Tag: qr codes

QR codes designed to be nearly invisible by Israeli startup

| January 30, 2013

Nearly invisible qr codesVisulead has just unveiled its brand new technology to fade out the appearance of the standard 2d barcode.

Though marketers have fallen in love with QR codes because of their cost efficiency and the fact that consumers can use them very easily through a regular smartphone, ad and graphic designers have struggled with these black and white squares that aren’t all that appealing to the eye.

A startup company has just released its latest technology to help overcome that issue.

Visulead, a startup based in Israel, has now produced a technology that can “fade” the look of typical QR codes in order to make them more visually likeable in printed marketing materials. The hope is that it will help to grow their popularity even further, and to encourage more people to use them.

This technology from Visulead is still evolving so that nearly invisible QR codes will be more attractive with time.

The standard black and white squares can currently be seen on virtually everything, ranging from product packages to billboards and poster ads. However, these QR codes stand out as blocky and can often not be well suited to the ad that they accompany.

With the new technology from Visulead, the typical appearance of the QR codes can fade out by up to 70 percent. This is the second generation of its design, which is patent pending at the moment. However, the evolution hasn’t stopped there, as the third generation is expected to be released within the next few months. That even newer technology, says the startup, will fade the barcodes even more, until they look like very little more than a box that can be scanned.

The CEO and co-founder of Visulead, Nevo Alva, explained that “We think of our product as the ultimate marriage of QR code and image recognition technologies; essentially, an invisible QR code.” The latest version of the nearly invisible barcode is meant to be used by marketers and advertisers. However, it is still possible for individuals to head to the company’s website and create their own.

The free QR codes do come with an intermediary short landing page before the user is directed to the actual destination of the scan. Small businesses choosing this option can opt to have that middle step removed for a per-code fee.

QR codes used more in United States than in Western Europe

| January 30, 2013

QR Codes SurveyAmerican smartphone users are more likely to scan than those in the U.K., France, and Germany.

A recent survey by Pitney Bowes has shown that an American smartphone user is more likely to scan QR codes than those in Western Europe, no matter what the medium of delivery may be for those codes.

The results of this survey support those that were produced by other researchers at the same time.

The Pitney Bowes survey included the participation of 1,000 people from Europe, and 2,000 from the United States. When the QR codes were included in print magazines, almost twenty percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 scanned it. Similarly, 36 percent of participants from that country who were between the ages of 25 and 34 scanned one.

The results produced by eMarketer regarding Western European QR codes scans were notably lower.

Among Europeans, when QR codes were printed in magazines, Germany had the next highest percentage of scanners, where 27 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 used the barcodes. Among those between the ages of 25 and 34, 23 percent scanned them.

Overall, it was the respondents in the young adult category who had the greatest likelihood of scanning QR codes in a magazine. Among the participants in the survey, 27 percent in that age bracket had tried at least one. Those were the consumers who had a tendency to hold the greatest familiarity with barcode scanning on various other forms of printed materials, as well. Those included product packaging, posters, and mail. In fact, 21 percent said that they had tried all three of those.

They were, however, also the group who were the least likely to scan QR codes that were presented on a digital screen such as in an email (9 percent), on television (7 percent), or on a website (13 percent).

While they may not have gone mainstream in Europe, QR codes are still widely used in both the United States and in the European countries that were included in the survey. comScore recently reported that the number scanners of these barcodes in Germany had reached 5.1 million, there were 3.4 million in Spain (not included in Pitney Bowes’ survey), and 3.3 million in the U.K.