QR Codes: how to generate them and what they are used for
QR Codes are two-dimensional barcodes created by a Japanese corporation in 1994. Differing from their repsective 1-dimensional barcodes, QR codes can store such detailed information as telephone numbers, Google Map coordinates, web addresses, hyperlinking, and URI direction for opening web pages. QR technology has much more data capacity than traditional barcodes.
- Numeric only Max. 7,089 characters
- Alphanumeric Max. 4,296 characters
- Binary (8 bits) Max. 2,953 bytes
- Kanji/Kana Max. 1,817 characters
For instance the QR code to the left contains the web address for the homepage of this web site.
There are several QR code generators freely available on the web (http://qrcode.kaywa.com/). This morning I downloaded an app on my iPhone that reads and creates the codes. Pretty cool. If you put your phone QR code scanner to this barcode above, it will take you to my mobile enabled BuckyComputing home. Coool.
The only downside is not knowing what information you are scanning. For instance, if someone wanted you to visit their malicious website, they could place a QR code on their website. If you scanned it, you could open yourself up to attack.
These codes have been used by the shipping industry for years. Now that mobile phones have the ability to utilize these technology, I am more certain than ever that we will be seeing more of these around.
I’d like to get your thoughts about QR Codes. Have you used them to encode more than URLs? What do you think about semapedia.org?
I have used QR codes for embedding telephone numbers and email addresses. I was just at an O’Reilly conference where I saw them used to exchange contact information via business cards. It was a convenient method of transferring data. I have also seen a few local businesses place codes on their storefronts to publish their contact information. I believe that when their is a universal device that most people carry which can read the codes, they will be used more in day to day life. The major downside of QR is that you do not know what data are embedded. They can easily be used to transmit destructive content to your device or PC.
Thanks for the quick response. I appreciate it.
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