Yes But How Can I read these QR Codes?

Yes these QR codes are cropping up everywhere but:


But How Can I read these QRs? Can I be bothered? 


First what is a QR? 


OK forget about what it is but consider what it does.


It is a hyperlink. Scan it and it takes you to a website. It is a graphical representation of a web address (URL). That's it. The website may be full of marketing drivel. Or contain priceless riveting must-know information. Or something in-between.


OK now back to what the Quick Response (QR) code actually is.


It is basically a kind of barcode that can be scanned by a machine - not so different from the scanner in supermarket self-service tills:


"Welcome to the Fast Lane; Unexpected item in the bagging area; Granny's at the Cream Sherry again ... "

A self-service hand scanner in a supermarket

But a QR code is not a one dimensional barcode as on supermarket products. Below is the barcode on the back label of my  Wine for Spice Rani Gold.

Wine for Spice's traditional one dimension barcode

A QR is a two dimensional barcode. Here is a QR that generates Wine for Spice's QR page http://qr.wineforspice.com . 

http://qr.wineforspice.com

You will normally have seen these QR "barcodes" in black and white. But I prefer a splash of colour.

I change the destination of  http://qr.wineforspice.com to a blogpost on the next wine tasting featuring  Wine for Spice .

OK now you have seen QRs but what are they?

A QR code is a machine-readable image that generates text. Any text. Nowadays most QRs read website addresses (URLs) rather than text such as business cards. But they were invented back in 1994 when the internet was just used by academics. [ See Wikipedia on QRs ]

If the text read by the QR is recognised by the phone as a URL, then clicking the URL that comes up takes you to the underlying website.

You have to scan it with a Barcode (sic) /QR reader and then a URL comes up (sometimes) and then you click the URL.

Once the app is downloaded and installed then it is (for me) easy and much quicker than typing in a URL.

For a QR reader in Android I use the free "Barcode Scanner" by ZXing Team. You can get it in Android Market by searching for Barcode. 


Here are the Android Market and  Barcode readers installed on my HTC Android phone. There are other QR readers but I have not checked them out.

My phone with the Barcode scanner in the bottom right

With the Barcode scanner installed point the camera at the QR code in the magazine so that the entire QR is within the phone's screen.

Here's my phone pointing at my notebook screen. 

Here's my phone pointing at my notebook screen

You will see a vertical (or horizontal) red line and yellow dots flashing on and off on the QR image in your phone. And then the flashing stops and the image in the phone's screen automatically changes bringing up an underlying web page (URL)

A URL comes up

The just click the URL and you are onto the website that the QR was designed to take you.

With an iPhone you also have to download apparently. I have never used an iPhone so I don't know if they are free.

My five year old Nokia E71 came with a "barcode" reader pre-installed to read these two-dimensional QRs. Blackberrys also have QR scanners I understand.

But the point of a QR is:

If you want to read a URL on your phone away from your computer

AND 

If for you typing in that URL is slower than scanning the equivalent QR


Here is a QR codes for you to try. It links to my YouTube video on Pronouncing Spanish Wine:

And here is another QR Code linking to another of my YouTube videos this time on Pronouncing Italian Wine:

For more on QRs click this link.

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Warren EDWARDES


Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
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