QR CODES- FUNDAMENTALS AND UPRISING

WHAT ARE QR CODES? 

Human beings and trading- a combination since the very beginning of  human existence itself. From the Stone Ages to the present age of AI, there is no one who has not been exposed to the fundamental nature of trading, and one of those is to exchange items for various items- whether it be tokens, mere coins or now paper of huge monetary significance.

Priding ourselves on being the smartest living creatures who possess the gift of logic, it seemed at one point the growing inconvenience of purchasing / selling items through physical exchange of money. So

we came up with new methods of transactions- which require no physical exchange.

UPI apps, QR and bar codes are some of the latest inventions to bring forth a new age of convenient and no contact exchanges.

QR CODES (Quick Response Code), the topic of conversation, is a type of barcode that can be read easily by a digital device and which stores information as a series of pixels in a square-shaped grid. They are frequently used to track information about products in a supply chain and – because many smartphones have built-in QR readers – they are often used in marketing and advertising campaigns. More recently, they have played a key role in helping to trace coronavirus exposure and slow the spread of the virus. 

(Source: Kaspersky)

THE ORIGIN:  The first glimpse of such a system of graphics was first seen when developed in 1994 by the Japanese corporation 'Demso Wave'- subsidiary of the automobile company Toyota Motors Corporation.

       

PATTERNS: 

Three corners of the QR Code contain the finder pattern, a nested series of black and white squares that, when detected by an optical scanner and interpreted by software, allow the scanning device to determine the orientation of the QR Code. Two other patterns are also present. The alignment pattern, smaller squares containing yet smaller squares, is used in all but the smallest codes to determine if the QR Code has been distorted, and the timing pattern, a row and column of alternating black and white squares connecting the large squares of the finder pattern, serves as the coordinate system of the QR Code. 

VARIOUS DIMENSIONS:

The largest possible version, Vers. 40, as allowed under the standard regulations is a matrix of 177 x 177 pixels, and the smallest namely Vers. 21, is a mere 21 x 21. 

The Version 40 can possibly contain 7000+ numeric or 4000+ alphanumeric characters.

In addition, the founder company Demso further created QR codes used for tracking small object, known as Micro QR, which are within the range of 11 x 11 to 17 x 17 pixels.

After going through numerous articles, each containing their very own theories and datas for comparisons, I take the example from the well known site of PayPal as a source of comparison between QR and Barcodes.

QR v Barcodes: Why the QR is superior

Both a QR code and a Barcode serve similar purposes in information retrieval, however the following are some of the reason why the QR takes a considerable advantage over it's compatriot.

Data Storage Capacity: A QR code is found to possess the ability of storing roughly a hundred-times more data than the barcodes. As a result, the barcodes are used for simpler tasks (eg: packaging) and the QR for a variety of business needs, mostly seen these days in payment processing.

Data correction abilities: A traditional barcode does not have the properties of data correction built-in, thereby relying hugely on high quality printing. A QR code, however, have builty-in error correction, even if the code is partially smudged, scratched or poorly printed.

As a result, they are easier and much more convenient to be scanned and processed.