These came out in the mid-80's to provide an
alternative to
typing in program listings (say, from a magazine), As far
as I can tell, neither system really caught on...
Cauzin is still around and supplies systems used at many trade shows for
encoding and reading 2d data patches on badges.
I found a Cauzin reader for my Apple II, but haven't played with it. Years
ago I wrote a couple letters to Cauzin asking about using the technology
minus the reader, but they had no interest.