Getting video content into printed books via QR codes
Margaret Carew - CALL
18 November 2015
Step 1. Create video content and export/transcode in appropriate format.
See some sample settings here – play with quality and data rate to optimise.
Step 2: Set up a vimeo channel for access to video content
The vimeo address is: https://vimeo.com
Vimeo is a good platform for language and cultural content, as it provides a lot of privacy settings.
You can link to any on line video content if you prefer, such as youtube, facebook etc. Our project has a pro account which we pay for, and this ups the amount and type of content we can upload.
Step 3: Upload video to vimeo.
Select settings that you require – see the settings tab. Here you can set passwords (which you can print in the book if you’d like to restrict access to video) and other privacy settings.
In the ‘embed’ tab you can decide on what level of ‘visual clutter’ you’d like to see with the video – see here for the ones I use (a low level of clutter)
Step 4: COPY the URL of the video that you want to link to (from URL bar)
In the following example the URL is: https://vimeo.com/121958868
Make sure you navigate back to the main video page, back from the settings pages, before copying the URL.
Step 5: Go to QR code generator site at: http://goqr.me/
Where it says ‘Type’, select the world symbol, which provides a code that links via a URL. Paste your URL under where it says ‘Contents’
Then download the QR code to your computer. You get to choose various formats (eps, jpeg etc). Then insert them into your document, book or whatever. See here for an example of how this has been used in a book called : Mer Angenty-warn alhem ‘Travelling to Angenty waterhole’.
Campbell, A. P., Long, C. K., Green, J., & Carew, M. (2015). Mer Angenty-warn alhem 'Travelling to Angenty Waterhole'. Batchelor: Batchelor Press: p. 32.
Step 6: download a QR reader app to your phone or ipad.
There are many out there, and most are free. Just search in Google Play or the itunes store.
Step 7: Use your phone and QR app to scan the code.
Click through to the video. Enter the password if there is one and watch the video!
Another layer is possible – embed the video link into a website, and link to that URL
For the Angenty book we have created a website – see here:
http://central.batchelor.edu.au/project/mer-angenty/
We created pages within the website for each of the films linked to the book. We embedded the vimeo link for the film into the website, and the QR codes link to these pages (not directly to vimeo). This allows us to integrate the films into the website, and keep them together as a set.
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QR codes in printed books