A QR code is a type of two-dimensional matrix barcode, invented in 1994, by Japanese company Denso Wave for labelling automobile parts. A QR code consists of black squares arranged in a square grid on a white background, including some fiducial markers, which can be read by an imaging device, such as a camera, and processed using Reed–Solomon error correction until the image can be appropriately interpreted. The required data are then extracted from patterns that are present in both the horizontal and the vertical components of the QR image.
QR codes can be displayed on buildings, such as this one being painted in Cape Town.
A QR code used on a large billboard in Japan, linking to the sagasou.mobi website
QR codes have been used and printed on train tickets in China since 2010.
A sign with a QR code that links to a drinks menu
A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or one-dimensional (1D), can be scanned by special optical scanners, called barcode readers, of which there are several types.
Barcoded rolling stock in the UK, 1962
Snack vendor on the Shinkansen train scans a barcode.
Barcoded parcel
GTIN barcodes on Coca-Cola bottles. The images at right show how the laser of barcode readers "see" the images behind a red filter.