Tag: unique qr codes

The barcodes make it easier for devices that have gone missing to make their way back to their owners.

Findables has just announced that it is adding custom QR codes to the back of their smartphone cases which fit devices such as the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S3.

These barcodes can be registered with the device owner’s information so that that data can be used if it goes missing.

If the smartphone is ever lost while the owner is out and about, the QR codes can be scanned to learn the information that was registered by that owner. The finder of the device can then contact the owner and arrange to have the smartphone returned. This is only one of a number of feature upgrades that the latest Findables case models will provide.

Aside from the QR codes, the cases also feature a unique fold-out bottom section to serve as a device stand.

This makes it easier to view the screen of the device to watch video or to read web content or ebooks. The company is known for offering a number of different types of case, giving consumers many options from which to choose. It is the FlexStand case that offers the fold-out stand. The FlexWrap, on the other hand, doesn’t have a stand, but is a softer design to more snugly contain the device. The FlexSnap easily snaps onto the handset.

Each of these models all come with QR codes that can be registered so that regardless of the choice or the features the user wants, the smartphone will still have the added security benefit that will make it easier for it to be found and returned if it is ever lost.

Any apps for reading QR codes will work to scan the barcode and find the information, but it takes the Findables own application to register the unique black and white square in the first place. This process is simple and straightforward. The free application is downloaded from the Google Play store or the Apple App Store and when the barcode is scanned for the first time through this app, it opens an account creation page, through which the user’s contact information can be entered.

The latest technology news from the arena of quick response codes is that they are getting easier to generate.

Mobile marketers have adored the opportunity that QR codes have had to offer, using them on everything from product packaging to magazine ads, but these are barcodes that have traditionally been generated by computers.

However, MIT Media Lab researchers are now making it possible to use graffiti for the exact same purpose.

These graffiti QR codes would allow a hand drawn barcode, created on virtually any surface, to be converted into a scannable and readable image that smartphone users could turn into a much broader amount of content. In order to achieve this goal, the researchers had to change the way that the barcodes would be read in the first place.

Traditional QR codes are scanned using a barcode reading app that snaps an image of the black and white square.

With the new graffiti style of QR codes, the user would simply move the smartphone over the path in order to access the content to which it is linked. The accelerometer in the device is able to detect the pattern of the movement and is then able to load the content to which that particular path is connected.

As the method uses only the smartphone’s movement in order to read the barcode, instead of actually scanning the QR codes themselves, it means that the shape would no longer be limited to a pixilated square. Instead, the barcode can be drawn using any kind of material and onto any type of surface.

Possible uses, for example, are that a graffiti QR code could inform the smartphone user regarding what the art represents, who created it, what materials were used, and other relevant and interesting information.

One of the Media Lab’s Viral Spaces group members, Jeremy Rubin, said that there is a great deal more potential to these QR codes. For example, it could provide the opportunity to share relevant content to the smartphones of consumers while they are taking part at a certain activity within a location. For example, while riding an escalator up to the next floor of a store, it could provide information regarding what they are about to see and what products are located on the next level.