QR code
A QR code, short for quick-response code, is a type of two-dimensional matrix barcode invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara of the Japanese company Denso Wave for labelling automobile parts. It features white and black squares within a square grid featuring fiducial markers on the corners, readable by imaging devices like cameras, and processed using Reed–Solomon error correction until the image can be appropriately interpreted. The required data is then extracted from patterns that are present in both the horizontal and the vertical components of the QR image.
Whereas a barcode is a machine-readable optical image that contains information specific to the labeled item, the QR code contains the data for a locator, an identifier, and web tracking. To store data efficiently, QR codes use four standardized modes of encoding: numeric, alphanumeric, byte or binary, and kanji.
Compared to standard UPC barcodes, the QR labeling system was applied beyond the automobile industry because of faster reading of the optical image and greater data-storage capacity in applications such as product tracking, item identification, time tracking, document management, and general marketing.
History
The QR code system was invented in 1994, at the Denso Wave automotive products company in Japan. The initial alternating-square design presented by the team of researchers, headed by Masahiro Hara, was influenced by the black counters and the white counters played on a Go board; the pattern of the position detection markers was determined by finding the least-used sequence of alternating black-white areas on printed matter, which was found to be. The functional purpose of the QR code system was to facilitate keeping track of the types and numbers of automobile parts, by replacing individually-scanned bar-code labels on each box of auto parts with a single label that contained the data of each label. The quadrangular configuration of the QR code system consolidated the data of the various bar-code labels with kanji, kana, and alphanumeric codes printed onto a single label.Adoption
During June 2011, 14 million American mobile users scanned a QR code or a barcode. Some 58% of those users scanned a QR or barcode from their homes, while 39% scanned from retail stores; 53% of the 14 million users were men between the ages of 18 and 34.In 2022, 89 million people in the United States scanned a QR code using their mobile devices, up by 26 percent compared to 2020. The majority of QR code users used them to make payments or to access product and menu information.
In September 2020, a survey found that 18.8 percent of consumers in the United States and the United Kingdom strongly agreed that they had noticed an increase in QR code use since the then-active COVID-19-related restrictions had begun several months prior.
QR codes are used in a much broader context, including both commercial tracking applications and convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users. QR codes may be used to display text to the user, to open a webpage on the user's device, to add a vCard contact to the user's device, to open a Uniform Resource Identifier, to connect to a wireless network, or to compose an email or text message. There are many QR code generators available as software or as online tools that are either free or require a paid subscription. The QR code has become one of the most-used types of two-dimensional code.
Standards
Several standards cover the encoding of data as QR codes:- October 1997AIM International
- January 1999JIS X 0510
- June 2000ISO/IEC 18004:2000 Information technologyAutomatic identification and data capture techniquesBar code symbologyQR code
- 1 September 2006ISO/IEC 18004:2006 Information technologyAutomatic identification and data capture techniquesQR Code 2005 bar code symbology specification
- 1 February 2015ISO/IEC 18004:2015 InformationAutomatic identification and data capture techniquesQR Code barcode symbology specification
- May 2022ISO/IEC 23941:2022 Information technologyAutomatic identification and data capture techniquesRectangular Micro QR Code bar code symbology specification
- August 2024 – ISO/IEC 18004:2024 Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — QR code bar code symbology specification
Uses
QR codes have become common in consumer advertising. Typically, a smartphone is used as a QR code scanner, displaying the code and converting it to some useful form.QR codes have become a focus of advertising strategy to provide a way to access a brand's website more quickly than by manually entering a URL. Beyond mere convenience to the consumer, the importance of this capability is the belief that it increases the conversion rate: the chance that contact with the advertisement will convert to a sale. It coaxes interested prospects further down the conversion funnel with little delay or effort, bringing the viewer to the advertiser's website immediately, whereas a longer and more targeted sales pitch may lose the viewer's interest.
Although initially used to track parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR codes are used over a much wider range of applications. These include commercial tracking, warehouse stock control, entertainment and transport ticketing, product and loyalty marketing, and in-store product labeling. Examples of marketing include where a company's discounted and percent discount can be captured using a QR code decoder that is a mobile app, or storing a company's information such as address and related information alongside its alpha-numeric text data as can be seen in telephone directory yellow pages.
They can also be used to store personal information for organizations. An example of this is the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation where NBI clearances now come with a QR code. Many of these applications target mobile-phone users. Users may receive text, add a vCard contact to their device, open a URL, or compose an e-mail or text message after scanning QR codes. They can generate and print their own QR codes for others to scan and use by visiting one of several pay or free QR code-generating sites or apps. Google had an API, now deprecated, to generate QR codes, and apps for scanning QR codes can be found on nearly all smartphone devices.
QR codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, on buses, on business cards, or on almost any object about which users might want information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR code to display text and contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the phone's browser. This act of linking from physical world objects is termed hardlinking or object hyperlinking. QR codes also may be linked to a location to track where a code has been scanned. Either the application that scans the QR code retrieves the geo information by using GPS and cell tower triangulation or the URL encoded in the QR code itself is associated with a location. In 2008, a Japanese stonemason announced plans to engrave QR codes on gravestones, allowing visitors to view information about the deceased, and family members to keep track of visits. Psychologist Richard Wiseman was one of the first authors to include QR codes in a book, in Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There. Microsoft Office and LibreOffice have a functionality to insert QR code into documents.
QR codes have been incorporated into currency. In June 2011, The Royal Dutch Mint issued the world's first official coin with a QR code to celebrate the centenary of its current building and premises. The coin can be scanned by a smartphone and originally linked to a special website with content about the historical event and design of the coin. In 2014, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a 100-naira banknote to commemorate its centennial, the first banknote to incorporate a QR code in its design. When scanned with an internet-enabled mobile device, the code goes to a website that tells the centenary story of Nigeria.
In 2015, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation issued a 100-rubles note to commemorate the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. It contains a QR code into its design, and when scanned with an internet-enabled mobile device, the code goes to a website that details the historical and technical background of the commemorative note. In 2017, the Bank of Ghana issued a 5-cedis banknote to commemorate 60 years of central banking in Ghana. It contains a QR code in its design which, when scanned with an internet-enabled mobile device, goes to the official Bank of Ghana website.
In September 2016, the Reserve Bank of India launched the eponymously named BharatQR, a common QR code jointly developed by all the four major card payment companies – National Payments Corporation of India that runs RuPay cards along with Mastercard, Visa, and American Express. It will also have the capability of accepting payments on the Unified Payments Interface platform.