ICT Samachar
In the 1960s, Japan experienced rapid economic growth. Supermarkets began expanding their product range from food items to clothing and other commodities.
Before barcode technology, cashiers manually entered each item into the system, which was very time-consuming. As queues grew longer, Point of Sale (POS) technology was developed. POS allowed items to be individually scanned and recorded in a computer system.
Early POS systems used the first versions of barcodes. However, long checkout lines still persisted because early barcodes were one-dimensional and could only store up to 20 alphanumeric characters.
The Invention of the QR Code
To overcome these limitations, a Japanese company, Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota, developed the QR Code system in 1994. The research was led by Masahiro Hara.
Denso Wave initially designed the QR Code to track vehicles and parts using Kanji, Kana, and alphanumeric characters. After realizing the limitations of traditional barcodes, supermarkets approached Denso Wave. Hara then transformed the unidirectional barcode into a two-dimensional (2D) code.
The 2D design allowed QR Codes to store much more information. Hara also decided on a square shape, which made the codes easily recognizable and allowed data to be encoded both horizontally and vertically. This innovation made QR Codes readable ten times faster than barcodes.
Denso Wave made the invention public in 1994 without patent restrictions, encouraging widespread adoption. In 2000, ISO International Standards officially recognized QR Codes, leading to explosive global use. Initially used in the automotive industry, QR Codes are now used in manufacturing, logistics, transactions, information management, retail, and many other sectors.
What Is a QR Code?
QR stands for Quick Response Code. It is a type of matrix barcode that mobile phones can easily scan. The square-shaped QR Code stores encoded data, which can be quickly retrieved after scanning.
A single QR Code can store:
-
Up to 7,089 digits
-
Up to 4,269 characters, including punctuation and special symbols
-
About 3 KB of data
There are two main types of QR Codes:
-
Static QR Code: Data is fixed and cannot be edited after creation.
-
Dynamic QR Code: Data can be edited even after the code is generated.
QR Codes in Nepal
Recently, QR Codes have seen widespread use in Nepal, from digital payments to product tracking and sharing various types of information. They have become an integral part of the country’s digital ecosystem.
In summary, QR Codes evolved from the limitations of traditional barcodes to become a fast, versatile, and widely adopted digital tool worldwide.
