QR Codes and Barcodes As Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2016-05-06
·
931 words · ~4 min read
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I'm going to tell you about something. Images with data stored inside them. And
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you might ask, "What are you rambling on about now, Lionus? Are you talking about
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like crazy magic eye pictures or
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something more sinister?" No, actually, what I'm
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talking about is something very mundane. Barcodes. those like square liny images
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found on everything from serial boxes to serial killers that store information in
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sequences of lines that can be read and interpreted by machines. But where did
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they come from? Well, Norman Joseph Woodland, inspired by a conversation
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that he overheard and taking inspiration from Morse codes dots and dashes,
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theorized that by shining a bright light at a series of elongated dots and
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dashes, then using a machine to read the pattern of light reflection back to a
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receiver, remember, black absorbs light and white reflects it, one could quickly
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read stocking codes for groceries, dramatically simplifying records keeping
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and speeding up the customer experience. in one fell swoop. Well, the theory was
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solid, but in practice, while it did work, the first attempt was the size of
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a desk and used a 500 W bulb that got so
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hot it could light paper on fire. Not exactly practical to deploy for price
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checks in the aisles at the local Toys R Us. Am I right? But the proof of concept
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was enough that when combined with laser technology, a 1 matt helium neon laser
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in the early days and more recently those super awesome disco damp party
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ones that be all like, "Yo, that's a jar of Marmite from any angle within a
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fraction of a second, barcodes became the most efficient way to quickly read a
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string of alpha numeric characters. But while all barcodes look pretty darn
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similar to the naked eye and share common features like a start and end
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code, so they can be read correctly regardless of orientation. There are a
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variety of different standards with different characteristics with UPC being
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the most common that encode data in different fashions and can only be read
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by compatible scanners and software. So watch out for that when you're creating
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barcodes to itemize your stamp collection. Another thing that all
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barcodes share is that practically speaking they are limited to about 20
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alpha numeric characters. That my friends is where QR or quick response
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codes developed in 1994 come in. These
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consist of black dots arranged in a
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square grid on a white background. And they've got a couple of significant
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advantages. While the venerable barcode functions in just one dimension, QR
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codes work in both the horizontal and vertical and can hold up to 350 times
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the information of a UPC barcode with
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finer or higher DPI prints capable of
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holding more information than fuzzy ones. On top of that, they have built-in
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error correction, making them less susceptible to damage from water, wear
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and tear, or killer penguins. And this was more relevant before phone cameras
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got so badass. They are much easier to read with a camera versus a specialized
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reader. Meaning that throwing a QR code onto your product will allow a marketer
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to direct smartphone equipped shoppers to see more detailed product
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information, check out educational videos, and more. Cool, right? So, what
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does the future hold for the barcode, though? It's hard to say. 40 years of
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dominance would suggest that it's not going to be completely overthrown
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anytime soon. But that doesn't mean that
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time is standing still. And 3D codes where height can also be used to store
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data already exist. But with the way
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that 24/7 internet connectivity and cloud-based image recognition are
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advancing, I'd say a more likely long-term replacement, even if we're
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still a few years away from it, is simply pointing your camera, or looking
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forward even further, your augmented reality glasses or contact lenses at
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something and having its key stats show up in your peripheral vision. So, it' be
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kind of like Tinder, but for everything.
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Speaking of the future and looking forward, wouldn't it be cool if instead
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of like sitting at your desktop computer at the end of the day and crunching all
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of your accounting for your small or home business, you could just do that
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stuff while you're on the go with your smartphone using an online tool that's
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always connected. Oh, right. Fresh Books. All the little details about your
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cash flow and your business can be kept in one place with Fresh Books. You can
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do things like log your hours, uh, show a full history of each invoice, and even
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snoop on your clients to see if they've viewed that invoice, which at which
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point there is no excuse for not having paid it, and billing them through
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FreshBooks via credit card directly. So,
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FreshBooks is basically the tool that lets you spend the time doing what
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you're supposed to be doing, working, as opposed to fussing about with paperwork.
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And you can get started today by heading over to
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freshbooks.com/techquicki, entering techquicky in the how did you hear about us section, and starting a free trial
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now. So, thanks for watching, guys. If you like this video, hit that like
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button. If you disliked it, well, there's the other button, too. Leave a comment with video suggestions for
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future Fastest Possibles. And as always, don't forget to subscribe and follow for
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