QR Code: QR code has become quite common in the digital world. From digital payments to product information, almost all information is now obtained through QR codes. Especially since the Corona epidemic, this black-and-white square code has started appearing everywhere. They are being used from payment apps, and coconut water carts to big billboards. But have you ever wondered how this code started?

Story of QR Code

Actually, the QR code story has its roots in Japan. In the year 1994, when Masahiro Hara, an engineer at Denso Wave (a subsidiary of Toyota), thought of the idea of ​​​​creating a QR code. Hara, who was involved in automobile manufacturing, was playing a traditional strategy game called 'Go' in the office when he saw a mixture of black and white stones. This sight became the inspiration for a new system in his mind, which became the birth of the "Quick Response Code" or QR code.

Earlier Barcodes

In 1949, Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver first patented barcode technology that used pairs of lines to represent numbers. However, early designs used circles instead of lines. For many years, companies were reluctant to adopt this technology. But in the 1960s, Theodore Maiman created the first laser that made barcodes easy to scan.

By the 1970s, US grocery stores had to deal with rising employee costs and inventory management problems. To solve these, a new Universal Product Code (UPC) system was created, designed by IBM. This barcode was first used in a store in Ohio in 1974.

Invention of QR code

Hara developed a new 2D code that was square in shape and could store thousands of characters. But in initial attempts, when this square code was printed with other text, the scanners failed to recognize it. One day, while traveling by subway, Hara saw skyscrapers in the sky that looked clearly different. This gave him the idea of ​​adding small square blocks to the three corners of the QR code so that the scanner could recognize them immediately. With this technology, the QR code not only started scanning from any angle but the data could be read even if it was partially damaged.

The second innings of the QR code

By 2012, some people believed that the utility of the QR code was over. But the smartphone revolution in China gave it a new life. QR codes started being used extensively for mobile payments, discount coupons, and access to services. Apps like WeChat took QR codes to a new level. In India too, the use of QR codes increased rapidly during the pandemic. Shopkeepers and customers adopted it for digital transactions, making it very easy to make payments by scanning from mobile.