A quick ‘how to’ from your friends at TrakQR!

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You may be noticing these funky little squares popping up everywhere - but while they may be new to you, Quick Response (QR) codes have a bit of history around the world!

These two dimensional codes are used to engage those who choose to scan them with dedicated QR code scanners and smart phones. Even webcams and iPads can scan them! Generally, these QR codes are arranged in black and white squares but as their popularity continues to grow many designers and marketing professionals are adding their own flair to the codes. The data encoded into the codes can be anything from URL, text, mapping and more!

Quick Response codes were created in 1994 by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave. It was intended to allow its data to be decoded quickly at high speeds. The technology has taken huge strides in Japan, the Netherlands and areas in South Korea.  However, these codes are slowly making their way into major European countries and even the United States.

The codes were initially used to track parts during vehicle manufacturing. As the technology has spread into other industries many use the codes for commercial and advertising targeting active mobile users.

The use of QR codes is free of license and clearly defined and published as an ISO standard. Denso-Wave owns patent rights on QR codes but has chosen not to act on them in order to further their widespread usage.The term ‘QR code’ is a registered trademark of Denso-Wave, as well.

There are four levels of error correction for QR codes:

• Level L - 7% of codewords can be restored.
• Level M - 15% of codewords can be restored.
• Level Q - 25% of codewords can be restored.
• Level H - 30% of codewords can be restored.

At the highest level of error correction, artistic codes can be created with intentional errors that may display logos and colors that tend to be more pleasing to the human eye. However, some scanners may have difficulty reading the various artistic changes in the code.

QR codes are on the rise around the world thus bringing the onslaught of many mobile devices offering various applications to scan them.  Many mobile phones provided by Android, Nokia and Blackberry already have a QR code reader installed within the device allowing the user to be more comfortable with scanning. Among Apple devices there are various free and paid applications to be downloaded that provide similar QR scanning services.

With QR codes becoming more and more prominent, its important to know the history and the emerging technology taking place. At TrakQR we provide dynamic QR codes allowing the user to edit and manage their codes with ease. You can learn more about the difference between static QR codes and dynamic QR codes on our website!