A brief history of QR codes

The UPC bar code’s success and shortcomings

To understand how the QR code came to be, first learn about its big sister: the UPC code (Universal Product Code). The UPC barcode you’re used to seeing at grocery stores is still the most widely-used tracking code system in the world. When Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver first patented it in the 1950s, it looked like a circular bullseye and wasn’t used on the wide scale it is today.

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From the 1950s to 1970s, society needed an efficient way to track items due to the mass production of products and increase of large grocery store chains. IBM revisited this previously patented technology and restructured the bullseye barcodes into the vertical barcode we know today. The UPC barcode successfully tracked products and sped up production and grocery store lines, and by the early 2000s society accepted it as the standard everywhere.

However, as technology flourished through the 2000s to 2010s, the barcode revealed shortcomings. First, they can only hold limited amounts of information. While this was okay for 1970s supermarkets, the limited space presented problems as time went on and the requirement for more information grew. Additionally, the UPC scanning equipment is expensive and not affordable or practical for the everyday person. On top of that, you must scan a UPC bar code from one specific direction to register the info, which slows everything down. Slower grocery store lines inconvenience the ordinary consumer, but slower production lines in industrial factories negatively affect the bottom line, as we’ll learn in just a moment.

The invention of the QR code

The Japanese automotive company, Denso Wave, was one of many to wrestle with the standard UPC code system. Due to the limited storage capabilities of barcodes, Denso Wave had to apply as many as 10 bar codes on a single product just to properly track and communicate information. Additionally, because bar codes need to be scanned from one direction, they ran into production backups when their scanners couldn’t read the bar codes on the variety of shapes and sizes of automotive parts. The company struggled meeting deadlines simply because bar codes slowed production.

In 1994, a Denso Wave employee named Masahiro Hara conjured up the idea of QR codes while playing the game Go. If you’ve never played Go before, it consists of a 19×19 grid with black and white stones placed throughout. One glance at a Go board will make you see the connection between QR. Hara realized a grid system could hold much more information in a single code and could also be read from multiple directions, angles, and distances—thus speeding up production times. Hara and his Denso Wave team successfully made his vision a reality and developed the QR Code (Quick Response Code).

In a strategic move, Denso Wave made QR code technology freely available to the public but sold the scanner technology to read them. Hara and Denso Wave foresaw the future of QR codes in other industrial settings, but they didn’t anticipate its popularity amongst small businesses and ordinary individuals.

Everything changed when cellphones included cameras, because a camera is the perfect technology for reading QR codes. In 2002, Sharp introduced the first cellphone with a QR scanner and competing cellphone companies followed suit. Eventually, everyone who owned a smartphone possessed a QR scanner in their pocket.

The 2020 QR boom and why they are here to stay

QR codes grew at a steady pace through the 2010s but boomed exponentially when the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic hit. Suddenly, the entire world sought quick and easy ways function without physical contact. QR codes were the perfect solution. The codes are free, easy to make, and easy to maintain. Almost everyone carries a phone with QR scanning capabilities. You could dine at restaurants and bars without touching a menu that’s been touched by other people, reducing the spread of germs. You could pay for items without touching cash or pushing buttons on a card reader.

Some restaurants have even chosen to keep QR menus to avoid printing and upkeep costs. They also can update items on the spot as needed. While the pandemic winds down and isn’t the health concern it was a few years ago, we’ve become used to a contactless world and QR codes are here to stay.