When travelers visit a new city, whether for work or for pleasure, they need information about this new environment and how to navigate it.

For instance, every public transit system is a little different, and trying to figure out a new one can lead to frustration and delays. Tourists on foot may need help finding their way to Chicago’s Navy Pier or the next stop on Boston’s Freedom Trail. At a historical site or inside a museum, guests may wish to go deeper on the history or inspiration behind a piece of art. Or, they may find something wrong that is having a negative impact on their experience, such as a messy restroom or an exhibit that is damaged.

Sure, there are maps and subway attendants and plaques and phone numbers to call or text with complaints. But what if all those functions could be achieved through a single means?

Sodyo’s interactive, colorful scan matrix, the Sodyo Marker, has many applications in advertising – broadcast, print, out-of-home (OOH) – but it could have just as many uses for municipalities looking to provide a rich and cohesive tourism experience. Because the matrix can be placed on any media, print or digital, scanned from a great distance, and used to facilitate payments, it unlocks many possibilities that would not be possible with other technologies.

Consider the nearest equivalent, the QR code. These static, black-and-white matrices are popular across much of Asia today. In a simple application such as a merchant point of sale, a QR code does everything it needs to do, but in a more dynamic situation, there is room for improvement.

 

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China lets subway passengers buy their train tickets via QR code, or even scan to pay as they board the bus rather than putting a coin in a turnstile or adding money to a card and swiping it. Yet if a passenger is running late for that bus, a Sodyo Marker would enable them to flag the bus and pay for the ride from afar as they are approaching the bus stop, saving them even more time.

As for tourists, imagine how their visit could be improved if they could download a single app that served as their key to the entire city – not only navigating and paying for transportation, but helping them browse, select, and find their way to local highlights and get the most out of their sightseeing experience by embedding deeper experiences at key locations.

And imagine if that flow of information became a two-way street, so that tourists could also communicate back to the city if they find a mess or vandalism or an unsafe condition at any of the sites they explore. This would drive benefits for both tourists and the municipality itself by creating a dynamic conversation channel rather than a static information vessel. After all, a code that only communicates one way is little more than a digitized bronze plaque. So much more is possible.

In short, swapping out the black-and-white QR code for the colored Sodyo Marker can take scan matrix technology to the next level, enabling all sorts of use cases that were not possible before. Improving upon scan technology could be the key to driving greater adoption of this tech in the Western world.

To learn more or explore how Sodyo Markers could improve the tourism industry in your city, click below to contact us.

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