I m building TLcube, an open-source 3D barcode technically 2.5D that stores data in the relative luminance order of three faces in each cube-like cell.
The generator is working. The harder problem is making the browser-based scanner feel responsive on a phone.
Our practical target is 5 FPS, or one useful decoding attempt every 200 ms. That is a target, not a performance claim.
The first thing we learned was that optimizing a single decode can be misleading.
QR encodes data in black-and-white squares — right for a 1994 camera. Cameras changed; the squares didn't. So we spent the slack on looks.
TLcube splits a hexagonal cell into three rhombic faces and encodes data in the rank order of their brightness, not in absolute values — shift exposure, gamma or contrast and the answer survives. Four silhouettes, an optional fallback QR, browser generator and scanner.
Free to use, like QR. No licence fee, no per-scan cost. Apache-2.0.
