How it began
In 1992 Masahiro Hara, who developed barcode scanners at Denso, was asked by manufacturing sites for scanners that could read barcodes faster. Feeling the limits of barcodes, he set out to create a compact code that could hold more information, including kanji and kana characters, and be read quickly. He worked with only one other team member. After a year and a half of trial and error, Denso Wave, then a division of Denso Corporation, announced the QR Code in 1994. QR stands for quick response.
Before it existed
Barcodes had spread through retail and manufacturing by the 1980s, but each could store only about 20 alphanumeric characters. In factories the limit was worked around by using several barcodes at once, and workers had to scan as many as 1,000 barcodes per day. A shift toward more flexible production in the 1990s demanded more detailed production control and codes with greater capacity.
How it works
A QR Code stores information in two directions, across and up and down. Square position detection patterns at three corners tell a scanner where the code is and how it is oriented, so it can be read from any angle. Hara's team surveyed printed matter to find the least used ratio of black and white areas, 1:1:3:1:1, and gave the patterns those widths. The code could hold about 7,000 numerals and be read more than ten times faster than other codes.
How it spread
The auto industry adopted the code for its electronic Kanban, and food, pharmaceutical and contact lens companies used it for traceability. Denso Wave kept the patent rights but declared it would not exercise them and published the specifications. The code became an AIM standard in 1997, a Japanese Industrial Standard in 1999 and an ISO standard in 2000. In 2002, mobile phones with a code-reading feature brought it to the general public in Japan.
Where it stands today
Denso Wave describes the code as used all over the world for purposes including name cards, electronic tickets and airport ticketing. Variants followed, including the micro QR Code, the iQR Code in 2008 and FrameQR in 2014. In 2012 the QR Code received Japan's Good Design Award.
