QR Codes – Back to the Future?

Quick Response Codes, or QR Codes, are a type of 2D barcode that have been around since the mid-1990s. They were developed in Japan in 1994 by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave but were somewhat ahead of their time with their technology, especially in the West. They are very much part of the mainstream in Japan and South Korea but in the west they have been floating around, mostly in the background of, digital media for a good few years. Mostly accessed through applications on smartphones many have described them as the link, the connection, between the physical and online worlds; they have given birth to a reciprocal relationship between the two. However, this relationship is far from fully formed.

These 2D barcodes contain up to 3K of binary data which is enough to store, amongst other things, a URL, text message, or vCard (electronic business card); and although they were originally developed for the tracking of vehicle parts during the manufacturing process, they have found many other uses. From single individuals to small companies to huge corporations many have used QR Codes for marketing purposes. For example a small unsigned band could print a few hundred QR Code stickers that link straight to their band’s website or MySpace site and stick them in locations they think their potential fan-base would regularly visit. Another non-standard marketing technique for that of a large, medium, or even small business is having QR Code stickers printed or QR Codes put into a publication such as a newspaper or magazine. These codes then link to a discount voucher or free product for customers who scan the code and visit the business. QR Codes don’t have to be used solely in the business world either; there are a number of personal and home uses for them also. Sticking QR Codes with your contact details embedded in them to your personal items such as holdalls, briefcases, or even mobile phones can provide an easy way for someone to contact you if they find a lost item. A functional way in which many people have started using the codes within their homes is to stick them to storage boxes with a list of what is in the attached box, making unpacking or searching for specific items far easier than trawling through every single box. They can even be used to login to Wi-Fi hotspots in public places. Uses for QR Codes are seemingly limitless with new, innovative ideas emerging almost every day.

Creating QR Codes is easy and there are many sites such as QRstuff.com, Qurify.com, and QRcode.kaywa.com on which you can do so and, because QR Codes can be put onto almost anything, you can have them printed onto various items such as stickers and t-shirts. These sites can provide a variety of shapes and sizes of sticker for your QR Codes from tiny and round to huge and star shaped, yet one of the great advantages of QR Codes is they can be printed at home. This means if you have a limited budget or no special requirements then a home printer and blank sticker sheets are all you need; even with this simpler homemade approach there is creative scope.

The key to the effectiveness of QR Codes is the attraction for people to scan them; unless people feel the desire to scan then their use is pointless. Fortunately a healthy number of QR Codes that have already been used have contained free content or even prizes, this gives the public a reason to scan and needs to continue as a theme for the codes to really succeed. So far companies have given away things such as discount offers, free lunches, mobile phones, with one company even organising a New York based QR Code scavenger hunt with a Ford Fiesta as the prize! However, if QR Codes are to enter the mainstream it is also important that potential users don’t come to regard them as nothing more than discount vouchers.

The scanning of QR Codes is mostly done through applications on smartphones with some phones having readers installed as standard, for those handsets that don’t, or for those who wish to explore, there are many options. For the Android operating system there is Google Goggles which, amongst its many talents, can be used as a quick and easy QR Code scanner. With Google Goggles you don’t even have to take a picture just hold the phone’s camera in front of a QR Code and the app will automatically recognise the code. Another app which may not appear to scan QR Codes from its moniker is Barcode Scanner, it is almost as quick as Google goggles, just as free, and even lets you convert your phone contacts into QR Codes for easy sharing. On the iPhone side of the fence the best free scanner is probably Qrafter, with NeoReader and QR App also good free options.

The QR Code does not stand alone in the market; it does have some direct competitors. Stickybits are barcodes which can be bought, scanned, and then uploaded with data. They can hold a slightly more and varying data than QR Codes but they cannot be produced at home and to buy numerous numbers of these could be quite expensive and may well be the reason they have all but fallen by the wayside. There is also High Capacity Colour Barcodes otherwise known by the slightly catchier Microsoft Tags. Microsoft Tags pose slightly more of a threat to QR Codes than the all but extinct Stickybits; obviously they have the benefit of a heavyweight backer (Microsoft in case you hadn’t guessed) but they have made less of an impact than QR Codes so far. At the moment Microsoft Tags have fewer functions than QR Codes and because of their production limitations i.e. they have to be made through the Microsoft Tags website they are less widespread than QR Codes.  NFC (Near Field Communication) is currently the biggest competitor to QR Codes. Developed in 2002, NFC uses low frequency signals to allow devices to communicate when they are in range of each other. They are more secure than QR Codes, can transfer larger amounts of data, and have the advantage of having readers built into newer smartphones. However NFC tags need a special printer and behave more like RFID devices. You can put a QR Code almost anywhere but a NFC tag has its boundaries.

Essentially QR Codes and NFC are different beasts; QR Codes are more flexible in use and far cheaper whereas NFC has the better security and ease of usage. I believe that there are big enough differences between NFC and QR Codes for them both to exist, thrive and even complement each other. There is still more time for QR Codes to make a name for themself whilst NFC technology makes its way into a sizeable number of handsets and gets adopted by retailers. QR Codes were never going to be the last word in marketing the online world offline, but for their sheer flexibility alone QR Codes justify their existence despite NFC’s advantages.