Saturday, September 8, 2007

Liberty Times Introduces QR Codes

Taiwan's Liberty Times newspaper had one and a half page of QR Code introduction in its extras section yesterday. The article provided a brief intro to what QR Codes are, how to download and user QR mobile barcode readers, as well as plenty of examples of QR Codes in action. The pictured list of examples include QR Codes found on online games' boxes, airline posters, food packaging (for food traceability), hamburgers (for nutrition facts), t-shirts, and Taipei's Cultural Passport. It also mentions QuickMark's more advanced applications for QR Codes, such as GPS navigation and m-wallet (vending machines). The second page continues to list a few phones that support mobile barcode reading capabilities, as well as a more extended list of phones that are able to add the QR Code reading feature via online downloads (basically a copy of QuickMark's list of supported phones).

The only news to me was the QR Code used in by the online game Fanta Tennis Online. A quick search revealed that it was a marketing collaboration between Gameflier and FarEastone, and their press release said that the barcodes can be found within the game, on the game's instruction manual, and on its official website. Since I've not played this game, I'm not completely sure what purpose it serves. I did try looking for the QR on its packaging as shown on the newspaper, but did not see any on the ones I found at the store.

No comments: