You just scanned a QR code.
Welcome to my presentation. See? That was easy.
Instead of handing you a printed brochure, I shared all of this with a single QR code.
QR Codes in Everyday Digital Applications
One scan. Countless possibilities.
What we'll explore
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The origin
Japan, 1994. How QR codes were born. Car makers tracked parts with barcodes that held little data and were fussy to scan. QR codes held more and could be read from any angle.
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Everyday convenience
Wi-Fi passwords, links and instant access. In the Turkish comedy Ölümlü Dünya, the characters spend minutes trying to share a Wi-Fi password and still fail. One scan would have done it.
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Everywhere around us
Payments, menus, tickets and attendance. No more typing a ridiculously long link off a poster.
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The hidden risks
Why you shouldn't trust every QR code. Anyone can make one, scammers included.
Did you know?
QR stands for Quick Response. Masahiro Hara and his team at Denso Wave developed it in 1994.
A barcode holds about 20 characters. A QR code can hold up to 7,089 digits.
Where we use them
Restaurant menus online payments event tickets public transportation Google reviews product information digital business cards authentication education advertising app downloads donations museums parking hotel check-ins and many, many more…
Basically…They're everywhere.
The most important one: university attendance
You can be sitting right there in the classroom, but if you don't scan the code, the system says you were never here.
But there's a catch
QR codes are convenient, but they're not always safe. You can't tell where a code goes just by looking at it. Someone can stick a fake code over the real one on a parking meter, and instead of paying for parking you hand your card details to a scammer.
- Read the link your camera shows before you open it.
- Look for a sticker glued over the original code.
- Don't enter passwords or card numbers on a page you reached by scanning, unless you expected to.
One thing to remember
QR codes make information easy to reach. But always check where a code takes you before you trust it.