with a task that was presumably purely visual: distinguishing between different colors. Categories in our thinking may go much deeper than we think.

While not conclusive, this research indicates that having a greater definition of a given color enables perception to a more granular degree.  Its conceivable that this language-physiology link permeates our ability to think and perceive well beyond colors.

QR Codes and That Guy Who Uses Them

 

Forrester released a study on QR/Barcode mobile usage.  QR/2D barcode scanning is up to 5% (from 1% a year ago) for smart-phone users in the US. Earlier reports stated a total of 14MM "scanned a QR code ever", but its unknown if this was a superset of smartphone or general mobile users.

Either way, it’s still a small market – 6MM people in the US, primarily in the 25-34 "affluent" demo.  Something to consider when adding QR codes (especially if its intent is solely to redirect to a URL) to print/web materials.  In fact, if you're setting up QR codes to redirect to a simply root URL, you're wasting your time.

Because these reports rarely quantify their numbers, I pulled the latest survey data from Q3'11 US Census, CITA, ITU and Nielsen data.

 

Mobile QR Code Usage in the US

Approx Mobile accounts:                 285.0MM

Approx Smart Phones:                     114.5MM

Approx QR/Barcode Users:                5.7MM

 

Over the next 24 months I'm expecting to see a shift from QR code usage to object/image recognition as redirect markers.  Most smartphones can train and recognize an image or object in the real world as a redirect or augmentive marker, rendering the insano checkerboard that is a QR code less novel.