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World Record Size QR Code

There have been a couple of QR Code world record attempts in the last few months (Hackerspace Charlotte and Skanz) but last Sunday’s construction in St-Janvier de Mirabel by Air Fest (video below) sets a new benchmark at a massive 15,625 square feet. Air Fest is a Quebec company providing day-camps and soccer schools for [...]

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QR Code Insights From ComScore

ComScore published its ‘2012 Mobile Future in Focus’ report today with key insights from 2011 and what they mean for the coming year. It’s a mobile marketers ‘must read’ and the full report is available for download from their website here. This is a snippet specifically on QR Codes from the report: During 2011, QR Codes [...]

Asides (Latest News)

• QR Codes on playing cards are not new (Marked Cards for Geeks, Plan a Tour with Playing Cards) but at last week's International Toy Fair in New York The United States Playing Card Company showed an interesting variation. The company, which makes the Bicycle brand playing cards, has developed a new game style played with 'Jacked Up' decks in which some of the cards have QR Codes (video below). Scanning the card during the course of a game with the 'Jacked Up' iOS or Android app changes the rules of the game! The decks will be available in April for the classic games of Solitaire, War and Hearts. More...
• Last week the first PC version of the action/adventure game 'Alan Wake' shot straight to the top of the sales charts. This is two years after the initial release on the Xbox 360, so it is hardly surprising that the graphics are said to have improved considerably. There is at least one other difference, the Xbox version has Microsoft Tag Easter eggs hidden throughout the game but in the PC version they have been replaced with QR Codes. In the images below the MS Tag resolves to a non-existent web page and the QR Code resolves as a text message. More...
• QR Codes are appearing on the rear of Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) compressed natural gas bus fleet (image below). The QR Codes resolve to the Atlanta Medical Center mobile site from which you can view the Emergency Room wait time and even reserve a spot. If the person you are rushing to ER is stretched out on the rear seat and you try scanning the code while you are driving then you may end up in ER yourself   :( Image taken by @katewrightson More...
• Orange UK Enterprising Business Blog have published an infographic showing how they thing NFC will be used in the near future (image below). It shows "6 ways that NFC will change our world" but there must be many more surely? More...
• There is one thing you can say about Sports Illustrated and that is it is not afraid to try different technologies in its annual Swimsuit Edition. In 2010 they tried Jagtag, in 2011 they tried Microsoft Tag and this year they have moved from 2d barcodes to digital watermarks using Digimarc. The 2012 Swimsuit Edition out yesterday allows users of the Digimarc Discover app to view behind the scenes videos of the various swimsuit model's photo shoots. If you are able to view mp4's on the device you are using you can see an example here. Will Digimarc succeed where the others have failed, will they be SI's choice for 2013? Or will SI be trying one of the new breed of image recognition apps? More...
• The largest US internet grocer Peapod is encouraging Philadelphians to grocery shop while they commute (images below). Users scan a QR Code poster on station platforms to download the Peapod app and scan the UPC codes below the items on the ads. The app also allows the browsing and purchase of all Peapod's internet grocery items. This is similar to the Tesco Homeplus app which uses a combination of QR Codes and UPC codes for the items. More...
• We have seen QR Codes made from everyday objects before but for brands with a variety of products this may present something of a new opportunity. Panasonic's ad on the cover of Wares, an appliance retail trade magazine, was constructed with various of their electronic products (cover image and detail below). The QR Code resolves to the Panasonic New Zealand YouTube channel. More...
• Tesco Homeplus is extending its virtual stores following the trial of QR Code shopping walls in Hangangjin subway station in Seoul, South Korea. Twenty bus shelters are to display a select few groceries that can be purchased for home delivery by scanning the appropriate QR Code with the Tesco Homeplus Smartphone App. The app can scan UPC barcodes as well as QR Codes and you can see both are present in the images below. Tesco's app is now the the number one shopping app in Korea with nearly one million downloads since it was launched in April last year. More...
• Web design and marketing company EMS Internet put large QR Codes on the outside of their office building and now recently on their pickup truck (image below). The EMS truck plans to travel round the UK encouraging the public to scan the code and unlock the discount packages and promotions available. The company is now implementing QR Codes within all marketing and promotions so it will be interesting to get back to them later this year and find out the results. More...
• We have reported on QR Codes on chocolates, a QR Code constructed from wrapped chocolates and a QR Code made from unwrapped chocolates but a new Japanese video (below) shows how to make a chocolate QR Code from scratch. Made by melting black and white chocolate bars, setting them into slabs, dicing them up into squares and constructing the code piece by piece. The QR Code scans as text "I Love You!". This is not so surprising as we are close to Valentine's Day and making a QR Code this way is certainly a labor of love. More...