Today, payments are made, information is obtained and services are accessed with a single click of your mobile phone. This is possible because of a wonderful code. This black and white square QR code looks simple, but behind it lies an extraordinary thing, which is creating the digital revolution that the world has experienced.
An idea that became the future
The year was 1994, Japan. Masahiro Hara, an engineer working at Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota, was playing a chess-like game called 'Go' in his office. While watching the game of black and white stones, he came up with an idea. He wanted to create a code that would provide information quickly, and that's where the QR code was born.
The history of the barcode and the next stage of the QR code
Barcodes were a great start, but they had their limitations. The first barcode was used in a grocery store in Ohio, USA, in 1974. But Hara wanted something different, more information, more speed, and more accuracy. He created a square code that could be scanned from any angle, could store thousands of characters, and could be read even if the data was slightly damaged. For this, he provided special blocks in the three corners that quickly 'recognized' the code to the scanner.
QR code: The one that came up, was scanned.
After 2012, QR codes seemed to be on the back burner for a while. But then came the smartphone revolution and apps like WeChat. China brought QR codes back to the forefront. Payments, coupons, logins, events, QR codes spread everywhere. During the Corona era, when it became necessary to reduce touch, QR codes became the 'king of secure transactions'. In India, from grocery stores to coconut water carts, the "pay, scan" trend started everywhere. Even small vendors got the ease of digital transactions.
Today, QR codes are not just a technology, they have become an integral part of our lifestyle. Right from school attendance, to train tickets, to restaurant menus, they are everywhere.