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Show HN: Photo Realistic QR-Codes

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Re: Show HN: Photo Realistic QR-Codes

#21

Post by AriaMinaei »

dhritzkiv wrote: post #18
AriaMinaei wrote: post #5

Slightly OT, but when migrating data between iPhones, the old iPhone displays an animated point cloud that appears to function like a QR code. You scan it with the new phone, and your data starts to migrate locally through Bluetooth. Other than aesthetics, what are the advantages of the point cloud? Higher bandwidth? Also, if you were to transfer 100s of megabytes of data from device A to B, using A's display and B's…

If I had to guess, the animated point cloud isn't tasked with transferring lots of (megabytes) data, but is probably a proprietary version of a QR code, both for aesthetics and security through obscurity. Its format may also have higher information density than a QR code, which would work well for encrypted data. I imagine the heavy lifting is done on Apple's server. The data being transferred locally is likely a GUI…

Data is actually transferred locally through Bluetooth, but the initial handshake appears to happen through the point cloud.

Re: Show HN: Photo Realistic QR-Codes

#22

Post by joosters »

AriaMinaei wrote: post #5

Slightly OT, but when migrating data between iPhones, the old iPhone displays an animated point cloud that appears to function like a QR code. You scan it with the new phone, and your data starts to migrate locally through Bluetooth. Other than aesthetics, what are the advantages of the point cloud? Higher bandwidth? Also, if you were to transfer 100s of megabytes of data from device A to B, using A's display and B's…

I just transferred a friend's iphone the other day and noticed this animated pattern. I presumed the QR-like code was just to transfer authentication so that the two phones could establish a secure wifi connection, since the QR recognition is fairly instantaneous and you don't have to keep the camera on the animation for long. (the process does ask you to keep the phones close, so the later transfer is probably by bluetooth, as you say)

One (possible) advantage could be that the animated nature means that someone taking a photograph of the animation won't capture enough data to steal the whole payload? And the use of tiny pixels might mean that even a video capture from anywhere but up-close might not have enough fidelity (after compression) to read the encoding either?

Re: Show HN: Photo Realistic QR-Codes

#24

Post by tln »

detaro wrote: post #7
pickledcods wrote: post #2

Hi HN! Inspired by a recent HN article on QR codes [0], I decided to finally publish [1] and open-source [2] a service I created 7 years ago. I got pulled away from it by projects with higher priority and it has been catching dust and been bitrot eroding since. Now reconstructed the basics and hosted on an AWS instance I would like to share so it might inspire. Creating a photo realistic QR requires two steps. The fi…

Cool idea. Sadly only the b/w example scans for me, and even that takes a while to register.

Same, pixel 3.

This is very cool tech but from a UX pov I think it's better codes small and pure (no logo or non-square dots)

Re: Show HN: Photo Realistic QR-Codes

#25

Post by crazygringo »

That's really clever.

Using the 4 example images at the top, the first (color) and last (B&W) work flawlessly on my iPhone.

But the two animated ones in the middle will work for a second, and then the phone loses it. Animated seems like "too much" for a phone to lock on to -- perhaps just stick to static? That's cool enough.

Re: Show HN: Photo Realistic QR-Codes

#26

Post by alsdkfjkqjwer »

QR should look MORE like QR, and always include an URL next to it.

If you display a QR Code with some url, and fail to show a shortened url next to it for people to type instead of scanning, you either fail basic common sense tests, or are intentionally being an asshat.

Re: Show HN: Photo Realistic QR-Codes

#28

Post by namibj »

pickledcods wrote: post #10
dexen wrote: post #9

Funny how QR codes scanning pictures of people has more content, and is more engaging, than the "Pictures of People Scanning QR-codes" [1]. In all seriousness, impressive work - and very pragmatic delivery, queue system and all. ---- [1] https://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/

The queuing was based on 2007 metrics on load and usage. It now seems this needs updating. Preferably making if full client-side javascript.

Just use WASM. Should be a lot easier than porting to JS.

Re: Show HN: Photo Realistic QR-Codes

#29

Post by jpttsn »

AriaMinaei wrote: post #5

Slightly OT, but when migrating data between iPhones, the old iPhone displays an animated point cloud that appears to function like a QR code. You scan it with the new phone, and your data starts to migrate locally through Bluetooth. Other than aesthetics, what are the advantages of the point cloud? Higher bandwidth? Also, if you were to transfer 100s of megabytes of data from device A to B, using A's display and B's…

I bet its about the “opportunity cost aesthetics”—-Apple thinks QR codes are butt ugly. See also the round App Clips codes recently introduced, and the very late (I bet teeth-grittingly reluctant) introduction of QR scanning in the first-party iOS Camera app.

Re: Show HN: Photo Realistic QR-Codes

#30

Post by bt1a »

StavrosK wrote: post #23

I've long wondered whether you can make a photo that gets recognized as a QR code by computers. This is very cool! Is there any way you can smooth out the calibration squares?

I think you're right about that, but sometimes things are interesting enough based on the technical feat alone.
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