How QR Codes Took Over the World
How QR Codes Took Over the World This article explains what QR codes are, how they were invented, and why the world now depends on them for payments, menus, tickets, and daily life. The Problem That Started It All In the early 1990s, Japanese factories faced a growing problem. Traditional barcodes could no longer store enough information. Scanning was slow, errors were common, and production lines were suffering. A Radical Idea From a Car Parts Company Engineers at Denso Wave asked a simple question: What if information could be read both horizontally and vertically? This idea became the foundation of the QR code, short for Quick Response. Why QR Codes Have Those Three Squares The three large squares are not decoration. They allow instant recognition of position, angle, and scale. Even if the code is tilted, damaged, or partially hidden, it still works. The Hidden Superpower: Error Correction QR codes can recover data even if up to 30 percent is ...