Lovers and Haters, we’ve got you covered!

We are talking about QR codes.

What are these things with the black and white square patterns that save lives by quickly identifying people’s medical needs after a natural disaster and at the same time makes people’s eyes narrow by irritation and «hate»?

I had to find out more. I dived into figuring out more and here is the short story of what I found. Hope it inspires you to cry and be touched too!

In the vibrant 1960s, as Japan surged into its era of high economic growth, a new phenomenon began to reshape neighborhoods: supermarkets. This, unfortunately, came with a painful price tag and not only on the item’s price tag…

Each item had to be manually keyed into cash registers, leading to widespread wrist numbness and carpal tunnel syndrome.

Cashiers and supermarket owners desperately longed for a way to lighten their burden.

So, the invention of barcodes—a revolutionary solution that transformed the checkout process. With the advent of the POS system, prices were automatically displayed on cash registers when barcodes were scanned, and information was seamlessly sent to computers.

However, as barcodes became ubiquitous, their limitations surfaced.

They could only hold about 20 alphanumeric characters.

Determined to overcome these constraints, users reached out to DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED, then a division of DENSO CORPORATION, with a bold request: “We'd like the capability to code Kanji and Kana characters (Japanese written language) as well as alphanumeric ones.”

Inspired by these enthusiastic pleas, a dedicated team of two (just sayin´!!) at DENSO WAVE embarked on a mission to develop a new two-dimensional code, driven by a sincere desire to meet users' needs.

Masahiro Hara, who led the development of the QR Code, recalls that developers at other companies were fixated on cramming as much information as possible into their codes. Unlike traditional barcodes, which encoded information in one direction, 2D codes could store data both horizontally and vertically.

Hara, fueled by a strong desire to create a code that was both easily readable and capable of holding vast amounts of information, set out on this ambitious journey with just one other team member.

The greatest challenge they faced was achieving high-speed reading of their code.

Fortunately, one day, Hara had a breakthrough: adding positional information indicating the presence of a code to be read. This led to the creation of the position-detecting pattern made up of square marks, enabling rapid reading.

His Eureka moment? It came from playing the Japanese Go-board game at lunch time. He suddenly realized how the black and white patterns on the board could convey and store lots of more information than the much less efficient bar-code at the time.

But why squares? Hara explains that squares were the least likely pattern to appear on various business forms and documents. To avoid erroneous readings, their position detection patterns had to be truly unique.

After exhaustive surveys of printed materials, they discovered the least used ratio of black and white areas: 1:1:3:1:1. This ratio ensured that the code’s orientation could be determined regardless of the scanning angle.

After a year and a half of relentless trial and error, the QR Code was born. Capable of encoding about 7,000 numerals and Kanji characters, this code not only held vast amounts of information but could also be read more than 10 times faster than other codes.

The QR Code’s journey from concept to creation is a testament to the power of innovation and the relentless pursuit of excellence.

The QR Code, an open code accessible to everyone, has transcended borders and become a global phenomenon. Learning about the history of the QR code and the fact that they made an open-source code right from the start touches my heart deeply.

Its journey as we know now, began in Japan, but as rules were established and the code was standardized, its use spread like wildfire. In 1997, it was approved as an AIM standard for the automatic identification industry. By 1999, it had become a standard 2D code under the Japan Industrial Standards and was adopted as a standard symbol on the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association's EDI transaction forms.

The crowning achievement came in 2000, when the QR Code was recognized by ISO as an international standard. Today, QR Codes are ubiquitous and found in every corner of the world.

In 2012, the QR Code achieved a remarkable milestone by winning the prestigious Good Design Award in the Media for Industry category. This accolade, established in Japan to promote industrial design, recognized the QR Code's developers for their innovative approach. They took on the challenge of creating various codes, had the foresight to place their technologies in the public domain early on, and designed a system that seamlessly integrated the code into people's daily lives.

Eighteen years after its creation, this was the first time the QR Code was publicly acknowledged and honored not just for its functionality, but for the ingenious methods that facilitated its widespread use.

Reflecting on the evolution of the QR Code, Masahiro Hara expressed a desire to create more spectacular and stimulating codes.

• He emphasized that he didn't want to specify who should use the QR Code; instead, he wanted as many people as possible to use it, come up with new ways of using it, and put these ideas into practice. This collaborative approach, he believed, was key to the QR Code's continuous improvement.

Hara concluded the interview with a powerful statement:

• “This is my policy.”

His vision and dedication have undoubtedly played a significant role in the QR Code's enduring success and its integration into everyday life.

__So... after reading this to the end (thank you 🙏 ), do you also feel different just thinking about these black and white squares that make up a QR code? I do for sure. __

Also learning that this development process started in the 1960s and culminated in the way we know it today in 1994, I believe even Grandma could learn how to scan a QR code on her next anniversary or granddaughter's wedding! 💒

However. If you, like many others out there still «hate» the QR, we are happy to say that you don't have to worry, we got ya covered! You can just as easily create a custom weblink for your desired shareable that works on all devices and swoosj you are connected and can start snapping!

Hope this finds you well and please don’t hesitate to reach out to us, we are always happy to hear your feedback and provide our help whenever possible.