Chances are you‘ve started noticing those black and white pixelated squares popping up just about everywhere lately. On restaurant tables instead of paper menus. At retail checkout counters. Plastered across billboards and magazine ads. Their sudden ubiquity sparking your curiosity – what exactly are these QR codes, and where did they come from?
Let‘s unravel the QR code story together! We’ll explore what purpose QR codes serve, how they work, the sequence of events that led to their creation, and some reasons behind their now-widespread integration across sectors. Ready to learn more? Let‘s dive in!
Decoding the Mysterious QR Code
So what exactly is a QR code? QR stands for “quick response,” hinting at a key capability we’ll expand on more shortly. The official name is “two-dimensional barcode,” representing the key difference from more traditional linear/1D barcodes.
At first glance QR codes look like random monochrome pixel squares. But they contain special embedded imagery enabling their quick scan-ability. Those little mini-boxes and checkerboard patterns act as guide markers that scanning devices look for.
So how are they actually used? Simple – you open up a QR reading app on a smartphone, tablet, or other camera-equipped device. Point the camera at a QR code image, and the app will instantly translate that pixel data into actionable information.
This could mean:
- Visiting a specific website
- Adding a contact
- Starting a phone call
- Viewing a digital media file
- Accessing product support content
And much more. QR codes help bridge digital experiences and real-world discovery remarkably effectively if designed well.
Now that we’ve demystified the basics, let’s explore how these crafty portals came to exist in the first place…
One Company’s Quest For Tracking Efficiency
Rewind to 1994.
DENSO WAVE was a components manufacturer supplying Japan’s bustling automotive industry. Their production lines created a sea of vehicle parts needing tracking as they shuttled around facilities.
Up to now manufacturers relied on 1D universal product codes (UPCs) to input scan and track inventory digitally as it moved. But UPCs posed a few nagging issues causing major slowdowns:
DENSO engineers knew they could improve efficiency by capturing more data digitally right on component packaging. But UPC codes just couldn’t hold enough information using just vertical lines.
Their solution? Invent an entirely new style of barcode unbound from 1D limitations.
Engineer Hara Masahiro led a DENSO team in creating this breakthrough 2D barcode in 1994. Their matrix style arrangement encoded data horizontally and vertically. This let them pack exponentially more information into the code while retaining scannability – a complete game changer!
The new creation was dubbed QR code, shorthand for “Quick Response”. Speed in capturing data was critical for their needs. Little did they know how widely QR would spread beyond factory walls…
Public Release Spurs Tremendous Adoption
Part of what catapulted QR codes to mass adoption was an unusual decision by DENSO WAVE after release.
Despite inventing this powerful technology themselves, the company opted not to exercise their patent rights. Instead they intentionally released QR code specs openly to the public.
This ushered in a tremendous explosion of QR usage through the late 90s stretching across sectors:
- Manufacturing – Product tracking from production to packaging to shipping
- Technology – Encoded equipment details and support site links
- Packaging – Brands adding scannable web links and content
- Design – Creative agencies exploring artistic applications
Public accessibility minimized barriers preventing developers and entrepreneurs from building QR capabilities into their own products and workflows. Headline-grabbing experiments popped up like interactive bus shelter ads and museum exhibits using QR to deliver commentary.
By 2002 adoption was heating up tremendously in Japan thanks to surging mobile phone ownership. Enthusiastic public use cases emerged like scanning QR codes:
- On food packaging to check ingredients
- In magazine ads to instantly visit related websites
- On business cards to rapidly add contacts
Seeing their invention take on an identity and impact of its own beyond factory instruments must have been incredibly rewarding for that DENSO development team. With such vibrant organic growth through the 2010s, QR codes were soon woven into the very fabric of everyday life itself.
That is, until an unanticipated catastrophe struck that would jolt adoption to unprecedented new heights…
Pandemic Fuels Ubiquity
When 2020 brought a global health catastrophe in COVID-19, QR codes proved uniquely poised to deliver clutch solutions addressing urgent pandemic needs:
- Touchless transactions via QR order placement and contactless payment
- Occupancy tracking with event/venue check-in confirmation
- Information access as museums moved exhibit details digital
- Marketing calls-to-action bridging outdoor ads to mobile
As organizations desperately pivoted to contactless operations, simple durable QR stickers represented an adaptable way to bridge physical and digital experiences.
Adoption skyrocketed almost overnight. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, US QR usage surveys increased…
- 5x by January 2021
- 14x by May 2021
- 15x still going strong December 2021
And this was just consumer use – behind the scenes businesses integrated QR capabilities into everything from conference access to parking payment.
By enabling life to continue carrying on safely during an historically difficult period, QR codes progressed from novel curiosity into absolute necessity.
QR Today and Tomorrow
While initially created to track auto parts in production, QR codes now reside firmly in our everyday reality. It’s increasingly rare to not notice those iconic black and white pixel squares adorning product packaging, posters, advertisements and signage just about everywhere imaginable lately.
Analysts predict continued expansion in retail/dining loyalty and self-service applications. Museums and events will further digitize ticketing and interactivity. Cities themselves may even integrate scannable environment QR codes as information and navigation tools.
And these examples likely only scratch the surface of where else these versatile digital gateways may permeate next. Near ubiquity of mobile devices with QR reading capability eliminates adoption friction. And the physical-to-digital link they forge feels almost like magic each scan.
QR codes also represent an early member of a Harrison Ford species – phygital things fusing physical and digital. As the lines keeping these realms divided blur more over time, we’ll find such digitally-enhanced objects increasingly hard to imagine living without.
So next time one of those funky pixel squares catches your eye out and about in the world, take a moment to unlock its hidden message. The history of human ingenuity that weaved together to help transport you to that digital destination is quite a remarkable tale indeed.
