The present invention discloses a method and
system for generating, analyzing and decoding a two-dimensional barcodes representing, for example, the contents of a
business card or contact information in stored in a PDA or
mobile phone. In an embodiment of the invention, a process is provided for generating a two-dimensional
barcode from the contact information stored in a
software database such as a
Personal Information Manager (PIM), Customer Relationship Manager (CRM), PDA or
mobile phone contact list. The contact data is exported from the
database or handheld device into a standardized format such as vCard that is broadly used for exchanging contact information. The vCard data strings are encoded into Base64 and converted into the
Unicode universal character set that provide wide
ranging compatibility for various language scripts including many non-western character scripts. The data strings are encrypted and from which a unique two-dimensional
barcode is generated that can be imprinted on business cards or on other printed material. In another embodiment of the invention, business cards and other printed material having a two-dimensional
barcode generated by the invention can be quickly scanned such that the barcoded contact information is analyzed and converted for compatible use with numerous types of
software such as personal information managers (PIM), Customer Relationship Managers (CRM), or electronic device contact lists without the need for supplementary user intervention.