QR Codes: What are they and Why you should use it

Do you recognize what that is in the alligator's mouth? If you thought of teeth, that is correct, but what I meant was a bar code. You see the usage of bar codes a lot at stores such as a grocery store and a clothing store. A bar code is made up of vertical lines and spaces. It is considered a one-dimensional code because the information is stored only in its horizontal widths and spaces; the vertical height of the code does not affect the code. Like the bar code, the QR code is scanned for information. It is different because of its shape, how much information can be stored, and how it is usually used.

Now you have probably seen this square somewhere. At home? Maybe. At the grocery store? Sure. On the label of your drink? Why not. You could have encountered this square at all of those places! This square is actually a matrix and is called a QR code. Unlike the bar code, the QR (quick response) code is made up of small squares and is two-dimensional because it holds information horizontally and vertically. The QR code is used in many ways: advertisement, tracking, social media, and many more. This code benefits many individual brands because it holds a lot more information than the bar code in a compact size.

How come a lot of people do not use this code? The majority of people just simply aren't aware of it. People use their smartphones for messaging, web browsing, and gaming, not for scanning QR codes. QR codes should be known to the people and should also be used more. You can find QR codes almost anywhere, from papers to cups, from boards to billboards, or even from television to websites. These codes don't just tell us the price of something; like a search engine: it can tell us information about the object, it can spread the word about a brand, and it can change the way we interact with millions of people.