A Spanish barcoding company has produced a set of QR codes that play nine different Flamenco palos when scanned with a mobile phone.

Spanish barcode marketing company Macanudos, based in the province of Granada in Andalucia, home of traditional gypsy-inspired Flamenco, has been inspired to use QR codes to encapsulate nine distinct musical forms, or palos, used in Flamenco by dancers, vocalists and guitarists.

QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes that contain information in the vertical direction as well as the horizontal. By carrying information in both directions, QR code can carry up to several hundred times the amount of data carried by ordinary bar codes.

The ability of mobile phones to scan bar codes such as QR codes that has led to an explosion in their use, as we reported recently with respect to Microsoft Tag.

You can find free apps to read QR codes that will let you decode the information and hear nine different palos in this flyer from Macanudos and find Alegrias, Bulerias, Fandango, Granaina, Malagueña, Seguiriya, Soleares. Tangos and Taranta. It's not quite as impressive a feat as it sounds - the codes contain the urls for MP3 tracks on the El Flamenco website.

Click to expand and decode

The codes are part of a marketing campaign designed to promote the art of flamenco and a seamstress is currently building a QR flamenco dress with the codes embroidered in its circular "lunares" in preparation for the annual International Tourism Trade Fair in Madrid (FITUR) in January.

It just goes to prove that there are innovative applications still to be thought up using well known technologies.

Further reading:

Microsoft Tag takes off

Getting started with Microsoft Tag