The Hidden Information

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Information obtained from Scanner: Article Name: The Hidden Information Unibytes |Volume 7 | Issue 5 | June 2011

I am back with another dose of technology, this time peppered with a pinch of creativity. I will start this article with the general assumption that everyone who is reading this has a camera phone handy.

Your objective is to decode the hidden Quick Response (QR) codes in this article and create your own codes. Simple?

If any of you are wondering what a QR code is, it’s like any other barcode commonly used to obtain information about a product, when shopping at a super market. Barcodes make life easier for machines by directly interpreting images and obtaining product prices. Yet, when we shop at super markets how often do we encounter defunct barcode readers? Most of us are frustrated waiting endlessly while the cashier laboriously enters product details one key at a time. The QR code has the potential to change all that. 

QR Code stands for Quick Response Code, which is a specific matrix barcode, readable by dedicated QR barcode readers or camera phones. It is called a “Quick Response code”, as its code content can be decoded at high speed. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be Text, URL, Call, SMS, or vCard.

The QR code was created by a subsidiary of Toyota named Denso-Wave in 1994 and is considered to be the most popular type of two-dimensional barcode. The QR code is hugely popular in Japan and South Korea, whereas its adoption has been rather slow in the West.

The QR code carries meaningful information in the vertical as well as horizontal dimension and is hence called a two-dimensional bar code. By carrying information in both directions, the QR code can contain several hundred times the amount of data carried by ordinary barcodes.

Initially  used to track inventory in vehicle manufacturing, the QR code is now used for commercial tracking as well as convenience-oriented applications. It has been aimed at mobile phone users, who can see or send it in text messages.  in vCard details, compose an email or SMS with it, or be redirected to a URL. This act of linking from physical world objects is called hard linking or object hyperlinking.

Here are examples of each:

QR Code Image	Code Output
	Text: The code in this image consists of text
	URL to: http://inblr-eurep/unibytes/index.html
	Call to: Country code: +91 Area code: 80 Telephone number: 39904916
	SMS: Country code: +91 Area Code: 80 Telephone number: 39904916 SMS text: This is an auto generated message
	vCard: First name: Atif Last name: Siddiqui Phone: +91 8039904916 Email: Atif.Siddiqui@in.unisys.com Website: http://www.unisys.com/ Address: Purva Premier No 135/1, Residency Road Postal code: 560025 City: Bangalore Organization/company: Unisys Global Service - India Position/role: Sr. Software Engineer

You can generate your own QR Code (http://goqr.me/)

Decomposition of the QR Code:

The QR code is being used in various ways today.  In magazines, on signs, on buses and business cards, on objects hence users can extract  information. The only requirement to decode these codes is a camera phone and a correct reader application to scan the QR code images.

Here is a list of applications that can be used to read the QR code:
Mobiletag 
Compatability and download instructions
NeoReader
Download Instructions
QuickMark 
Compatability and download instructions