I'm going to tell you about something. Images with data stored inside them. And
you might ask, "What are you rambling on about now, Lionus? Are you talking about
like crazy magic eye pictures or
something more sinister?" No, actually, what I'm
talking about is something very mundane. Barcodes. those like square liny images
found on everything from serial boxes to serial killers that store information in
sequences of lines that can be read and interpreted by machines. But where did
they come from? Well, Norman Joseph Woodland, inspired by a conversation
that he overheard and taking inspiration from Morse codes dots and dashes,
theorized that by shining a bright light at a series of elongated dots and
dashes, then using a machine to read the pattern of light reflection back to a
receiver, remember, black absorbs light and white reflects it, one could quickly
read stocking codes for groceries, dramatically simplifying records keeping
and speeding up the customer experience. in one fell swoop. Well, the theory was
solid, but in practice, while it did work, the first attempt was the size of
a desk and used a 500 W bulb that got so
hot it could light paper on fire. Not exactly practical to deploy for price
checks in the aisles at the local Toys R Us. Am I right? But the proof of concept
was enough that when combined with laser technology, a 1 matt helium neon laser
in the early days and more recently those super awesome disco damp party
ones that be all like, "Yo, that's a jar of Marmite from any angle within a
fraction of a second, barcodes became the most efficient way to quickly read a
string of alpha numeric characters. But while all barcodes look pretty darn
similar to the naked eye and share common features like a start and end
code, so they can be read correctly regardless of orientation. There are a
variety of different standards with different characteristics with UPC being
the most common that encode data in different fashions and can only be read
by compatible scanners and software. So watch out for that when you're creating
barcodes to itemize your stamp collection. Another thing that all
barcodes share is that practically speaking they are limited to about 20
alpha numeric characters. That my friends is where QR or quick response
codes developed in 1994 come in. These
consist of black dots arranged in a
square grid on a white background. And they've got a couple of significant
advantages. While the venerable barcode functions in just one dimension, QR
codes work in both the horizontal and vertical and can hold up to 350 times
the information of a UPC barcode with
finer or higher DPI prints capable of
holding more information than fuzzy ones. On top of that, they have built-in
error correction, making them less susceptible to damage from water, wear
and tear, or killer penguins. And this was more relevant before phone cameras
got so badass. They are much easier to read with a camera versus a specialized
reader. Meaning that throwing a QR code onto your product will allow a marketer
to direct smartphone equipped shoppers to see more detailed product
information, check out educational videos, and more. Cool, right? So, what
does the future hold for the barcode, though? It's hard to say. 40 years of
dominance would suggest that it's not going to be completely overthrown
anytime soon. But that doesn't mean that
time is standing still. And 3D codes where height can also be used to store
data already exist. But with the way
that 24/7 internet connectivity and cloud-based image recognition are
advancing, I'd say a more likely long-term replacement, even if we're
still a few years away from it, is simply pointing your camera, or looking
forward even further, your augmented reality glasses or contact lenses at
something and having its key stats show up in your peripheral vision. So, it' be
kind of like Tinder, but for everything.
Speaking of the future and looking forward, wouldn't it be cool if instead
of like sitting at your desktop computer at the end of the day and crunching all
of your accounting for your small or home business, you could just do that
stuff while you're on the go with your smartphone using an online tool that's
always connected. Oh, right. Fresh Books. All the little details about your
cash flow and your business can be kept in one place with Fresh Books. You can
do things like log your hours, uh, show a full history of each invoice, and even
snoop on your clients to see if they've viewed that invoice, which at which
point there is no excuse for not having paid it, and billing them through
FreshBooks via credit card directly. So,
FreshBooks is basically the tool that lets you spend the time doing what
you're supposed to be doing, working, as opposed to fussing about with paperwork.
And you can get started today by heading over to
freshbooks.com/techquicki, entering techquicky in the how did you hear about us section, and starting a free trial
now. So, thanks for watching, guys. If you like this video, hit that like
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