Subj : Re: General question about QR code scanning To : All From : G6JPG-255@255soft.uk Date : Thu Jan 31 2019 19:16:25 Path: eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.o rg!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "J. P. Gilliver (John)" Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general Subject: Re: General question about QR code scanning Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2017 00:37:08 +0000 Organization: 255 software Lines: 61 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=us-ascii;format=flowed Injection-Info: reader02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="df5e74e06a7c2b411309cb57b8384292"; logging-data="15763"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/l5I02Hovom4pJv9GFjIkv" User-Agent: Turnpike/6.07-M () Cancel-Lock: sha1:VfFuHehKgGBGQ8a8qVq7UAU23SE= Xref: feeder.eternal-september.org microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:134626 In message , Paul writes: >james@nospam.com wrote: >> I got a thing in the mail about using USPS (post office) to ship holiday >> gifts. It says to scan your QR code at home to speed up shipping. I know >> that a smartphone with an app can do this, using the phone's camera, but >> how can someone using a computer do this? (Or maybe it's not >> possible).... >> I just take my stuff to the post office, but I always like to learn >>how >> this technology stuff all works.... Me too. I'm puzzled: how are you supposed to get the QR code to scan before you've handed the parcel over the counter? > >Well, without knowing the answer, I'd say your machine >needs "vision". Your desktop would at least need a webcam. >Or alternately, if you have a point&shoot digital camera, >you could take a picture of the offensive QR code, and >load that into your computer. Or a scanner of course. > >Then the next job, is getting a program to orient the >picture so it can be decoded, then convert it into >a URL for you. > >https://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-scan-qr-code-on-your-pc > >So for fun, I took the picture of a QR code from that sample >article (cropped it in GIMP so just the QR squares were >in the picture), and uploaded it here. > >https://webqr.com/ Thanks for that - looks like a useful site. (Asked if I wanted to "share" my webcam! I closed the asking box this time, but presumably if I'd said yes, I could have held something with a QR in front of it!) > >And that site gave back a URL of "http://en.m.wikipedia.org". > >That means you don't even need a resident Win32 program >on your PC. You can also upload the image of the QR to >a web site and the web site can decode it for you. And >out comes a URL. Or other textual info. > > Paul > In practice, are QR codes - at least on products, in magazine articles, and the like - used for anything _other_ than URLs? I ask because I'm off and on looking for something that will interpret them for my blind friends (might well be an iPhone app.), but if all they normally contain are URLs, I doubt they'd be that useful. (In that most things that have them also have the URL printed nearby anyway, and OCR can do that for my friends anyway - and URLs probably aren't much use to them anyway, given the poor design [for VH/VI folk] of most web pages.) -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf She looked like the kind of girl who was poured into her clothes and forgot to say when - Wodehouse --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.1 * Origin: Prison Board BBS Mesquite Tx //telnet.RDFIG.NET www. (1:124/5013) .