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Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

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Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#61

Post by grimen »

masklinn wrote: post #44
grimen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in our case we have the long-term vision of being the first choice for bying products via image feature detection. We believe that people in the future will expect anything to be scannable, in same way anything is searchable. In both cases you might get false positives with a rating how good match it was. Though, our view is that most people haven't seen the state of the art solutions in use for consumer produc…

So. You don't.

Well, if majority of retailers want this - then expect them to make customers use it asap. You got right to be pessimistic about our vision, time will tell if you are right. One thing that I'm sure of though; QR codes will not survive for long.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#62

Post by LeafStorm »

The advantage QR codes have over OCR for loading hyperlinks is that QR-codes are high-contrast, machine-readable, high-density, square (so they are guaranteed to fit in a viewfinder) and have error correction built in. OCR, on the other hand, requires that a (probably cheap) mobile phone camera be able to differentiate l from 1, O from 0, : from ;, and so on, no matter what font the designer chooses.

Requiring a "sane" font, size, color, and background color for OCR would not advance readability enough, and it would break the design even more than having a QR code. And even that won't solve the problems of squareness, byte density, and error correction. (Though the obvious solution is "type the URL in whatever font you want and put the QR code next to it.")

And a major advantage QR codes have over competitors in the field is that they are very recognizable, with the three position squares in the corners and the smaller alignment square in the opposite corner.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#63

Post by donohoe »

masklinn wrote: post #42
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…

> 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. Provide both then, because typing a URL is a pain on most mobiles, especially urls more than 5 characters. > If you're running a print ad you can afford a short snappy URL. What sense would it make? You have an existing brand and an existing site, why have to create a new brand and a…

I can't speak for Korea, but QR code usage in Japan seems to be on the decline since 2009.

I disagree with many of your rebuttal points but sadly am on my phone so canny properly argue why.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#65

Post by ansy »

I think one of the factors working against the QR code is it does not have a recognizable uniform function. The code can contain an text or data in any number of formats which isn't apparent to the naked eye. The text might be a URL, or it might be a poem, or it could be a vCard.

This causes consumer confusion. It's almost like we need standard contextual decorations around the QR codes to hint at the contents. Like how http, www, and underlining tell people a string of text is a web URL.

Or maybe just new, incompatible subsets of QR codes that have an unmistakable appearance and purpose. Sometimes connectors both physical and virtual are designed on purpose to be incompatible even though technically it's all just hollow tubes or copper wires.

I would maybe liken QR codes to SGML. We need something more like HTML. Limited but with a standard interpretation that everyone can understand.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#66

Post by gerggerg »

icebraining wrote: post #56
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.

Anyone can put a QR code sticker on anything that leads to anywhere. It's physical world linkjacking. As QR codes become more popular I wouldn't be surprised if the fake ones became overwhelming.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#67

Post by icebraining »

gerggerg wrote: post #66
icebraining wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Anyone can put a QR code sticker on anything that leads to anywhere. It's physical world linkjacking. As QR codes become more popular I wouldn't be surprised if the fake ones became overwhelming.

If you replace "QR code sticker" with "link", the first phrase applies to Wikipedia. Yet, it works.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#68

Post by artursapek »

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…

Oh interesting, I thought it was our own creation. I wonder if Japan/SK had the same arguments about it as we are now before it became ubiquitous.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#69

Post by grimen »

kalleboo wrote: post #41
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…

They've been doing the image scanning thing a bit in Sweden, where you can take pictures of bus stop ads and be taken to a site. The problem as I see it is that it needs a database connection, which means * You need a network connection for it to work, so it won't work everywhere (subway ads) * Since there's a network service involved, it can't be an open standard, and users will need 20 different apps installed for…

1) Network works well in metro for me mostly, though it's a valid point that it might suffer here and there. But metros is just a smal fraction of the possabiities we - and retailers we talked with - see.

2) It won't be 20 apps, becuase there are only a few companies in the world that has sophisticated algorithms enough - many algorithms you can read about on the web are not realiable enough. So far no one has done a consumer product but hundreds of QR-based apps, I would say that this say a bit how hard it is. Anyone can craete a QR app based on some open-source libs.

3) Well, our demos show something else - ~1-2 seconds.

4) Flash. And scenario for scanning stuff in night dark is...not really a descent secenario anyway if it's that dark people have hard to see.

5) That's an assumption based on today's reality, because no viable succeedors are available yet that do more valuable things. Yet I haven't heard of anyone using QR codes more than once or twice for fun even though it been "hot" since for half a decade or more.

Re: Why QR Codes Are Here To Stay

#70

Post by grimen »

jmagar wrote: post #54
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-...

Hey man, try to pitch that to H&M or Armani. xD
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