Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay • Hacker News Board

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#51

Post by Natsu » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 12:04 PM UTC

pak wrote: post #28

Here I'll give you a "real world hyperlink": print the damn URL in English so that I can remember it if I don't have my phone handy. If you're running a print ad you can afford a short snappy URL. Bonus, I can even use it on my laptop that doesn't have a QR code app! Or any other browser for that matter! The main problem I have with QR codes is that humans can't read them . Therefore, they will be relegated forever t…

> As suggested by another commenter, decide on some way of making the URL easy to OCR, perhaps by surrounding it with targeting sentinels and using a standard font.

It'd be a lot easier just to print the URL under the QR code, exactly the way people do for EAN barcodes.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#52

Post by kemayo » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 12:07 PM UTC

I actually found a fun and sensible use of QR codes last month. I was at City Museum [1], which is sort of like a giant not-very-safe jungle gym for adults, and I noticed that they had some QR codes laminated and stuck in hard-to-find places. I scanned one, and it gave me some bonus information about the area I'd found it in (photos of them lifting the world's largest pencil into the building, I think).

That's actually helpful. Navigating to a sub-page on their website directly, relevant to the physical space I found the code in.

By contrast, the average use of QR codes in print appears to be to make me not have to remember a short top-level URL like "nytimes.com" which I could have typed in easily anyway.

1: http://www.citymuseum.org/

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#53

Post by icebraining » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 12:10 PM UTC

ethank wrote: post #19

artursapek wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think they're ugly? They've always reminded me of abstract expressionism, I enjoy seeing them. But I agree with you that they haven't seemed catch on, I think they're about as enticing as a TV ad flashing a Facebook Page URL for its product or marketing campaign during its last 3 seconds.

Would you rather compromise your design aesthetic with a URL (typeset even) or a massive graphic? http://whatever.com or http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=300x300&#3... Your conversion will be crap regardless. You'll get more through organic search.

Thanks to error correction, you can embed your logo in a QR Code: http://hackaday.com/2011/08/11/how-to-put-your-logo-in-a-qr-...

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#54

Post by jmagar » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 12:14 PM UTC

grimen wrote: post #6

The real thing will be image scanning and nothing else. I'll post a video soon here on HN to prove that images are way better "barcodes" than both 1D and 2D/QR barcodes. What I can say now is: 1. QR codes don't work on distances - state of the art image algoritms do. 2. QR codes mess with the brand appearance - basically H&M don't want a QR code all over an ad. 3. QR codes fail when there's reflection, dark dirt, and…

re: brand appearance...

http://hackaday.com/2011/08/11/how-to-put-your-logo-in-a-qr-...

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#55

Post by rickmb » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 12:26 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #43

artursapek wrote: post #13

Ever since I started seeing QR codes I, admittedly with a lack of interest anyway, just assumed that the iPhone/Android/Blackberry cameras all automatically detect the code and act on it in the built-in camera app, since it seemed like such a standard. It was disappointing to learn that wasn't really the case, and there's a bunch of competing third-party apps for doing it. It's amazing that it's gotten as far as it h…

> It's amazing that it's gotten as far as it has without any large companies pushing it (that I'm aware of). It's not being pushed much in the US . It's been created by a subsidiary of Toyota and is ubiquitous in Japan. It's also widely used in South Korea and (at the very least) Netherlands. I don't think there's any phone there which lacks native QRCode support in japan, and just about any poster has a QRCode on it…

> widely used in [...] Netherlands

No it isn't. It's widely pushed, for a value of "widely" that comes down to "you're likely to spot a few". Nobody actually uses them on the consumer end.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#56

Post by icebraining » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 12:29 PM UTC

gerggerg wrote: post #37

Why QR codes shouldn't be trusted for anything but shipping labels: - Say you bank at BofA. On the door of the branch you go to is a sticker that says "Bank online, it's easier" and it has a QR code for you to conveniently scan to access their website. Now say someone came along and put a sticker, the exact size of the QR code, over the QR code of a QR code of a malicious url. Not only do you have no way of verifying…

It's essentially the same as trusting a link from a Wiki. Would I trust it to access my bank? No, of course not, I don't even trust Google for that. But banks are a very special case; most websites don't require nearly that trust.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#57

Post by icebraining » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 12:34 PM UTC

jmesserly wrote: post #22

Here's what I don't get about QR codes: why not just use URLs and OCR them? OCR seems to be pretty good these days, and you could always print the URL with a font of your choice (e.g. pick something easy to OCR). And you get this cool feature ... humans can read them, too.

OCRing is much more difficult to get right; QR Codes are not only easier to scan, but they have plenty of error correction.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#58

Post by code_duck » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 1:10 PM UTC

alinajaf wrote: post #50

pak wrote: post #28

Here I'll give you a "real world hyperlink": print the damn URL in English so that I can remember it if I don't have my phone handy. If you're running a print ad you can afford a short snappy URL. Bonus, I can even use it on my laptop that doesn't have a QR code app! Or any other browser for that matter! The main problem I have with QR codes is that humans can't read them . Therefore, they will be relegated forever t…

While I agree that having a URL that you can read is better, I think 'relegated forever to the sphere of computerish heiroglyphics that normal people will always ignore' is a little strong. In Japan they've been using them for nigh on a decade and general 'non-technical' population are perfectly comfortable with them.

Domain names and paths are shocking heiroglyphics, but some weird square with static in it that means nothing at all to a human at first glance is comfy and familiar? I disagree.. I see a lot more URLs out there than QR codes, and just about anyone is okay with typing them in (albeit to google).

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#59

Post by ristretto » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 1:13 PM UTC

pak wrote: post #28

Here I'll give you a "real world hyperlink": print the damn URL in English so that I can remember it if I don't have my phone handy. If you're running a print ad you can afford a short snappy URL. Bonus, I can even use it on my laptop that doesn't have a QR code app! Or any other browser for that matter! The main problem I have with QR codes is that humans can't read them . Therefore, they will be relegated forever t…

You are actually right, this ancient technology is doomed to be superceded soon by OCR, but it's a fun thing for the moment. It's a fad, it's gonna make its circle.

If there's advantage to their use it's the ability to be included, accidentally or not in photos and videos of people passing by.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#60

Post by code_duck » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 1:14 PM UTC

pak wrote: post #28

Here I'll give you a "real world hyperlink": print the damn URL in English so that I can remember it if I don't have my phone handy. If you're running a print ad you can afford a short snappy URL. Bonus, I can even use it on my laptop that doesn't have a QR code app! Or any other browser for that matter! The main problem I have with QR codes is that humans can't read them . Therefore, they will be relegated forever t…

CueCat certainly comes to mind. The difference, of course is that this hardware is akready wdespread, and portable. The idea of having that thing by your desktop computer to read codes vs. Urls you could type in was pretty lame. On the other hand, same deal with this - agreed I'd rather simply type in an address.

Security wise, this is the ultimate URL obfuscation. I could go around sticking stickers over everyone elses QR codes to send you all to my virus/spam/phishing kingdom, right?