What the heck are QR Codes? A QR Code (or Quick Response code) is a matrix style graphical code similar to a bar code, invented by the Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994, as seen in the example. They can be read using a scanner and most recently by cameras on mobile phones with special software apps.
Originally designed to track parts in warehouses, they have since become very popular in Japan in much broader contexts, where they are used for huge mobile advertising campaigns.
Since QR codes can embed all types of data, they are now being used to contain URLs, messages, personal contact data and most recently as hyperlinks to identify objects in the physical world.
QR Codes have been big in Japan due to the fact that the mobile devices there are already equipped to read them. They use them everywhere, on billboards, vending machines, websites, advertising, even popular fashion, but up until now, the west has been slow to adapt due to mobile technology restraints.
All of that is all about to change though. Newer smart phones such as the iPhone Android and Windows Mobile now offer Code scanning apps, many of them for free, and that is causing some people to believe that 2010 could potentially be the year that the QR code finally hit mainstream in the west.
The New York Times broke a story this week about how Google in the coming weeks will be launching a new ad campaign featuring QR codes on stickers to be placed in the windows of locations found in their new Google Favorite Places. Scanning the codes opens up the location on Google maps.
This is just one recent example of how QR codes are slowly working into western mobile advertising, and I could go on and on about the potential future uses, such as Augmented Reality as seen for example in December’s Esquire Magazine Augmented Reality Issue.
For now I just thought I would make you aware of them and encourage you to keep an eye out, as I think a lot of cool things are soon to come.
I will definitely be writing more about QR codes in the near future.
What do you think?
Is QR Code usage just about to explode or is it really just a passing fad that will never take off in the west? I would love to hear your feedback.
More Articles on QR Codes:
- Get your own QR Code Here
- QR Codes: the next step in geek couture
- 5 Unique Uses for QR Codes
- Google mobile search about to get a lot more compelling with QR codes
- Augmented Reality Meets QR Codes
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t know, but it looks cool… *feels* cool. I hope it does.
5/6/10
Sean
Some frickin’ store in Ballard has had an art display of these up . I feel like my mind is being violated anytime I look at them, as if they are the billboards in They Live or something…yuck!
Resistance is futile