An industry conference held recently in China’s southern Guangdong Province is helping to shed light on a little black and white square pattern that has become an ubiquitous and indispensable part of modern, daily life, as well as outlining plans for its future, more internationalised development.
QR (Quick Response) codes are formerly barcodes, born in 1949. Thought of as symbols that machines recognise, similar to the way people recognise information by looking at words, numbers, etc., QR codes are the “updated” versions thereof, if that is the right term. As long ago as 1994, Japanese automotive components manufacturer, Denso, announced the first public QR code, designed by the firm to track car parts.
The equivalent of stacking many barcodes on top of each other, QR codes store information in two dimensions, so they have more information capacity than barcodes. Compared with their predecessor, a two-dimensional code has the advantages of high storage density, error correction ability and extensive application combined with other technologies.
At the 2019 International QR Code Industry Development Conference in Foshan, Guangdong Province, from 23-25 August, Zhang Chao, president of the QR Code Technology Research Institute (ZIIOT), said, “From the perspective of the industrial chain, it is at least a trillion-yuan industry. Although China is not the birthplace of QR code technology, it has become the largest country of QR code application. By the first half of 2018, we can say that more than 90 percent of QR code applications worldwide were in China”.
As a brand new technology for information transmission and identification, the QR code concept has attracted much attention from many countries since its creation. Its explosive adoption in China is down to a number of factors; the large number of internet users, ease of payment and recent legislation being key drivers.
Since last year, all new pesticides have been forced to attach QR codes to their packaging so as to aid in information traceability. The idea is also gaining ground for use in food, cosmetics and a host of other, unexpected fields.
Stuffed full of tradition and ritual, the QR code even now shows itself at Chinese weddings, being employed by the happy couple to collect all those important red envelopes.
Elsewhere, on the street to be precise, even beggars are cashing in on the QR craze by having payment codes on the pavement beside them. With few people carrying physical cash these days, they have little choice.
As to the future of our little black and white friend, Wang Ning, President of the China electronics chamber of commerce, pointed out that in the era of 5G, the role of QR codes will become more prominent, with more countries around the world picking up on the trend.
In particular, after the QR code becomes the “identity card” for all things, it will promote the development and production of related equipment. For example, when QR codes are printed on smaller objects, high-end coding devices are needed. As a result, scan code verification shall become just one of many supporting industries.
However, the sheer pace of the QR code’s adoption has left little time for standardised development; the codes coming in a wide variety of sizes, from 21×21 pixels up to 177×177 pixels.
During the Development Conference, representatives from 14 countries, including China, France and Germany, agreed to formally establish a preparatory committee for cooperation, marking an important step forward in the construction of an international standard system for QR codes.
