Plant a QR code on a piece of corn field with an area of 7 acres (28,000 square meters). When you pass by on a high altitude, you use your phone to scan the land. What will happen?
Kraay and Rachel are a farmer couple from Canada. When they were flirting with magazines, they saw a lot of QR codes, and then they had a bold idea. They immediately planned to transform the cornfield on their farm into the shape of the QR code. When scanning this "QR code" from a high altitude, the page will automatically jump to their farm website to view relevant information about the farm.
And this is exactly the mission and wonder of the QR code at the beginning of its birth - to directly and easily convert and store large-capacity information! The birth of
QR code
QR code was the predecessor of the QR code, which was invented by Norman Joseph Woodland, the father of barcode, to store product data and identify information. It is mainly used in libraries, books, hospital patients, goods in convenience supermarkets and other items, and has been widely used in many fields such as commodity circulation, book management, postal management, banking system, etc.
, and the real emergence of modern QR code was in 1994, by Masahiro, an inventor of Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota, Japan. Hara) developed. Like barcodes, QR codes were originally used in Japan in mass production, information storage and tracking fields such as manufacturing and retail industries.
Until 2010, QR codes in China's application field went to a direction that the inventors had unexpectedly expected - China Alipay launched QR code payment technology.
Since then, QR code applications in China and even the world have tended toward the trend of "one-click payment", whether it is Online or offline, is it shopping, travel, transportation, or communication, games, and leisure...
QR code has achieved a comprehensive coverage of Chinese people's life, clothing, housing and transportation with the help of two broad-based payment platforms Alipay and WeChat. In the "new four major inventions" of the mobile Internet era - high-speed railways, scanning code payment, shared bicycles, and online shopping, QR codes play a role that cannot be ignored and replaced. can be said that QR codes have promoted the progress of human beings in the era of mobile life.
However, what is the principle of the QR code?
QR code consists of a code eye, an information storage area and a white background area, where the code eye is responsible for helping the scanner locate the QR code.
A regular QR code usually has 219 characters, which is smaller than the 13 characters of the barcode, but can put more information in a smaller area; and information can be stored in both horizontal and vertical directions; the information carried is also very diverse. , All kinds of characters and URLs are "rejected"; coupled with the better error correction ability, it can be identified and read when it is damaged or deformed.
Therefore, the application scope of QR code is not only limited to payment, it is like a universal lock, suitable for all information data, and is applicable to all information and data. In the commercial information society with developed information, the scope of application is particularly wide: commodity transactions, advertising push, product anti-counterfeiting and traceability, website links, data downloads, railway ticket booking, vehicle management, and even the generation of personal identity information.
For example, in the era of the epidemic, everyone's essential health code , place code, and itinerary code are data stored in the cloud. All residents' health information and travel information are bound to personal identity information and storage and sharing in the cloud, eliminating the trouble of repeatedly filling in health information.
But the timeliness of QR codes are not all eternal.The payment QR code will be refreshed every 60 seconds, and the group QR code added to the group will be invalid after 7 days. Even the QR code that is signed in and scanned in class can be refreshed in real time according to the teacher's settings...
. If the QR code is generated, used, and abandoned every minute and every second, will the QR code be used up?
Will there be a day when the QR code is "end of the mountains and rivers"
[Exhausted the mountains and rivers"]
Tens of billions of QR codes consumed every day around the world. Will the QR code be used up? Is it a waste to refresh the QR code that is abandoned every second?
First of all, we need to be clear that as a coding method for representing information through geometric figures, the QR code is calculated according to the arrangement and combination of methods, and its number is almost infinite . The minimum matrix specification of
QR code is 21*21 module, and the maximum is 177*177 module. Among them, the lowest format of the 21*21 QR code will produce a total of 441 grids, and minus the "code eye" positioning box of the 192 corners of the QR code. In theory, there are 2249 combinations of QR codes in the 21*21 format, and this combination has a number of up to 75 digits, not to mention the largest format of 177*177 QR code.
Secondly, QR code is not a consumable, it just converts information into images, and can be repeated at will without expire. is absolutely unique, but its uniqueness is reflected in the environment in which it is located. For example, the QR code on of the social security card issued by the social security system is unique within the social security system and will not cause errors caused by duplication.
Perhaps outside the social security system, there is a same QR code in the anti-counterfeiting query system, but because it is not in the same system and carries different content information, it will not have any impact even if it is repeated.
So, in terms of quantity, even if the universe explodes again, there is no need to worry about the use of QR codes based on the speed of use of humans; and in terms of the nature of QR codes, it is always expanding, always given a new system meaning, and it will not be used up for a day.
["End of the end of the road" is replaced]
Just as the barcode is upgraded to a QR code, and QR codes replace barcodes on a large scale, will the QR code face the situation of being replaced by new things one day in the future?
first, many people believe that contactless payment is replacing "scan code payment". Invisible payment includes our current and very common "face recognition + WeChat/Alipay binding + password-free settings = face-scanning payment" , " license plate recognition + WeChat/Alipay binding + password-free settings = invisible payment parking " .
In the "payment field" where QR code plays the main role, two mobile payment giants, Alipay and WeChat, are trying to popularize face-scanning payments. Many current supermarkets and shopping places are also matched with the corresponding facial recognition payment system. You can complete the payment without touching your phone by simply scanning your face. Isn’t it convenient?
But in fact, due to expensive machines and imperfect technology, face-scanning payment actually has many loopholes. Not only do you want to scan your face, but also your recognition technologies such as palm print , fingerprints, etc. are still not mature enough.
Although face-scan payment can replace scan code payment, it may be in the long-term future, we still look forward to the rapid arrival of the era of contactless payment, and we are happy to come to a more convenient and smarter era.
In terms of information storage and tracking, many people also believe that with the further development of RFID technology (radio radio frequency automatic identification technology), this is the most likely to replace QR code.
In fact, RFID technology is no longer a new thing. Commonly used meal cards, building cards, bank cards, bus cards and ID cards are all common in our lives and are also the early RFID products. In addition, it is also widely used in warehouse management goods information storage query, valuable fixed asset management, medical information (cases, waste medical items, etc.) tracking and other fields.
Because the RFID technology data capacity is very large, it can be expanded as needed, so the capacity is much higher than the digital capacity of the QR code. Even within the effective recognition range of the interpreter, it can realize the simultaneous reading of multiple RFID tags. Therefore, RFID technology is also regarded as a strong competitor to replace QR codes.
But in fact, the development of any technology in has its pros and cons. They should be complementary "partners" rather than "live-to-death" substitutes.
For example, because of the advantages of simple reading equipment, low cost and fast speed, barcodes can also be read with the convenience of naked eyes when they cannot recognize the barcode. They are still used on the packaging bags of products, the label codes of books, and the ISBN (book number).
barcode is suitable for simpler scenarios, which can save time and manpower, and continue to use habits. QR codes are suitable for use when the information content is large, and they can quickly gather large information, transcoding, and output, so QR codes have incomparable advantages in the IoT industry and traceability query.
Similarly, facial recognition is very convenient, but it does not conflict with "scan code to pay". QR codes have strong fault tolerance. Whether the QR code is damaged, dirty or damaged, even if it reaches 50%, it can still be read.
We believe that whether it is the barcode that was once or the QR code today, the highly developed contactless payment in the future are just tools and technical means, and exist to make our lives more convenient and intelligent. They do not differ by the times.
will only exist in more meaningful work "posts" because of different responsibilities they bear and different suitable scenarios.
We don’t have to worry about: tens of billions of QR codes are consumed every day, why aren’t they used up yet? Will there be any confusion of information resources after they are exhausted? Because any old thing will only be strengthened and optimized because of its advantages, rather than completely eliminated, even if the QR code becomes the past, it must be because of the emergence of better new technologies.
Reference materials:
【1】QR code development, research status and application status;
【2】Yang Xiufan: Research and application papers on QR codes;
【3】Research on the application of barcode technology in logistics;
【4】Xue Lanlan: The application of two-dimensional barcode information management in the management of thoracic surgical instruments;
【5 】"Science and Fortune" RFID technology application and library service innovation——The current status and analysis of RFID technology application in Wendeng District Library in Weihai City;
[6] Application of RFID technology in electronic product export enterprises of "Radio Frequency World"—Practical application of ultra-high frequency RFID technology in Jiacai and Funjing factories in Dongguan;
[7] Xia Yu: Fixed asset management system based on barcode and RFID technology;
[8] Sang Guolei: Analysis of the application process of QR code in book publishing.
