Two weeks ago we introduced you to SnapScan, a smartphone application used for payments. SnapScan uses QR codes to host a vendor’s banking information in a secure way. But how do these unintelligible blocks work?
A QR code, or Quick Response Code is a type of matrix or two-dimensional barcode. So, in fact it’s really only a funny barcode. However, QR codes can include more information than the traditional bar code and are currently one of the most-used types of two-dimensional barcodes.
This wasn’t always the case. Before SnapScan and other payment applications started using QR, they were frequently used in consumer advertising, in magazines, on buses, business cards, etc. They could include any additional information users may need, if they were interested. Typically it would have a link to a website, where all the additional information would be contained.
The attempt to draw users away from print media to digital wasn’t so successful. People got bored and irritated by the general uselessness of these little blocks and started using them less and less. That is, until payment services increased their popularity.
A QR code consists of a collection of square dots, arranged on a square grid on a white background. It can be read by an imaging device with a camera. such as your smart phone with the right reader application installed. Scanning the codes with a mobile phone is referred to as mobile tagging.
After the image is scanned, it’s processed by using the Reed-Solomon error correction method to interpret the image. Data is then extracted from the patterns present in the image. Codes can be used for product trading, item identification, time tracking, document management and general marketing.
Denso Ware first invented a QR code in 1994 to track vehicles during manufacture and it was specifically used in the automotive industry in Japan.Today these blocks of info can be seen on train tickets in China (since 2011 already) and a company in Seattle – believe it or not – has started manufacturing headstones with QR codes. (read more about it here.)
[SOURCES: www.memeburn.com & www.wikpedia.org]
