Whether checking-in at a supermarket or perusing a digital menu at a restaurant, the QR code has become an integral part of daily life, helping to keep people safe during the pandemic.
Since the launch of the COVID-Safe check-in system in New South Wales on 12 August 2020, Service NSW reports there have been an average of 2.44 million QR check-ins daily, or more than 1.1 billion in total (data is correct as at 8 November 2021).
QR check-ins to all workplaces and retail businesses also became mandatory from 12 July 2021.
“QR codes have been transformational during the pandemic,” NSW Minister for Digital and Customer Service Victor Dominello tells SBS Japanese, "helping the contact tracers do their jobs more efficiently or stimulating the economy via Dine and Discover vouchers.”
"[The pandemic] took the national understanding of QR codes from something only handful of people understood and used to common place usage.”
COVID-19 QR check-in code and safety signs are placed at the entrance of pubs and cafes at The Rocks, Sydney, Sunday, October 17, 2021. Source: AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi
Birth of the QR code
However, the QR - or Quick Response - code existed long before the pandemic, invented in 1994 with the intention of replacing the barcode in the manufacturing industry.
"Never did I imagine people scanning QR codes on the street," says Masahiro Hara, of Denso Wave Incorporated Japan, who is dubbed the 'father of the QR code'.
Hara was involved in the development of barcode scanners and optical character recognition (OCR) devices in the early '90s, when he was approached by a car manufacturing company to develop a scanner that could read more quickly and efficiently.
“At the time, barcodes could only hold about 20 characters, so they were putting 10 barcodes in a row [for a single item]," says Hara, pointing out that scanning items multiple times could be incredibly time-consuming.
“With the diversification of user needs, there was a massive increase in automobile parts. Yet with the bubble bursting in Japan, and the industry going from mass production to low volume production, there was a greater need for meticulous control,” he told SBS Japanese.
The QR code was initially developed to relace the barcode in the manufacturing industry Source: DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED
Soon he realised that it wasn’t the scanners that required improvement, but the code itself.
He held countless trials to fit in more information by shortening the height of the barcodes or stacking them, soon coming to the conclusion that a two-dimensional grid form was the most efficient.
This held 7,000 characters compared to 20 with the one-dimensional barcode.
To overcome the “biggest challenge” of reading such complicated 2D codes efficiently, Hara placed the “position detection pattern”, or the square markers, at the three corners of the QR code.
After tirelessly studying various printed matter, Hara discovered that the specific black/white ratio of 1:1:3:1:1 was the least common. By incorporating this ratio into his markers, it allowed the scanner to locate the code efficiently regardless of any surrounding text or images that may interrupt it.
Position detection pattern with black/white ratio of 1:1:3:1:1 allows instant scanning Source: DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED
Future uses
Hara kept the QR code an open patent from the start, to encourage people to take up the new technology.
"The patent for barcodes had already expired, so it was free. I didn't think people would take up the QR code if it came with a cost."
"It was also to stop any other codes entering the market," he adds, stating there was a risk of the industry being flooded with cheaper alternative codes, if QR codes were not readily available for free.
"By making it open, I made it available for anybody and everybody."
Currently QR codes hold information in a text form, but Hara is looking at incorporating colour, so that more complicated information like images and videos can be stored.
He hopes to develop QR codes for medical images and data, such as electrocardiograms and x-rays.
By being able to carry this information, we can ensure people are given the right treatment in the case of an emergency.
Mr Dominello says he hopes our current reliance on the QR code is only a "temporary setting" but that we need to be "guided by health advice in terms of when to turn it off".
“The best part of the QR codes is that if for whatever reason we need to turn them back on again, the people of NSW have this in their back pockets to turn on quickly.”
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