qr

Quick response codes, QR for short, can be used to store many different types of information. For instance, they can store a phone number, a Web address, and even a map location. If you'd like to add a QR code to your Web site or print one on another product (such as a business card or promotional T-shirt), there are free QR generator sites that will allow you to do this. Follow these quick steps to help you create QR codes for personal or business use.

1. Open http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/ … Read more

QR codes aren't just for boring business marketing. We recently checked out Barcode Gallery, a company that sells QR codes (two-dimensional bar codes that link to messages or Web sites) as wall art. Now you can emblazon those codes on a custom T-shirt for a high-tech fashion statement with ScanMe's shirt-printing service.

ScanMe creates a custom QR code just for you. It links to your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles and can include your latest status message, a way to e-mail you, or even your phone number.

Anyone who wants a modicum of privacy can control how much information the scan pulls up. That's smart, because the people you want checking out your LinkedIn account usually aren't the same as the people you want to be friends with on Facebook.

These T-shirts offer more of a fashion statement than a mere black and white collection of boxes within a square. Some of the designs veer off into Threadless territory with the bar code buried within a Space Invaders-style illustration or coming from the mouth of a blue Twitter bird.

ScanMe is a United Kingdom company, but it offers free worldwide postage on the shirts. Prices start around $22 and range up to around $35 per shirt.… Read more

Modern art is often designed to challenge our sensibilities and push the envelope on the definition of art. Some people may look at a QR code--a boxy type of bar code that often leads back to a URL or message when scanned--and see a jumble of squares. Barcode Gallery looks at a QR code and sees art in action.

Barcode Gallery's custom pieces link to up to 300 characters of text when scanned. That's like having two tweets together. Write your own custom message or choose from ready-to-go college-themed works done in school colors.

I looked up my alma mater, University of Arkansas (Woo Pig Sooie!), and found a bar code that pulls up the words to the school's anthem, a slightly hokey number that mentions the mountains of God and a beacon of hope. No worries, the message can be customized if you wish to make some edits.… Read more

Daqri had one of the whizziest demos at the Launch conference. This company makes an augmented reality service that overlays 3D images onto the real world through a smartphone, using QR codes as the anchor. In other words, point your iPhone running the Daqri app at the right matrix barcode, and a floating 3D (possible moving) image will appear on the phone's screen. We've seen this effect in magazines and some ads already; Daqri is just trying to institutionalize the function.

While the presenter at the show said he wanted Daqri to become the "YouTube of augmented reality," I fear it's more likely the company will become the CueCat of the space. CueCat was a barcode scanner that consumers were supposed to use to get more information from advertisements in magazines. Barcodes ended up being important to commerce, but CueCat, which was supposed to become the funnel through which barcode advertising flowed, didn't make it.

There is, however, something very interesting happening with QR codes. While there are apps that read QR codes, like RedLaser (acquired by eBay), these little smartphone-readable printed tags could, and probably will, become much important. But only if reading QR codes becomes easier. If you have to open an app to read the code, I fear that their impact will be muted--it'd be like having to open your phone app whenever you wanted to receive a call. Ditto for SMS. There are some data types that bust through whatever you're doing on your phone and rise to the top of the UI regardless. QR code reading could be like that; as you navigate the world, your phone could pick up codes it sees to present information you might want, possibly using augmented reality, but not necessarily.

How to make this work without annoying users mightily or killing battery life I don't know. But tagging the physical world to connect it to the virtual is an opportunity for start-ups. Perhaps Daqri can pivot to become that, or perhaps as QR codes get more important its augmented reality connection service will become fundamental technology that gets wrapped into all new phones. The company is young enough and appears to have the technology chops to build a good service in this arena. I just don't want to see any company peg its future on building advertising or marketing services that require users to learn a new app. Advertising works when it goes to the consumer; the reverse is not so good. … Read more

Mobile app or mobile Web site?

That's the decision that Dremel and countless companies face today when trying to reach the burgeoning number of customers with smartphones. Many choose to build an app, but Dremel, maker of multipurpose high-speed rotary tools popular among hobbyists and electrical engineers, decided on a mobile Web instead.

The company was planning a mobile sales and marketing push, but building an iOS or Android app would have "limit[ed] the reach of this initiative to one or two mobile platforms," said Henry Schwenk of Triton-Tek, a mobile development company Dremel hired.

Web … Read more

In case a name and phone number on Fido's dog tag aren't enough to bring him home from his wanderings, a new tag from online pet community PetHub includes a Fido-centric URL that is scannable by smartphone.

One side of the laser-etched tag displays a human-readable Web link to information on your pet. The other shows a two-dimensional QR bar code that can be scanned by any iPhone or Android phone with the free code-scanning software NeoReader installed.

When scanned, the code automatically navigates a browser to PetHub to display an animal's information.

By default, PetHub shows … Read more

In this video, CNET editor Natali Del Conte shows you how to use QR codes to send or read links, contact information, or just about any other information.

AUSTIN, Texas--Networking is a very big part of why thousands of people have come to the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival from near and far for five days of one of the most popular confabs in the country.

But as anyone knows who's been to packed conferences, especially ones with long days of sessions, meetings, and evening socializing, it can be cumbersome to keep track of all the business cards that pile over the course of the event. Even if you don't lose some of them, you might have trouble days or weeks later putting faces to … Read more

QR Code, a two-dimensional bar code storing addresses and URLs, is a widely used technology in Japan and elsewhere that can be scanned with camera phones equipped with the appropriate reader.

It's likely to gain ground quickly in the U.S. now that Google has sent out a QR code to 100,000 of the most popular companies in its Local Business Center. When those companies display the QR code, customers can use code-scanning applications on their iPhones and other devices to retrieve the firm's individual Google listing.

The only problem is, many of those QR code-reading apps for the iPhone just don't do a good job. That prompted me to sift through more than a dozen QR code readers to find some of the best. I came up with four.

NeoReader NeoReader is one of the most useful apps in this roundup. The program is simple, it's intuitive, and it does a relatively good job of reading QR codes.

NeoReader is an extremely simple app. When it's open, you need only to point your iPhone's camera at the QR Code, click the scan option, and you're all set. Within a few seconds, the app delivers the unique content directly to your iPhone. It works with QR (obviously), as well as Data Matrix, and Aztec bar codes. To ensure the app is working properly, you can even go to NeoReader's home page and scan the QR Code examples to see if it's returning the right results. But beware that the application works best on iPhones running OS 3.0 or higher. NeoReader is free, so it's worth trying out.

Optiscan Optiscan's developers say the application is the fastest QR Code scanner in the App Store. That's not necessarily true. But it's certainly quick.

Overall, Optiscan is a really nice QR Code reader. The application is able to capture QR codes on monitors, paper, and other places where you might find the code. Upon scanning a QR code within the app, you can view the company's QR code information. You can also save that data for later, so you don't have to come back to the QR code every time you want to view it. Even better, Optiscan allows you to share QR codes with others. It's a full-featured app that should satisfy most users. It costs $1.99.… Read more