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Denso Launches ‘Frame’ QR Code

Denso have announced a new kind of QR Code called ‘Frame QR’. The new code has a blank ‘canvas area’ in the center of the code where images, illustrations, holograms etc., can be placed without affecting scanning and decoding. Frame QR is not compatible with normal QR Codes and requires different software to generate and [...]

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New Polo Ralph Lauren QR Code Campaign

Ralph Lauren first used QR Codes over 6 years ago, as we reported at the time. Amazingly that particular QR Code still works - try it and see! This month, to mark the designer’s launch of Polo for women, QR Codes are being used again. Harrods, London’s upmarket department store, has given over its window displays [...]

Asides (Latest News)

• Verizon's 2014 Data Breach Investigations Report claimed that "The writing’s on the wall for single-factor, password-based authentication on anything internet facing". It's true, with two out of three data breaches attributed to lost or stolen user names and passwords, multi-factor authentication is fast becoming the norm. Of course multi-factor authentication does not prevent the theft of credentials but it does help protect against the fraudulent re-use of those credentials. Yesterday Verizon announced that it had added QR Code login as a new feature of their Universal Identity Services. Users sign up for a Verizon Universal ID from a participating webpage and then download a mobile app that can scan a dynamically generated QR code on a login page. Once the user’s identity is confirmed they are authenticated to the website. The QR code login can be used alone or combined with a PIN number or password for transactions that require stronger security (video below). More...
• Toyota Motor Corporation spin-off DENSO Corporation celebrated the 20th birthday of the QR Code on Thursday. It is not clear why August 7 was chosen as the official birthday date but it is the birthday of Masahiro Hara, the inventor of the QR Code. The filing date for the first QR Code patent (Japanese Patent JP2938338) was March 14, 1994 and I am not entirely sure why that date is not regarded as the official birthday. Anyway Toyota Tsusho ID Systems have put up a celebratory webpage which includes the graphic displayed here. Unfortunately the QR Code simply resolves to the website's home page which is not very imaginative and seems to be a lost opportunity to promote the company. And why not a cake like this one :)   More...
• Masahiro Hara, the inventor of the QR Code has been nominated for the 2014 European Patent Office (EPO) award in the Non-European countries category (video below). As well as receiving around 150,000 patent applications every year the EPO holds an annual European Inventor Award competition. Anyone can nominate an inventor but the winners are chosen by EPO experts and an independent international jury. They evaluate innovations not only on their technological originality but also on their economic and social impact. Prizes are awarded in various categories but there is one 'Popular Prize' chosen by the public from all the shortlisted finalists. This year the award ceremony will be held in Berlin, Germany, on 17 June and you can vote for Masahiro Hara and his colleagues in the 'Popular Prize' category here (closing date 10 June). More...
• Yesterday's Vecernji List, Croatia's national newspaper, had an interesting QR Code on the front page (image below). Scanning the code can win readers cash prizes between 10,000 and 50,000 Kuna ($1,800 - $9,000) entirely at random. The promotion which lasts for a week is designed to raise the newspaper's profile and to increase last years poor sales of smartphones in Croatia. Pass this onto your friends and if you get lucky remember you heard it here first! More...
• The UK's Royal Mint announcement yesterday that there is to be a new pound coin gives me the opportunity to resurrect an idea I had 3 years ago. As always the reigning British monarch's head will be on one side of the coin but the Royal Mint is to run a public competition to choose the design for the reverse of the coin. My idea is to put a QR Code on the new coin. The QR Code would resolve to a server operated by the Royal Mint and then redirected to wherever they chose. The Royal mint would then auction weekly leases on the QR Code redirect. With 1.5 billion pound coins (currently) in circulation this could be attractive to many businesses, particularly if they run a promotion with a competition. For example "Scan the pound in your pocket to enter the Pepsi grand challenge". There are three things I particularly like about my idea. Firstly if a competition goes viral everyone with a pound coin can enter immediately. Secondly people may get used to scanning a pound coin once a week just to see what's there. Thirdly, last year the Royal Mint's return on capital was 0.5% but with a new revenue stream from QR Code leasing this could be increased by a significant factor. More...
• Earlier this year, after 18 months of cogitation at the taxpayers expense, the UK government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills produced a "Feasibility study on the use of QR codes in the energy sector" (PDF). Unsurprisingly they concluded that "...adding QR codes to energy bills or statements is relatively low cost and technically highly feasible". Today the government Department of Energy & Climate Change has taken up the baton and has produced a consultation paper on "Proposals to amend domestic energy supply licence conditions - requiring provision of key energy data in a machine readable format" (PDF). There is an example (below) of how a consumer will see the result after scanning one of the QR Codes if the government decides to make them mandatory. If you think that formulating, discussing and then implementing this proposal comes under the category of government waste, then you are probably right. More...
• Apples originating from the Aomori Prefecture in Japan will each have an individual QR Code from next year, even if they are harvested from the same tree (image below). Aomori apples are famous for their flavor and size and 90% of them are exported. The QR Code resolves to a mobile site where the consumer can view information on the farmer, soil, pesticides used etc., in Japanese, Chinese and English. The QR Code system will allow the prefectural government and apple growers to follow the distribution routes of the exported apples. More...
• Researchers at the University of Surrey, UK have successfully used readily available and inexpensive electronic components, combined with a shopping cart antenna, to eavesdrop on NFC and HF RFID contactless communication. The shopping cart did not perform as well as a small inductive loop antenna (that could be concealed with the electronics in a backpack) but neither are likely to arouse suspicion. The researchers say that the eavesdropping distance can be as much as 100cm but is dependant on the strength of the magnetic field generated by the victims device. Companies like VISA, Mastercard and Google who have already developed platforms for contactless payments can now add eavesdropping to the existing security threats of skimming and relay attacks. Original paper here (PDF). More...
• There are a limited number of metrics you can aquire with managed QR Codes but Scanbuy has wrapped them up in its new 'mVision Insights' on the ScanLife Mobile Engagement Platform. According to Scanbuy marketers using mobile engagement triggers such as QR Codes, NFC and Microsoft Tag in their campaigns can now: See how many users are being retained across traditional media activity from print ads to in-store displays View exactly when new material is hitting the market for the first time Discover the cities that are seeing higher engagement or scans per user Understand more about the consumer, such as native language, to uncover new markets Compare performance across previous or current campaigns to measure effectiveness View how traditional media is being shared via mobile social media channels like Facebook and Twitter Screenshots below and more information here. More...
• Friday November 22, 2013 is a big day for Xbox fans with the launch of the Xbox One and among a host of new features there is one feature that will be much appreciated by every gamer. It will no longer be neccassary, as it is for Xbox 360 gamers, to spend hours punching in 25 digit codes for redemptions, rewards and free trials. In the video clip below Larry Hryb Director of Xbox Programming at Microsoft demontrates just how easy it will be with the Kinect 2 and QR Codes. The resolution of the video is not good enough for me to scan the QR Code that Larry is waving :( More...