QR Code Art

Followers of this blog may well be aware that I am not a fan of QR Codes which have been extensively played around with; removing the redundancy from the QR Codes also removes their advantage and means they are far less identifiable.

However this does not mean that when done very well the results cannot be impressive. This blog I found talks about how QR Code art is now starting to appear in gallaries. I am not sure that this is a sign of it’s acceptance by a wider community I do think it shows the inherent interest people have in the idea of functional art. It gives another, potentially unexpected, dimension to the piece since the choice of what the QR Code contains is also key. Also while they do appear similar to very abstract art it does have a fundamental difference, the message the artist wants to encode in the work dictates a large amount of how the piece looks.

I am not sure I will be rushing out to purchase QR Code canvasses any time soon but its nice to see it being done properly, rather than companies lazily trying to show as bigger logo in the middle of the QR Code as they can before it stops reading.

If you’re on an android phone then check out our FREE application on google play or if you want to integrate QR Code reading to a mobile platform check out our website.

Jack

What Barcodes Do Best

It doe snot matter the size of your business but everyone needs fast and efficient tracking of paperwork and products within their business. What is more everyone also wants their client base to be able to reach the relevant information about what concerns them.

Barcodes can, and do, fit this job perfectly. Take for example the charity Computer Aid which takes old computers from schools, offices etc. and then distributes them where they are still of use. However using Barcodes they were able to track where they end up, giving business efficiency quantifiable data and allowing those donating the PCs to see directly where they end up. For more information on this case check out the guardian website.

Therefore the basic message is with the simple addition of barcode reading software your company can not only increase it’s efficiency but also its quality of service and business planning. Check out our ready made BardecodeFiler application on our website here for more information.

QR Code Placement Revisited

If you followed the blog a month or two ago this will be a very common theme, the rubbish placement of QR Codes; such as in the underground where no one has enough signal to get onto the internet. This morning I stumbled upon a tumblr blog called WTF QR CODES which aims to expose the many ridiculous situation which QR Codes are now found in.

Firstly though I think it is worth noting that many of the QR Codes they state as ridiculous, such as on the back of a van or on a business card are just funny due to how they are presented. The van shown will undoubtedly spend a large amount of time stationary where the QR Code will be both useful and safe.

However as a whole the blog makes a great point, how much do the advertisers really think about how the technology is used. Several of them don’t even allow for a decent read since they are too far away and effected by wind (reference the flag and the one being dragged by a plane… I’m not making this up!).

Have you seen any ridiculous QR Codes around? I’d be interested to know what most people deem too far.

Jack

Intelligent Barcode Labelling

This blog usually talks about how great barcodes are at improving efficiency, which of course they are, but today having a look around the BBC news website I found something quite impressive. Although barcodes are great at bringing the physical world into a companies digital system (such as with products at the supermarket) they require a very intelligent system to become reactive.

However new barcode labels for fruit have been developed to become unreadable when ammonia is given off; a sign that the fruit should no longer be sold. Therefore avoiding the frustrating situation of getting home only to find that the fruit you bought is inedible.

It should be remembered though that with more sophisticated barcodes such as QR Codes more information, such as ‘use-by’ dates can be used to avoid out of date products being sold, since not everything is as well designed as fruit with its ammonia warning system! For more information on QR Codes check out our knowledge base.

Jack

Barcodes Setting the Standard

The Guardian today has run an articletalking about the need for international banks to develop a common language so that they may interact with a better understanding of risk. However it also raised another point, that it was barcodes that had achieved this in international trade. Barcodes clearly transcend language barriers and it is only a database which needs updating, not endless labels or product sheets.

Use Barcodes to Improve Efficiency

The advantage of being able to garner the same necessary information on a product from the other side of the world is clear, and has surely done much to bring down trade costs. This is not something limited to the international stage though, they also work to hugely increase the speed that information can be processed between companies, especially in the world of documents. For more information on document splitting see our BardecodeFiler application.

So although QR Codes seem to be stealing the headlines at the moment, and actually are very relevant to this in that they can also encode Kanji characters, it should be remembered that the humble 1d barcode is still setting the standard in business.

QR Codes Driving Sales

As much as I loathe Starbucks with their vacuous coffee shops and sad looking sandwiches they have got one thing right. Through QR Codes and a mobile app they have enabled their customers to pay quickly and efficiently.

This is the ideal application of such an idea, they are dealing with people often in a hurry and who will often prefer to not ensure they have correct cash or go through the hassle of card payment. As anyone who commutes knows if you can cut just one minute off your morning routine that means one more minute in bed… gold dust!

The application is also used to deliver promotions and raise awareness of new lines in a way which is often very hard when dealing with an in store situation where posters can easily become obscured by lines of people etc. Therefore I say yes Starbucks is soulless and produces horrible stuff, but fair play for innovating and delivering a system such as this which will give practical benefits to their customers.

Would you use such an application?

Or if you would like to build such an application for your business check our our mobile barcode scanner sdk!

Data Entry Efficiency Savings

Most large companies will have a problem like this; you have large amounts of data which need to be transferred from paperwork into digital format. Now much of this, due to the realities of non-uniform handwriting, inevitably is just a case of inputting the data manually to a computer. However there is a usually an amount of data which can be inferred simply from the form itself, especially if well designed.

To take the hardest and most large scale example look at the census. Millions of documents have to be processed to get all the data required, a mammoth task even for the resources of a government. However with the implementation of a barcode which has recently been adopted in the UK they have been able to bypass a large number of the manual stages. Through high-speed scanning they are able to enter basic information at the rate of 15000 pages per hour.

Barcodes though can increase efficiency and reduce human error on a far larger scale too, down to simply naming and storing scanned documents into the correct file. These new processes can free up your staff to get on with the real work you want them to be doing; helping customers or producing new leads!

You don’t even need a developer to get started with our ready made BardecodeFiler application, download a free trial version here.

QR Code Hooliganism

Fans of Turkish football may have seen that in a recent game between Karsiyaka S.K. and Goztepe there was an ingenious, although offensive, use of QR Codes. Turkish football has certainly had its image problems this year with one game even limited to only women and children due to the crowd troubles.

The Karsiyaka fans had created huge QR Code banners which they held up to the opposing fans, who then duly scanned them only to receive an offensive message encoded. Now although this is obviously childish and a bit silly it does make a very good point, people will scan QR Codes. Used in the right context (such as at a Football game when everyone is sat down for a long time) it can be a great way to spread the word.

So is this a new age of football geek hooliganism?

Jack

QR Codes From Space: Advertising Efficiency

So we’ve all been there, checking out what the company offices of somewhere we have to visit looks like on good earth; don’t want to get lost on the way to an important meeting. However without going into streetview company offices have very little present, for obvious reasons they were never designed to be seen from above!

Might have to Zoom in!

Phillips and Co’ however have come up with a new idea, which they call ‘blue marble’. The will paint a giant QR Code on the roof of your building to enable those who stumble upon your building on maps to find out more about your business, or maybe it could simply contain directions for those needing them. Either way it is taking a large portion of unused and very cheap advertising space and efficiently using it.

Don’t expect instant returns however, it has been noted that it takes about a year sometimes for these to show up on Google Earth. This though should not be a problem long term since QR Codes can point to a stable URL which can they have the content updated, so don’t be put off!

So yes, this may be a bit of a gimmick, but at the right price it certainly is a novel way of helping people reach your business and more importantly, remember your business. What do you think?

Jack,

For more information on barcode readers check out our website.

QR Codes in the Military?

If you have a smartphone in America you could grab yourself 40,000 dollars by simply scanning a few QR Codes, only problem…. you’ve got to find them! This elaborate test, or game (depending on how you see it), is designed to see how people could cope in a national emergency and reach the resources they need.

Due to the size of America it is clear that no one will simply stumble upon all the QR Codes so the exercise is in seeing how well people collaborate through social media to find all the QR Codes. The contest has currently been running since 23 Feb so I’m actually quite surprised all the QR Codes haven’t been found yet, unless competitors are guarding their locations from others online. A bigger issue may be simply getting to all the QR Codes.

Anyhow this essentially leads on from my previous post about QR Codes being used in Bordeaux to boost tourism and create interactive games. The fact that you can link the real world and virtual world so effectively opens up many possibilities and these ideas will only progress to become more sophisticated.

Would anyone take part in something like this, even if it didn’t involve travel across the whole of the states?

Jack,

p.s. Check out our mobile SDK which has a great QR scanner or download our FREE bardecoder app for android.