I’m planning to attend a meeting on QR codes for the ISciences dept at Leicester. I’ll be honest I don’t fully understand them, and you’re welcome to tell me how much I don’t understand them in the comments. I think if barcodes are like pagers what QR codes are likely to be like SMS. No-one in their right mind could have predicted how text messaging would grow to be so popular. After all pagers were nowhere near as successful. Neither has barcode scanning been massively popular. I have a CueCat for scanning book codes but despite that I’m likely to type in an ISBN into a catalogue than scan it. A QR code can pack much more useful information, including hyperlinks, than a barcode can.
So what is a QR code?
This is a QR code. It’s one of the world’s more pointless QR codes because it links to this website. However as part of the header in my CV, or printed on my business card it becomes more useful. Certainly I could claim to be tech-savvy, but now I can link to that in print. My CV and cards mean links to my personal site can make intrusions into the real world. Useful or a gimmick? I’m not sure.
The value in QR codes is that they’re not, strictly speaking codes. They’re ciphers. Barcodes are codes. They only have meaning given to them by the operator. An ISBN isn’t a book if you scan in the code Barcode Battler. With that device it could be Simon the Destroyer. The meaning has to be assigned. A QR code in constrast is deciphered with a key, so meanings do not have to be assigned in advance to be used. The example here includes a deliberate mis-spelling from the Owl and the Pussycat. It would be utter madness to deliberately design a code for that, but a cipher which can easy encode that could be flexible enough to encode all sorts of useful things.
Why use QR codes?
Jake Fudge has a good opening example. He’s suggested tagging buildings. Tags could link to a web page on the building giving its location, function and if there’s an event on where you think people are going to get lost, how to get to the event. While the tag itself is permanent the flexibility of the web ensures its meaning can change.
Alex Mack at ISciences had a similar suggestion for rooms. QR codes could link to a timetable which can be updated centrally to show if a room is booked or not and when.
My own idea is to have a presentation which has a QR code as a final slide along with text showing contact information. This is because I tend to have to leave a lot of basic information out of my presentations either basic astronomy or archaeology or classics. In the past I’ve left up my name, email address and website URL. A QR code in addition to the usual textual information could make linking much easier. An extra feature is that the act of photographing the code is the same regardless of the information in it. A QR code can embed 160 characters, which means rather than pointing people to http://alunsalt.co.uk, as I would with text, the contact slide could link to a much longer URL with an annotated version of the slide show.
They can also be used during presentations. I’ll be talking to the IFA about Open Access this Easter. It would be handy to point the audience to a piece I wrote for the Study Group for Roman Pottery A slide with a QR code during the talk can act as a direct link for those with cameraphones, and those without can still get the link the normal way. This could have similar uses in lectures.
In theory, the QR codes could supplement information given in handouts. They need not replace other means, in the same way internet documentation hasn’t replaced physical handbooks in many departments. It provides additional routes to the same information. In practice this use will depend on the quality of the image the projectors can produce. This would seem a simple enough experiment to carry out. It may be HD projectors or better will be needed before complex QR codes can be resolved from projections. Nevertheless they will still have uses in tagging the real world.
QR codes as a companion to documentation
One of the factors which makes QR codes attractive is their low cost. There is time in creating the code, but various web tools make this simple. Then there is the matter of printing them onto stickers, but this can be done in any office with the right stationery. The biggest challenge is what you do with the code.
There are a variety of devices that a QR code might add value to. and plenty which it wouldn’t. For example we have a nice microscope in our lab. We can hook it up to all sorts of things, and a QR code on it would be able to link to a page with information on the latest displays it can interact with, and how to connect it. Putting a QR code on a litter bin in contrast is just making work for the sake of it.
Of course we can only connect an item to support material if that support material exists. This is why now might the be time to start planning QR code strategy. At the moment a QR project would be identifying gaps in online information. The absence of key codes would at the moment not be a critical problem because QR is not yet mainstream. The rapid turnover of mobile phone technology and current availability of cameraphones indicates that this could change rapidly, possibly within a couple of years. Once QR does become mainstream it becomes a race to catch up with the innovators, who will have done their development in a much less intense environment.
What have I missed out?
I’ve probably missed whatever it is that will make QR successful, if it is a success. The most common mobile devices to access them will be phones, so audio is an obvious vehicle for information. Speedier networks might also make streaming video another possible use. The reason I’ve stuck to hyperlinks is that that’s what I know. There are also other uses like encoding emails, which most smartphones can now send or even phone numbers.
It is also possible that QR will not succeed in the way it has in Japan and that it will become a passing fad. Even if this is the case, a QR coding programme still delivers benefits. Even though the codes themselves may be follies, the connections they deliver in terms of richer virtual correlates to the real world will still have benefits, even if they are exploited another way.
The QR code on the CV might turn out to be a gimmick, but what it signifies will still have value.
