Tag Archives: qr code

On the Beach—Norman Joseph Woodland, Sept 6, 1921 – Dec 9, 2012

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The Co-Inventor of the Bar Code dies at 91

The Co-Inventor of the Bar Code, Norman Joseph Woodland, dies at 91

A tribute to QR Codes predecessor, the Bar Code, in memory of Norman Joseph Woodland, Sept 6, 1921 – Dec 9, 2012.

We pause to honor Norman Joseph Woodland, co-founder of bar code technology, who died Sunday.  Woodland was 91 years old.

As we mention in our eBook—What are QR Codes?—Woodland and Bernard Silver were graduate students in Philadelphia when they overheard a supermarket executive asking a school dean to figure out how to capture product information at checkout.  Woodland dropped out of graduate school to work on the idea.

What we like best about Woodland’s story is that his “a ha!” moment came while he was relaxing at the beach.

According to family lore, he knew Morse code and, on a solitary visit to the beach, was inspired to create a code based not on dots and dashes but on thick and thin lines, after trailing his fingers through the sand.

As is the case with many inventions, Woodland tackled the idea for capturing product information at checkout years before the laser scanning technology was readily available to make it a reality.  Woodland and Silver received a patent for the bar-code technology in 1952, but it wasn’t until 20 years later, in 1972, that Woodland was able to help IBM bring the UPC code to commercial viability.

QR Codes, our favorite technology, owe a debt of gratitude to the work Mr. Woodland and his partner, Bernard Silver, did to bring the trailblazing UPC, or universal product code, to the mainstream.  Thank you, sir.

Today, about 5 billion products are scanned and tracked worldwide every day, with Bar Codes, QR Codes and Data Matrix codes.  Now that’s a legacy.

Use the best barcode scanner app, QR Droid for your Android.   Zapper Scanner bar code scanner iOS for your iPhone and iPad.

Here’s a link to the New York Times obituary.

Election 2012 Goes High Tech: QR Codes Bring 1.5 Million New Voters to the Polls?

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Rock the Vote QR Code T-Shirt (images.politico.com)

It was just a matter of time before registering to vote became as simple as whipping out your cellphone.  Rock the Vote set a goal of 1.5 million registrations ahead of the November 2012 presidential elections.   They used a few novel approaches using QR codes.  One solution was a t-shirt design featuring a QR code which, when scanned, takes smartphone users to the Rock the Vote website where they can register to vote.  The idea is simple: Put the t-shirt on, and presto! instant mobile hotspot for voter registration.

They’re rocking the vote a mile high, too.  With an assist from Virgin America, Rock the Vote has gone airborne. The voter registration drive accompanied Virgin’s new nonstop route from San Francisco to Washington D.C.   In-flight internet service enabled passengers to scan the QR code and register to vote through the plane’s in-flight entertainment system.  (source: news.cnet.com)

Still in its infancy this election cycle, QR code technology may be a key component of election-day options in the future. Currently Colorado’s voting rules allow QR code-enabled voting to work seamlessly with an iPhone.  Voters in California and Washington are also pushing forward initiatives to open voting to smartphone-enabled apps. (source: www.politico.com)

Voters can look forward to more innovative uses of QR codes in the future.  “QR codes can do fun things like gamification,” said an industry leader from PromoJam (the organization that built the QR Code campaign with Rock the Vote). “Generation Y knows what they are and they use them,” she added.  Giving unregistered voters a vote, providing undecided voters with information, pledging money and paying it directly from a smartphone – the technology is in your pocket.

Zapper Scanner 1.1 Released Today in App Store!

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Zapper QR Code Scanner: now available in 10 languages!!!

QR Droid’s answer to iOS, Zapper Scanner, released its 1.1 version today in the App Store, now offering multi-language support in 10 languages!   In addition to English, the nine (9) new supported languages are:

  • Mandarin – 中国 (ZH-CN)
  • Español (ES)
  • Francais (FR)
  • Korean – 한국어 (KO)
  • Cantonese – (ZH-HK)
  • Deutsch (DE)
  • Arabic -العربية AR
  • Hebrew – עברית HE
  • Japanese – 日本 (JA)

With all the same award-winning features as QR Droid, the Zapper QR Code Scanner is already getting rave reviews in its first two months on the market.  Some of the great comments we’re hearing are:

“I’ve downloaded other QR Readers and by far this one is the best…  I love the manual key-in option as well.  It makes finding prices and places that sell items so much easier!”

“I like the way u r able to create a business card with contact info.”

“Free app, great functionality, and no ads!  Winner in my book!”

“I was skeptical because I downloaded it from an ad, and because of its claims to be free AND ad-free, but I was wrong.  Its amazing!!!”

Video QR Codes

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Here, I will show you how to create and the best way to read QR Codes pointing to a YouTube Video.

Create a Video QR Code

  • Make sure you have QR Droid 4 installed in your Android device. Learn more about this free app and how to get it, here: http://qrdroid.com/blog/4.html
  • Open your YouTube app and search for the video you want your QR Code to contain. After you find it, touch “More” >”Share“

Continue reading →

Generate QR Codes from your PC

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Now, you can create your own QR Codes directly from your computer. That way, you can send content optically to your Android: Just create a QR Code in your computer and scan it with your Android.

To generate a QR Code, just do this:

  • In your computer, open your favorite browser and go to:

http://qrdroid.com/generate

  • You will see this:

  • Now, choose which kind of QR Code you want to create:
    • URL: A Web address, starting with http:// or https://
    • Text: Any plain text
    • Phone #: A phone number to initiate a call
    • SMS: A phone number and a message to be sent
    • E-mail: Initiates an e-mail message, with optional subject and body
    • Contact: A full contact, including name, phone, e-mail an more
    • Calendar Event: A detailed calendar event. When scanned, a new event will be added to your device
    • Geo Location: Given a latitude and longitude, or a Google Map link, creates a QR Code pointing there
    • Android App: Given an app package (Ex: la.droid.qr for QR Droid), creates a QR Codes that open its details in Android Market
  • For example, select “Android app“, enter package la.droid.qr. Then click Color and choose any dark color you want

  • Finally, press button “Generate”. Your QR Code will be shown at bottom

  • A short URL to your QR Code will be shown. In this case http://qr.ai/qckk. You can just copy it and paste in Facebook, Twitter, in your e-mail or whenever you’d like. Note this short URL won’t redirect to any location; it’s a real, final URL address.
  • To save created QR Code, just right-click image and select “Save image…”
  • To show this QR Code in you Web page, just copy generated HTML code and paste it anywhere HTML code is accepted
  • To send that information to your Android, just open app QR Droid and scan created QR Code, or just long-click your device’s Search button. For example, QR Code created in this example will point to Android Market > QR Droid

QR Droid 3.7 released!

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Color is here! Now, you can create your own colorful QR Code right from your Android device!

Just follow this step-by-step guide:

http://qrdroid.com/blog/create-color-qr-codes.html

Worldwide support

QR Droid is now available in 20 languages! Here’s the full list:

English, Danish, Japanese, German, Finnish, Dutch, Polish, Korean, Norwegian, Romanian, French, Czech, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Chinese (China), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Taiwan)

Front camera

QR Droid is now able to decode mirrored QR Codes. This means you can now use it with devices that have a front camera!

If you still down have best QR Code scanner, reader and generator for Android, get it now here:

http://qrdroid.com/get

QR Code permalink

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As you may have noticed, I just added a “QR Code permalink” at bottom of each post in qrdroid.com, like this one.

This QR Code contains a short-link to post, for example: http://qrdroid.com/?p=231

Besides that, you can see that these QR Codes link to a Web address like this one:

http://qrdroid.com/decode?q=…

That address let everyone decode this QR Code just by clicking it. If you browse from your Android device and click it, your “QR Droid” app will be launched and will decode that QR Code, as shown here:

If you want to implement this in your own Web site or blog, you can do it by following instructions detailed here:

http://qrdroid.com/web-masters.php

If you have a WordPress blog, you can do this to implement QR Code permalinks:

  • Open file: /wp-content/themes/<your-theme>/comments.php
  • After security section, you should see something like “<!– You can start editing here. –>” or similar
  • After that, include this PHP code:

<h3>QR Code permalink</h3>
<div style=”text-align: center;”>
<?php
$url_qr = get_option(‘siteurl’) . “/?p=” . $post->ID; //You can change this if you prefer other URL structure
$url_qr = urlencode( $url_qr );
//QR Code image
$url_qr = “http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=230×230&chl=” . $url_qr;
$qr_link = “http://qrdroid.com/decode?q=” . urlencode( $url_qr ); //Allows users to decode QR Code by clicking it
?>
<a href=”<?php echo $qr_link; ?>”><img style=”border: 0px” src=”<?php echo $url_qr;?>” alt=”QR Code” title=”QR Code” width=”230″ height=”230″ /></a>
</div>

If you are using WPtouch, you should add same code in this file:

/wp-content/plugins/wptouch/themes/default/comments.php

If you have any Cache plug-in, you must delete all generated cache to see changes reflected.

Now, your blog will start showing “QR Code permalinks” just like qrdroid.com

What are QR Codes?

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I’m sure you’ve seen normal barcodes when you’re shopping. I mean those that look like this one:

These codes have been used for a long time, and they work great. You can just point at the barcode with a scanner and you get the product name, price, availability, and more.

But there’s a problem with traditional barcodes: These codes only hold a limited amount of data, and what they really contain is just a number, nothing else. In this example, the barcode only contains the number “123456″. Any other information, like product name, price and so on, must be queried somewhere else. Usually, there’s a database which contains all the additional information, linked to the barcode’s number.

Here is the process necessary to read those codes:

  • The scanner reads the barcode and gets “123456”
  • That information (“123456″) is sent to a computer
  • The computer connects to the Internet, or to another computer locally
  • The other computer queries all the information in the database about “123456″ and returns it to first computer
  • The first computer displays all the queried information

But, what happens if you don’t have access to that database? What if Market ‘A’ saved a Tissue box as “123456″, and Market ‘B’ used that same number for a car? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to store the product name, price, and all that detailed information directly in the barcode?

Well, there is a solution! QR Codes

QR codes are similar to barcodes, except that they can hold so much more information. Look at this QR code:

This QR code holds exactly this information:

Product Name: Tissue box

Product Code Number: 123456

Price: US$1.20

Comment: All the information is here!

Now, you don’t need to query a database to get this information. You don’t even need access to the Internet! All you need is a scanner.

But, what is a scanner? It’s really just a camera with a program (app) in there to process that image, right? Well, you already have a camera in your phone, so you only need that app.

If you have an Android or iOS device with a camera, then this is your lucky day… There’s a free app available which you can use to read these QR codes. Now, where to get those QR codes? Well, this app is handy because it can create QR codes too, so that you can post them on your web page, blog, Facebook and Twitter account, and also send them by e-mail to anybody else with a scanner (or a phone with a camera and this app).

The Android version of the app is “QR Droid”, and you can download it from Google Play or here:

http://qrdroid.com/get

The iOS version of the app is “Zapper Scanner”, and you can download it from iTunes App Store or here:

http://z.qr.ai

Here are a few real-life situations which call for using QR Codes:

OK, QR codes can hold more text… but, it’s only plain text, so how can I use it?

QR Droid and Zapper Scanner, as well as other compatible readers available for recent, camera-enabled smartphones, can make a lot of things with this “plain text,“ for example:

If the scanned text starts with http:// then the scanner app knows that it is a web page. So, the app will launch your Android / iOS’s browser and open the relevant web page. Conversely, you can generate a QR code of your Web page, post it anywhere, and users will be able to scan that code and go directly to your web page. They won’t need to write down that long web address anymore!

If the scanned text contains a name, a phone number, a web address, an e-mail address and more, then QR Droid and Zapper Scanner will determine that is a contact. So the app will offer you to either save all that information directly in your phone in a tap, without typing a thing, or to directly call or send an SMS message using that information (again, without typing anything!).

If the scanned text contains a longitude and a latitude, QR Droid and Zapper Scanner will then launch Google Maps and show you the exact location indicated by the QR code, and allow you to share this information with others.

These are just a few examples of the power of QR codes! To learn more about QR codes, Android, QR Droid, iOS and Zapper Scanner—and how you can benefit—just keep browsing http://qrdroid.com, especially the features page to ensure you are always up to date with QR Droid Zapper’s latest features and functions.

Share your QR contact-card optically with one click

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You’re in a meeting or conference and want to share all your data instantly, what’s the best way to do it? What about this?:

  • You take your Android device
  • You click one icon in your Home screen and a QR Code with all your information is displayed
  • Another person with a QR-powered device scans your screen and it’s done!!

Now, how to create this one-click icon? First time, this can seem complicated, but you’ll realize how simple this becomes afterwards. Just watch this video or follow these steps:

  • If you don’t have QR Droid installed in your Android, get it for free here:
    http://qrdroid.com/get.php
  • QR Droid allows you to create a shortcut in your Home screen for any QR Code saved in history. Every QR you scan, decode or create is automatically saved in history. So, first thing you must do is to create or scan a QR Code with information you want to share. In this example, we will share our contact data, which is saved as a Contact in our device.
  • Open QR Droid and select “Contact” from main menu

  • Search your own contact entry and click to select it
  • Here, you can edit anything. Click green “+” sign to add data or red “-” to delete it. (No data from your device will be modified, only from QR Code)

  • Once you’re done, click top-right button to create QR Code you want to share. Now, this QR Code has been automatically saved to your history. Let’s exit QR Droid now.

  • Now, we’ll create our shortcut: Long-press your Home screen and select “Shortcuts”

  • Scroll down and select History

  • QR Droid History will be launched. Click item you just created, which must be on top.

  • Enter shortcut name and press ‘Ok’
  • Done! Now, you have your single-click contact. Just click it once and share anything optically!

How to install Android apps with QR Codes

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Some web pages like AndroLib, AndroidZoom, AppBrain, Cyrket and others show QR Codes to install Android apps. Next image shows an example of this:

Have you ever wondered what to do with that little square black & white image?

This video shows step-by-step how to install those apps automatically by scanning that QR Code with your Android camera, with help of QR Droid

  • Open QR Droid app in your Android
  • From main menu, select “From camera”
  • Point center of camera to QR Code until result is shown
  • Click “Open” to go to destination app description in the Market. Here, you can also e-mail or copy link, share it, and more

If you’re browsing one of these pages directly from your Android and realized you just can’t scan your own screen, just read this other post.