Tag: quick response codes

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.

A barcode using company is currently producing them at this rate every single day.

Danone, the seventh largest food group in the world, has announced that it is placing unique QR codes that can be scanned using smartphones onto each of the dairy products that it is selling in Spain.

The barcodes are the latest element of the loyalty program of the company, and it is hoped it will expand popularity.

When the QR codes are scanned by consumers using smartphones or tablets that have any free barcode reader app. By scanning, the customer is directed to the loyalty program at Danone. The hope is that by using this technique, the popularity of the program – which already has a very large number of followers – will expand greatly, and those who are members will interact more regularly.

Scanning the QR codes will provide consumers with an additional savings on a monthly basis.

At the moment, there are over 2 million registered users with the loyalty and savings program from Danone. By scanning the QR codes, registered users are giving the ability to save up to $50 more per month on products sold by the company in Spain.

Danone predicts that it will be creating and printing 60 million QR codes every month, at a rate of 2 million per day. This is expected to be the largest project that uses these smartphone friendly barcodes in the entire world until now. This is a notable achievement considering that these black and white squares are rapidly becoming more popular among marketers and other mobile commerce participants.

Danone has announced that its investment into the QR code project is greater than $1 million. Therefore, many predictions have been made by experts in the industry regarding the way in which the company intends to recoup the expenditure. It is believed by many that registration and scanning the barcodes will provide the food company with a tremendous amount of consumer data that will be vital in their ability to engage consumers and market to them in an effective and highly targeted way. The increase in sales that could come of this will make the expense appear quite small, should it work as they are hoping.