This project aims to address the problem of excessive effort and time required to access the vast ammount of information currently available, in a cost-effective and efficient manner that leverages currently available technology (Godspeed to those working on brain-computer interfaces!).
The approach currently under consideration is printed references/links to multimedia on paper. Making this work requires specifying codes/patterns; and building hardware/software to scan and interpret those codes.
X-Codes aim to achieve a higher information density than similar scanned codes (like the barcode) by encoding information with words of grey-scale characters, rather than just black and white.
The decision to use grey-scale characters introduces additional constraints on precision and replicability that a black/white coding scheme may not need to solve for. To address these challenges, we want our (hypothetical) scanner to work in a controlled, easily replicable environment. We also aim at a differential coding scheme where the characters exist on a defined linear scale of sensor readings.