QR Code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside the industry due to its fast readability and large storage capacity compared to standard UPC barcodes. The code consists of black modules (square dots) arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be made up of four standardized kinds ("modes") of data (numeric, alphanumeric, byte/binary, Kanji), or through supported extensions, virtually any kind of data.
Invention:
The QR Code was invented in Japan by the Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process, and was originally designed to allow components to be scanned at high speed .It has since become one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes.
Unlike the older one-dimensional barcode that was designed to be mechanically scanned by a narrow beam of light, the QR code is detected as a 2-dimensional digital image by a semiconductor image sensor and is then digitally analyzed by a programmed processor. The processor locates the three distinctive squares at the corners of the image, and uses a smaller square near the fourth corner to normalize the image for size, orientation, and angle of viewing. The small dots are then converted to binary numbers and validity checked with an error-correcting code.
Standards:
There are several standards in documents covering the physical encoding of QR Codes:
The QR Code was invented in Japan by the Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process, and was originally designed to allow components to be scanned at high speed .It has since become one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes.
Unlike the older one-dimensional barcode that was designed to be mechanically scanned by a narrow beam of light, the QR code is detected as a 2-dimensional digital image by a semiconductor image sensor and is then digitally analyzed by a programmed processor. The processor locates the three distinctive squares at the corners of the image, and uses a smaller square near the fourth corner to normalize the image for size, orientation, and angle of viewing. The small dots are then converted to binary numbers and validity checked with an error-correcting code.
Standards:
There are several standards in documents covering the physical encoding of QR Codes:
- October 1997 – AIM (Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility) International
- January 1999 – JIS X 0510
- June 2000 – ISO/IEC 18004:2000 Information technology – Automatic identification and data capture techniques – Bar code symbology – QR code
- 1 September 2006 – ISO/IEC 18004:2006 Information technology – Automatic identification and data capture techniques – QR Code 2005 bar code symbology specification
Uses:
Formerly only for industrial uses, they have in recent years become common in consumer advertising and packaging, because the popularity of smartphones "has put a barcode reader in everyone's pocket" for the first time. As a result, the QR Code has become a focus of advertising strategy, since it provides quick and effortless access to the brand's website. Beyond mere convenience to the consumer, the importance of this capability is that it increases the conversion rate (that is, increase the chance that contact with the advertisement will convert to a sale), by coaxing qualified prospects further down the conversion funnel without any delay or effort, bringing the viewer to the advertiser's site immediately, where a longer and more targeted sales pitch may continue. Although initially used to track parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now (as of 2012) used over a much wider range of applications, including commercial tracking, entertainment and transport ticketing, product/loyalty marketing (examples: mobile couponing where a company's discounted and percent discount can be captured using a QR Code decoder which 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 Yellow Pages directory), and in-store product labeling. It can also be used in storing personal information for use by government. An example of this is Philippines National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) where NBI clearances now come with a QR Code. Many of these applications target mobile-phone users (via mobile tagging). Users may receive text, add a vCard contact to their device, open a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), 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 has a popular API to generate QR Codes, and apps for scanning QR Codes can be found on nearly all smartphone devices.
QR Codes storing addresses and Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) may appear in magazines, on signs, on buses, on business cards, or on almost any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR Code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the telephone's browser. This act of linking from physical world objects is termed hardlinking or object hyperlinking. QR Codes may also 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 (aGPS) or the URL encoded in the QR Code itself is associated with a location.
QR codes have been used and printed on Chinese train tickets since late 2009.
In June 2011, the Royal Dutch Mint (Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt) issued the world's first official coin with a QR Code to celebrate the centennial of its current building and premises. The coin was able to be scanned by a smartphone and link to a special website with contents about the historical event and design of the coin. This was the first time of a QR code used on currency.
QR Codes storing addresses and Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) may appear in magazines, on signs, on buses, on business cards, or on almost any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR Code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the telephone's browser. This act of linking from physical world objects is termed hardlinking or object hyperlinking. QR Codes may also 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 (aGPS) or the URL encoded in the QR Code itself is associated with a location.
QR codes have been used and printed on Chinese train tickets since late 2009.
In June 2011, the Royal Dutch Mint (Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt) issued the world's first official coin with a QR Code to celebrate the centennial of its current building and premises. The coin was able to be scanned by a smartphone and link to a special website with contents about the historical event and design of the coin. This was the first time of a QR code used on currency.
Use in mobile operating systems:
QR Codes can be used in Google's mobile Android operating system using Google Goggles or 3rd party barcode scanners. QR Codes can be used in iOS devices [iPhone/iPod/iPad] via 3rd party barcode scanners. The browser supports URI redirection, which allows QR Codes to send metadata to existing applications on the device. Nokia's Symbian operating system features a barcode scanner which can read QR Codes, while mbarcode is a QR Code reader for the Maemo operating system. In the Apple iOS, a QR Code reader is not natively included, but more than fifty paid and free apps are available with both scanning capabilities and hard-linking to URI. Google Goggles is also available for iOS. With BlackBerry devices, the App World application can natively scan QR Codes and load any recognized Web URLs on the device's Web browser. Windows Phone 7.5 is able to scan QR Codes through the Bing search app. They can also be used on the Nintendo 3DS.
There are a number of websites that provide QR Code decoding. The lack of functioning tools for decoding from image files or webcams within either the MacOS or Linux PC-based operating systems make this standard unpalatable as a data-backup method for storing private data, such as passwords or encryption keys.
There are a number of websites that provide QR Code decoding. The lack of functioning tools for decoding from image files or webcams within either the MacOS or Linux PC-based operating systems make this standard unpalatable as a data-backup method for storing private data, such as passwords or encryption keys.
Uses in retail:
Recently there has been a move away from traditional magnetic card, stamp or punchcard based schemes to QR code based loyalty programs. One prominent example is the US-based Punchd, which became part of Google in 2011. Others, like MazeCard, have offered similar applications of QR codes in other continents.
Encryption:
Encrypted QR Codes, which are not very common, have a few implementations. An Android app, for example, manages encryption and decryption of QR codes using the DES algorithm (56 bits). Japanese immigration use encrypted QR Codes when placing visas in passports.
Encoding:
The format information records two things: the error correction level and the mask pattern used for the symbol. Masking is used to break up patterns in the data area that might confuse a scanner, such as large blank areas or misleading features that look like the locator marks. The mask patterns are defined on a 6×6 grid that is repeated as necessary to cover the whole symbol. Modules corresponding to the dark areas of the mask are inverted. The format information is protected from errors with a BCH code, and two complete copies are included in each QR symbol.
The message data is placed from right to left in a zigzag pattern, as shown below. In larger symbols, this is complicated by the presence of the alignment patterns and the use of multiple interleaved error-correction blocks.