QR codes—essentially square bar codes that can easily be read by mobile phones, amongst other devices—could potentially make information exchange much easier, but haven’t really taken off. Are their benefits being overlooked?
Blogger Daniel (who has asked Lifehacker readers for creative photography ideas in the past) runs down the pros of QR codes in a post on his site, including links to resources for use on a bunch of mobile devices. I must admit QR codes have always seemed a little gimmicky to me (a lot of their proposed uses centre around advertising), but printing them on a business card could be useful.
Sparcs
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 3:25 PMI love QR codes… i even have a t-shirt design for the QR savy http://www.redbubble.com/people/sparcs/t-shirts/2635920-2-dont-point-that-thing-at-me
But indeed they seem to be used moslty in advertising with text like “use your mobile phone to view this” ..man don’t tell everyone…shhhh
I have one on my office door.. I dont think one student has read it as yet
miles
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 3:48 PMi always thought they were a bit odd
i mean, why not just get the phones to recognise url’s? now i understand the encoding thing it all makes sense
still..
an ocr phone camera would be cool, no?
Kevn
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 5:18 PMThey are being used on the tickets for the Parklife Festival…read by PDAs though…
BB
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 6:45 PMI put a QR code up on the bulletin board at work some time back that said “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not watching you..”
Took about 3 weeks (and several post-it’s stuck near it asking if anyone knew what it was – although nobody seemed game enough to remove it :) until I got a QR reply..
Mark Whitfield
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 10:07 PMi love the idea, it’s the perfect answer to the question that isn’t ever asked
Steven Impson
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 11:39 PMI’ve never got one to work :\
I’ve tried a bunch of applications on my iPhone, but none of them have ever recognised a QR code. Can’t seem to get the image clear enough :(
Jacky Chan
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 12:06 PM@Steven: NeoReader for the iPhone works fine with me mate
Steven Impson
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 11:13 PM@Jacky thanks, I’ll give it a try!
iNoob
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 12:05 PMWasn’t there a discussion about these ages ago on here or it might have been Gizmodo. I though that it would be really cool that now since people are using phones SatNav Devices with cameras and even driving cars with cameras in the (front and back) That towns/cities/states/countries? should start putting them on road signs especially speed indicating ones and when the camera sees the code it pops up on the device.
The display would be configured to that persons language and it would be displayed in that. Breaking down some language barriers.
But just a crazy though
Andy Lynn
Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 2:01 PMThere is no doubt that QR code usage is growing! You can even incorporate your logo and pictures into the QR Code which is really cool. Check out how we are using QR Codes http://www.prontomm.com. Andy Lynn