QR (Quick Response) codes are everywhere now. It’s as if they are another modern creation of the internet age. And they are but not originally for consumers. QR Codes were developed in 1994 by Denso Wave in Japan which is part of automobile company Toyota . Their original use was to track automobile parts during the assembly process. Today though, they also store addresses (URL for example), locations (GPS/maps), contact cards, SMS and email initiation and are used for marketing, advertising, ticketing and general notifications. Here’s more detail on their structure from Britannica:
“Three corners of the QR Code contain the finder pattern, a nested series of black and white squares that, when detected by an optical scanner and interpreted by software, allow the scanning device to determine the orientation of the QR Code. Two other patterns are also present. The alignment pattern, smaller squares containing yet smaller squares, is used in all but the smallest codes to determine if the QR Code has been distorted, and the timing pattern, a row and column of alternating black and white squares connecting the large squares of the finder pattern, serves as the coordinate system of the QR Code.”
QR codes can be read by lasers or with cameras on our phones. With 82% of Americans having smartphones (94% of millennials and 98% of gen z have them), a large number of people at your church can and will scan a QR code to get information. And while their structure looks “techie”, there are many easy ways to generate a QR code requiring no technical skills. Here are some of the popular and free QR code generators:
- https://www.qrcode-monkey.com/
- https://www.canva.com/qr-code-generator/
- https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/qr-code-generator
- https://www.flowcode.com/free-qr-code-generator
And to make this even more interesting, here are the QR codes you can scan to take you to these URLs:
