21st Century Paintball (2-D Barcode)

If you've ever been paint-balling you know exactly how messy (not to mention painful) the sport is. Popular in England, and soon coming to the U.S. is something called QRBall.

It's similar to traditional paint-ball in the aspect that you are running around "shooting" people, but in QRBall, "shoot" has a different meaning. Forget guns loaded with painful paint balls and turn to your camera phone.

The first step is to install a QR reader on your phone. A QR reader is a program designed to read special 2-D barcodes such as the one seen below. After you have the program, you need a shirt that has a QR code on the back.

Everyone playing the game must stay within a specific area, and wear their QR Coded shirt. With the same mentality as traditional paint-ball, you must "shoot" other players. When you are shot, you receive a text message that says you're out.

After you've been shot, you go to a pre-arranged place such as a cafe etc and relax with others who have been shot.

This is a neat use of technology that will probably hit the streets of American cities in the near future!

To learn more about QRBall, click here.