QR Barcoding

Recently discovered QR barcoding. It's very cool, and I can even see practical uses for it, but more about that later.

QR codes are 2D bar codes that can store tons of information for their size, and can be read by software readily available for mobile phones as free downloads.

I've added my business card to this blog as an image which can be read directly from the screen.

It contains all sorts of details, and was created using the free generator from Zebra Crossing (zxing.com), which offers a few different configurations.

As far as practical uses are concerned, if (like me) you send a text to let your wife know you're heading home, you can create the SMS QR code with the appropriate message and stick it to the dashboard. You can then simply scan and send it... job done! It may pay to have 2 or 3 of these printed ("heading home", "traffic busy", or "stopped for chips" spring to mind...) and sending these will then take around a second each.

Just don't get them mixed up.

I may push to get this printed on the back of my next bacth of business cards. I do work in the technology industry, so it makes sense to use what I can.