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: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 16:53:38 +0000 Organization: 255 software Lines: 88 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=us-ascii;format=flowed Injection-Info: reader02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="37a0c5ece0ff9585a32e3a11c1fe32b4"; logging-data="14982"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+Qo5c20e1sRdqC5r/kTZXx" User-Agent: Turnpike/6.07-M () Cancel-Lock: sha1:heoWuyqCa3iQAOVVXtNfX5czQDc= Xref: feeder.eternal-september.org microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:134644 In message , james@nospam.com writes: >On Sat, 18 Nov 2017 21:03:51 -0500, Paul wrote: > >>>> >>> 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.) > >I dont think they are all for URLs. I've seem them used at fast food >reataurants in place of coupons. Sometimes they are used as "price tags" >on items in stores (in place of UPC bars). (By UPC bars, do you mean an ordinary barcode?) > I have seen them at events, >for example if I am at the State Fair, if I have a smartphone, I can >scan one of them and my phone will give me the fair's schedule. (this >use probably is a URL). Another one I saw was a radio station contest >poster that said scan this QR code to enter the contest. They are I'd be most surprised if that isn't just a URL too. >everywhere now. Magazines use them to (I guess) identify the name month >and year of the magazine. Like the coupon use, I'd have thought an ordinary barcode would do for that. > I've even seen them on billboards now. I >suppose you're supposed to photograph the billboard... ??? > I bet those are URLs too. > >One other thing I wonder about, wont they ever run out of codes? There >are only so many ways to modify those dots before they run out of >them... And considering how often they are being used, there has to be a >point in time when they simply run out.... I don't think they're allocated from a list, in the way grocery barcodes (I think) are: I think they actually are coded information (such as a URL). > >I dont remember what website I saw this, but someone made a QR code that >looked like a horse's head in the middle, with the usual large corner >squares. I dont know if it would actually scan, or was just someone I think the error-correcting in them does allow quite a lot to be obscured by a logo or similar. Or do you mean they made it so the little square dots made the horse? >being creative, but it made me wonder if they could be made as artwork >pertaining to their use. For example, can the radio station contest >make the QR code look like a radio, or can the fast food place make the >QR look like a hamburger, or their logo? I think you _do_ mean the actual dot pattern made the pictures! Not quite the same, but I have seen them hand-assembled out of mosaic tiles: there is a craft shop (it's in the Old High Street, Folkestone, Kent, England) that sells assorted materials, including those for making your own mosaics, and I have noticed that several of its neighbours (and I think the shop itself) have tiles - I assume made by the shop owner - on their front that are clearly QR codes. > >I recall when they first started using them QR codes (not too many years >ago), and I began seeing them everywhere and had no idea why they were >putting those funny looking boxes on stuff. Since I did not know what >they were called, I tried to google them, with no results, (since I did >not know what to search for). I finally used google/images and searched >for barcodes and found a QR code and then I was able to search for that. >I always wonder how average people are supposed to know about this >stuff, unless they are tech savvy. > Yes, there is definitely a gimmick aspect to them! It's mainly smartphones that this aspect is aimed at, I think, though they do have serious applications in industry, where the necessary precision of scanner placement can be better controlled. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf ..... the greatest musical festival in the world that doesn't involve mud. - Eddie Mair, RT 2014/8/16-22 --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.1 * Origin: Prison Board BBS Mesquite Tx //telnet.RDFIG.NET www. (1:124/5013) .