I’ve been getting a few questions lately about the strange little squares popping up on the corners of the signs for the federal elections.
The strange little squares that once appeared only on the 14th page of your newspaper are now appearing seemingly everywhere. You’ve seen them at the grocery store, on the incoming store flyers, and now even the politicians are jumping on board the ‘new’ technology.
These strange little squares are called ‘QR’ codes.
QR stands for ‘Quick Response’ and these codes, once scanned, can contain text, a phone number, or a URL link. These codes have been used in Japan for a while - we’re just getting up to speed using them here now - and you can imagine the benefits to companies and people who choose to use them.
The codes are most often linked to websites that contain information about a product or person, but sometimes you can scan through while in the grocery store and get some really good ‘secret’ coupons for products.
Most smart phones now have built in apps that are capable of reading the codes (if yours doesn’t you can easily browse through your app store and find dozens of free QR code readers). All you have to do with the QR reader app is aim at the code, wait for it to recognize the code, and it will launch your mobile browser or phone depending on what it has been programmed to do. (Please beware however – I once scanned one from the classifieds and found out things I never needed/wanted to know about … *shudder* …. Well, let’s leave it at that.)
Why not try it out here, download a QR reader and see if you can scan the code below.
The future of QR codes?
You will probably soon see them on all products – you’ll be able to scan them from your smart phone while directly in store and bring up the manufacturers website where they’ll have links to nutritional information, coupons and the like.
You will probably also see them on posters for missing children (imagine how powerful that would be, you scan the code and it takes you to a website that shows how the child would look today!)
You will probably see it on my business card at Blissdom this year – you never know, I might just embed the code with a link to surprise (hint hint).
I’m not sure I’m going to be jumping out of my car to scan a QR code on an election sign anytime soon, but I do applaud the use of emerging technology, and look forward to seeing where this takes us.
Have you played with QR codes? Where are some interesting places you’ve seen them used?
Printer-friendly version