If that sounds too quirky, you’re halfway through to understanding it, as this post is about QR Code (Quick Response Code) and how to acquire and use one.
A few days back, a good friend was checking her travel confirmation online. As she laboriously browsed to the particular URL and diligently filled out the details, I noticed that the travel operator had enabled QR Code generation/tracking. I commented that by using it she could have confirmed the status easily on her Smartphonewithout instead of wasting 5 minutes on the laptop.
To my surprise, she didn’t know what QR Codes were or even what ‘those square black boxes’ are for. She said something like, ‘thought it was a recent design fad’.
:-D
The irony is she works in the bleeding edge of IT industry, in one of the leading Indian companies.
Which in turn made my Naughty side natter, ‘If this is the current awareness status of such technical tools in Indian IT, perhaps Narayana Murthy did have a point criticising IITs’.
More worrying is that if she isn’t aware of these tools, then most (almost all?) of the people in my circles too, will be in the same boat. Matter of fact, I just checked the website of my former employer (shipping company) to see whether they’d caught on to QR codes - nope, they haven’t, they’re still putting along on manual.
Sheesh! What a waste of time, man-hours and bandwidth. A simple QR code generated and issued at the time of booking container, loaded into the Smartphone or Tablet would have enabled the shipper to view the data in a few seconds - perhaps 1/5th the time he would have to spend on the company’s website typing in the details.
If you think I am joking, just read this post on the types of QR codes and their uses by Orangeqr.com - mind boggling.
The most easiest way for me to create awareness is by blogging about it. And even easier is to get a QR Code for this blog, display it and pique the interest of the readers when they stumble on it. So here is the QR Code for this blog - it is encoded with nothing else but the URL of this blog.
Once you scan/capture it into your Smartphone/iPhone/Tablet, opening it will bring you directly to this blog - no more stumbling to type the address or hunt for bookmarks. Cool, is it not?
The same QR Code reduced to a 100x100 image will take its place in the sidebar too. Perhaps I should link it to this post for an explanation! (linked on 11 Dec 11).
QR codes were invented in Japan and are in wide use there. Friends returning from US tell me that use of QR Codes is on the increase. So don’t be surprised if the next movie, restaurant or a teen-fad thing is promoted by QR Codes. In fact, I think it is an idea whose time has come and the New Delhi F1 Grand Prix, Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra One, and the Tamil movie 7m Arivu missed out on this. The next best Kolaveri hit may well be because of QR Code.
PS:
LOL
(added to the write up on 11 Dec 2011)
A few days back, a good friend was checking her travel confirmation online. As she laboriously browsed to the particular URL and diligently filled out the details, I noticed that the travel operator had enabled QR Code generation/tracking. I commented that by using it she could have confirmed the status easily on her Smartphone
To my surprise, she didn’t know what QR Codes were or even what ‘those square black boxes’ are for. She said something like, ‘thought it was a recent design fad’.
:-D
The irony is she works in the bleeding edge of IT industry, in one of the leading Indian companies.
Which in turn made my Naughty side natter, ‘If this is the current awareness status of such technical tools in Indian IT, perhaps Narayana Murthy did have a point criticising IITs’.
More worrying is that if she isn’t aware of these tools, then most (almost all?) of the people in my circles too, will be in the same boat. Matter of fact, I just checked the website of my former employer (shipping company) to see whether they’d caught on to QR codes - nope, they haven’t, they’re still putting along on manual.
Sheesh! What a waste of time, man-hours and bandwidth. A simple QR code generated and issued at the time of booking container, loaded into the Smartphone or Tablet would have enabled the shipper to view the data in a few seconds - perhaps 1/5th the time he would have to spend on the company’s website typing in the details.
If you think I am joking, just read this post on the types of QR codes and their uses by Orangeqr.com - mind boggling.
The most easiest way for me to create awareness is by blogging about it. And even easier is to get a QR Code for this blog, display it and pique the interest of the readers when they stumble on it. So here is the QR Code for this blog - it is encoded with nothing else but the URL of this blog.
Once you scan/capture it into your Smartphone/iPhone/Tablet, opening it will bring you directly to this blog - no more stumbling to type the address or hunt for bookmarks. Cool, is it not?
The same QR Code reduced to a 100x100 image will take its place in the sidebar too. Perhaps I should link it to this post for an explanation! (linked on 11 Dec 11).
QR codes were invented in Japan and are in wide use there. Friends returning from US tell me that use of QR Codes is on the increase. So don’t be surprised if the next movie, restaurant or a teen-fad thing is promoted by QR Codes. In fact, I think it is an idea whose time has come and the New Delhi F1 Grand Prix, Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra One, and the Tamil movie 7m Arivu missed out on this. The next best Kolaveri hit may well be because of QR Code.
PS:
- You can read an article on how such QR Codes can be used as a mobile boarding pass in air travel here [http://www.farecompare.com/travel-advice/the-qr-code-for-airport-check-in-how-does-it-work/].
- Surrey Police use QR Code in Safe Driving Campaign
- Another ‘trendy’ article from Silicon Valley [http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/30204.asp]
- You can verify this QR code (or any such code) online at ZXing Decoder or Online Barcode Reader or Patrick Wied’s QR decoder. You can check out this blog’s 100x100 image by using the URL https://sites.google.com/site/madmadrasi/home/QR_100x100.png
- There is also a desktop QR Code Reader by Dansl
- You can get your own QR Code for whatever purpose at Patrick Wied’s QR Generator (and even customize it) or ZXing Generator or Tag.CX
- A word of caution though: Be careful, very very careful, about scanning and using QR codes from *untrusted* sources. Keep in mind that QR codes are machine readable and ‘not’ human readable; hence can be potential ‘attack vectors’ for cybercrime.
- I am not joking. Read this article [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=qr-tags-can-be-rigged-to]
LOL
(added to the write up on 11 Dec 2011)
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