QR code

QR codes
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Most people are totally unaware of this set of new emerging technologies. First used to track parts in a manufacturing plant and used to track postage QR codes has now been adapted for mobile phone users and has been coined with the term “mobile tagging.

While most of the central and western world are still living without knowledge of QR codes technology, the east have been using this tech for the past few years, the uses have increased ten fold

What I will do is explain how the new emerging technologies works in the simplest terms. I will give picture references and may even create a youtube video, but will keep you all posted on further developments

QR codes in its most basic form, is a 2D barcodes system that was designed by Denso-Wave in 1994 to allow data to be decoded at high speeds. These days one can read and decode QR codes on their mobile phone using the inbuilt camera.

Reading QR codes

QR codes has been developed and aimed at the mobile phone market. Many mobile phone companies have started providing QR codes readers as standard loaded applications on your newly bought mobile phones. There are also standalone programs that have been coded for multiple, if not all-mobile platforms. Bellow is a list of a few different downloadable QR codes reader applications for different mobile platforms.

•     KAYWA Reader

•     Nokia Reader

•     i-nigma Reader

•     Active Print

•     UpCode

•     QuickMark

•     SnapMaze

•     BeeTagg

•     NeoReader

•       ScanLife

For further information about these products and their compatibility you can go to

ww.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software/

QR Code uses

If you go to the link bellow, you can create your own, non-commercial, QR codes generator, which allows you to encode 2D barcodes with one of four fields.

•       URL

o   This takes the user directly to the website once code is read

•       Text

o   Gives back text information to the user

•       Phone number

o   Allows the coder to make the user phone a number or adds a number to a contact, like a business card

•       SMS

o   Compiles an SMS that would be sent by the phone

QR codes is mostly used in marketing at the moment, but in the east it also has many other uses. More and more businesses are adding QR codes to their business cards. Instead of having to manually input a new contact into your mobile phone, one can take a photo of 2D barcodes and it will automatically add a new contact to your mobile phone. This in my own life would be extremely useful, as most business cards I receive are easily misplaced and forgotten about.

Shopping

When going shopping, most products have a lot of information on the packaging or on marketing advertising near the product. How would you like to know infinite amounts of information about the product and its background? With this set of new emerging technology, you are able to take a photo of the products 2D barcodes and it will take you directly to the products site for more information. This would make comparing products easier and more affective in making the most informed choice.

Ticketing

In the east, they have implemented many cases of green ticketing. When booking for concerts, flights and other events, you receive an email or multimedia message on your phone which is a 2D barcodes. When arriving at the respective event or flight, you bring up the 2D barcodes on your screen and swipe it over a camera in order to get in. this eliminates paper use and each barcode can be encoded with your direct information, which allows for crimeless ticketing.

Overall we can see that QR codes is becoming more and more useful for people to use and is able to do many of our daily tasks with more performance and can easily simplify our tasks.

Have a try and see what this image does

Download one of the applications above and read the image bellow