Have you ever seen something like this(like the square dotted image below) and asked yourself whats is it?
Yes, me too was in the same situation when I came to see an Ad, where a token with some black dots was used to pass out contact information. Out of curiosity I did a search on what this stuff was all about and finally got what I was looking for.
What's QR Codes all about
QR Code means Quick Response Code a two dimensional matrix bar code. The reason why they are more useful than a standard barcode is that they can store (and digitally present) much more data, including url links, geo coordinates, and text.
What's QR Codes all about
QR Code means Quick Response Code a two dimensional matrix bar code. The reason why they are more useful than a standard barcode is that they can store (and digitally present) much more data, including url links, geo coordinates, and text.
QR Code Videos
Here are some videos showing some creative use of QR Codes.
Generating QR Codes
If you want to generate a QR Code for yourself to showcase info like contact details, phone number or your personal site URL. Here are some free resources providing QR Code generators.
So now we know how to create some really exciting QR Codes for yourself with details containing like contact info, phone number, personal website url, email id or even your Facebook Id et al. Lets move on to on how to read QR Codes. If you had watched the videos, then you might have already started scanning out some QR Codes out there in the internet or street.
Ok lets jump on and see how to read some QR Codes with your smart phones. I think nowadays smart phones are no longer the realm of rich and cosy, with Android hitting the mobile markets, the smart phones are now within common mans reach. So the basic requirement is, you need to have a smart phone with camera. Next step is to download QR Code Readers for your mobile platform. For Android users here is the most downloaded QR App.
Ok lets jump on and see how to read some QR Codes with your smart phones. I think nowadays smart phones are no longer the realm of rich and cosy, with Android hitting the mobile markets, the smart phones are now within common mans reach. So the basic requirement is, you need to have a smart phone with camera. Next step is to download QR Code Readers for your mobile platform. For Android users here is the most downloaded QR App.
How QR Code works
If you are the kind of person who is really passionate to know about how things work. Definitely we are on the same frequency. Ok lets find out the internals on QR Codes. So before that lets first checkout how QR Codes came into picture?
The limitations imposed by bar codes really gave way to the development of 2D Codes. Usually a bar code encodes data only in a horizontal direction that means it simply wasts space by encoding the redundant data vertically. So as to contain more data, bar codes were enlarged which complicated reading operations and increased printing costs.
The QR Code was developed by Denso Wave Corporation and released in 1994, as a means to contain more data per area than bar code does. This is a patented technology even though this is open for public use and its clearly defined and publicly available. The QR Codes also known as 2D Codes can contain data in both horizontal and vertical directions. QR Code could handle characters up to this range.
Data Capacity:
Numbers: 7089
Alpha numeric: 4296
Binary: 2953
Kanji (Japanese characters): 1817
You can see for yourself the cost saving in using QR Codes over bar codes, as it requires just one tenth space to encode the same information as bar code does.
The other advantage with QR Codes is that it can be read from any direction that means it is omini directional or can be read from 360 degree angle. QR Code decoders does this by identifying the position the big squares located at the three corners of the QR Code.
QR Code Structure
The following image depicts how a QR Code is to be structured. The cells colored White or Black are fixed, these are called "finder patterns" or "timing patterns" which is used by the QR decoder to help determine the orientation. The cells colored yellow are the ones which data is stored while the one in cyan is used to store error correction code and mask pattern (aka format information).
QR Code Versions
The QR Code symbols comes in different versions ranging from Ver 1 to Ver 40. Each version has different module configuration, here module means the density of black and white dots that make up the QR Code. Version 1 had 21 modules while the present version i.e 40 which could contain 177 modules. This also provides error correction capability to retrieve data in case the symbol gets dirty or damaged.
If you are interested to dig more about QR Codes data encoding visit the following URL (decode and try. Scratching your head to find out an online decoder? don't worry click here and paste the below QR Code symbol\image url)
.NET Developers
A good news for you folks, If you are planning to incorporate QR Code encoding\decoding functionality in your application, here is a free library worth evaluating.
So next time, if some one asks you whats that square icon with dots, definitely you could show off techie skills.
QR Code Structure
The following image depicts how a QR Code is to be structured. The cells colored White or Black are fixed, these are called "finder patterns" or "timing patterns" which is used by the QR decoder to help determine the orientation. The cells colored yellow are the ones which data is stored while the one in cyan is used to store error correction code and mask pattern (aka format information).
QR Code Versions
The QR Code symbols comes in different versions ranging from Ver 1 to Ver 40. Each version has different module configuration, here module means the density of black and white dots that make up the QR Code. Version 1 had 21 modules while the present version i.e 40 which could contain 177 modules. This also provides error correction capability to retrieve data in case the symbol gets dirty or damaged.
If you are interested to dig more about QR Codes data encoding visit the following URL (decode and try. Scratching your head to find out an online decoder? don't worry click here and paste the below QR Code symbol\image url)
.NET Developers
A good news for you folks, If you are planning to incorporate QR Code encoding\decoding functionality in your application, here is a free library worth evaluating.
So next time, if some one asks you whats that square icon with dots, definitely you could show off techie skills.
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