Cybertravelers alert: New codes link smart phones to travel info

Many travelers still rely on comprehensive printed guidebooks for tourism information. But travelers are also increasingly using mobile technology to plan a trip or find their way around.

Now a technology called QR codes, for Quick Response, offers a way to forge a functional relationship between your guidebook and your smartphone. The codes are already big in Japan, but relatively unknown in the United States.

QR codes are essentially bar codes that can be scanned by smart-phone cameras and other devices. You aim your camera at a QR code on a page in a travel book, for example, and it links to information online, such as a map or directions based on the user's location. The user can also store information in the phone about the place that's described on the page.

QR codes can also appear in media other than books. You can scan them off a computer screen. They've been put on T-shirts and even billboards.

A new travel book is using QR codes to help readers link to spots around the globe. "Earthbound: A Rough Guide to the World in Pictures" ($30) is a coffee-table book with more than 250 photos from all over the world. Each comes with personal insights from the photographer who captured the image.

What's new in "Earthbound" is the strange black-and-white box next to each image. This is the QR code, looking something like a pixilated alien from the 1970s video game "Space Invaders." The code offers a link to the location of what's pictured in the photo, using Google Maps online.

As with any new technology, there are still a few bugs. A Rough Guides spokeswoman acknowledges some problems getting applications to perform, especially with earlier generation iPhones, but says the new ones and BlackBerrys perform better.