Future of Print: Goodbye QR Codes, I barely knew ya

Jun 21st, 2010 @ 09:00 am › Ryan McAbee
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Odds are you have seen the square shaped, funkier, hipper, cousin of the barcode — the QR Code. Quick Response codes are finally making a splash in the US market this year. Scan the codes with your smartphone to get a coupon, find information, locate a phone number, watch a movie, or whatever else mobile marketers have dreamt up. Marketers love the QR code since it can be where the consumer is and, better yet, be fully tracked with analytics.

For all of the greatness that QR codes posses, there are obvious weaknesses. Beyond needing a smartphone, which instantly eliminates 63% of today’s mobile market according to Nielson, QR codes do not speak to you. The conversation, whatever information is behind the curtain, has to be requested by the consumer. Although this style of permissions based marketing cuts out the bullhorns of broadcast media, QR codes are still blind to the consumers existence unless called to action. For this reason, QR codes will be merely a transitional technology, albeit with a long shelf life to go.

A killer, mobile ecosystem is developing to replace QR. Separate technologies will eventually merge into a single platform that push information directly to consumers in the vicinity who allow it. RFID, radio frequency identification, tags along with immersive augmented reality can provide a better end user experience. Passive RFID tags with no battery can send a signal to a receiver, ala smartphone, if it is within range. Of course, powerful filters are needed to curate information pertinent to the individual instead of everything within range. All of this will allow for the interaction of a QR code without the burden of usability being dumped upon the consumer.

Accessibility and cost are slowing the possibilities of this potent combination. Smartphones are getting more versatile and powerful, as seen with the iPhone 4, and more smartphones are projected to be sold than traditional phones by 2011. Costs are also rapidly decreasing for not only smartphones, but more importantly for RFID tags due to more advance production techniques.

What do you think is the shelf life is for QR codes? Drop a comment below!

photo credits: osde8info, avlxyz, Minh Q Tran

Categories: Future of Print, Mobile Barcodes
Tags: augmented reality, future of print, m-bossed, mbossed, printing indusry, qr code, quick response, radio frequency tag, rfid

david avrick

RFID has been around for ages and has gained no traction because it’s simply too expensive. New technology at QR-DIRECT LLC allows the consumer to consent to having their personal information forwarded to the advertiser … turning the QR scan into a value sales lead for the advertiser.
http://profile.typepad.com/1229300852s23985 Ryan McAbee

@David
Yes, RFID has seen only specialized applications due to cost so far. The point is that prices are being driven down as production technologies graduate from the labs (happens with all tech). Read the last link as a case in point.
You might want to reply with your companies website, since it does not show up in a quick search.
http://JimRaffel.com Jim Raffel

Good post. I’ve always wondered about the long-term staying power of QR Codes. There’s so much other technology That is automatic. Sorry too tired to comment more coherently.
http://www.fifthbiz.blogspot.com Matt Ledding

Staying power?
They have been used since 1994…
The fact that the info is “opt in” is just fine with me. If I have time to read and answer this, I (and perhaps a few other readers) have enough distraction triggers without being targeted by passive receiver booby-traps.
However… it will be marvellous to have the interactivity of one’s personal stuff via RFID. I just think the versus is a false dilemna, like making Peter Parker choose between sight or “spider sense”.
Although having both puts him one up over Daredevil, which is the real point I want to make.
See how easily I get distracted?
Don’t build an RFID ad platform.
I won’t get anything done.
http://profile.typepad.com/1229300852s23985 Ryan McAbee

@Matt
My vote would be for “spider sense” when and wherever I needed it (opt-in RFID). This way I can be blind to QR like Daredevil.
Who would’ve thought comics and print technologies would ever be compared in the same thought? Awesome, thanks Matt.
p.s. I think QR has a purpose and will be around for some time, but other tech is emerging that has potential to be better.
http://www.fifthbiz.blogspot.com Matt Ledding

QR codes are useful because they are so frickin easy to generate and put out via photocopiers, web, using tech you already have. Their look means you know what it is, and if you have photoshop, the select by colour means you can pimp them easily, and they still work.
Thanks 2 ZXing and the chart api from google, you can easily generate them in an automatic form via g-spreadsheets.
If your url was in cell d4, the formula
=CONCATENATE(“http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=300×300&chl=”,D4)
will shoot one out for you as will directly putting
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=300×300&chl=
following the “=” with whatever you want to put in the code.
I like them for scavenger hunt type activities because you know what they are but you don’t. It turns your smartphone into a really expensive decoder ring.
What I think is cool about those 3 cent RFID’s is that my fridge will know when I am out of milk, and can prep an online groc list. That’ll be tough for a QR.
The strength is also the weakness. What is perhaps dangerous is the RFID privacy issue, as well as possible abuse based on mass uses. A hard core corn-flake hater could set off a virus triggered by the purchase of cornflakes. (replace cornflakes with any religious or anti-religious book of whatever persuasion if you like realism or cornflakes.)
On the other hand, anyone with a Fro-yo virus could just start putting QR stickers up advertising a virus, and seeing who bites. (…I might bite if it was well enough designed…)
So I think both are cool, and like any tech, empower us to do good and bad things.
Have you seen the AR over QR code by O’Reilly answers? http://oreil.ly/dbDpu8 (Cut and paste AR…)
http://profile.typepad.com/1229300852s23985 Ryan McAbee

Valid points. Privacy concerns with RFID are no more serious than that of social media, but it seems like most of us have shown little real concern for that. As for security, all technology has to implement various levels and RFID will be no different. A QR code, because the destination is masked like a shortened URL, could just as easily turn a scavenger hunt into a further hunt for anitvirus.
Reading the link now. Thanks!
…both are cool.
http://profile.typepad.com/6p01053690ac10970c Michael Josefowicz

I think it’s important not to fall in the trap of a zero sum game. Most probably this will play out that certain techs work best in certain niches at certain times.
I’m not up to speed on RFID, but the thing about QR is that user information can be embedded in the code, precisely the same way a pURL can embed user information.
I know that CodeZ can do this at scale and there are probably others that have not gotten on my radar.
Once you can do a pURL like QR it means that real time engagement data is available for a real time response. in education that could mean homework assignments printed on the school copier with the individual students QR. When the homework is handed in the teacher can use a smartphone to click and the engagement data – did the kid turn it in – is immediately avaialable in an actionable form.
In addition to a no time cost way to keep necessary data it could be hooked up to an SMS that goes straight to mom’s cell phone and says “How come Jr didn’t hand in his homework today.” When Jr gets home that afternoon. Mom says “What’s up with that.”
My sense is that similar applications will be developed in the health space, most especially around the issue of patient compliance with drug protocols.
Advertising and marketing is a dif story. GossRSVP has a pretty neat code that works on opt in SMS. the JTag thing looks pretty interesting. Meanwhile, visual search with no code necessary has recently lifted it’s head.
i think the underlying mega trend is clickable print that goes to the internet via one of many different routes.
http://profile.typepad.com/printerslounge PrintersLounge

To be honest I’m a bit confused after reading this thread because RFID and QR (and all other print codes) are completely different and not comparable in any way. Maybe it’s based on the circumstance that both technologies are pretty new to most of us and still not (visible) parts of our daily life. In fact the RFID technology has been developed in the early 20th century (between 1940 and 1950 the first RFID tags were used for military use) and our Barcode system has been developed in the late 50th. Today both systems (and both are very complex systems – both need at minimum one transmitter, one receiver, an interpreter and a complex database management system) are urgent used in logistic. The main difference between both systems is that RFID is a passive System (Tags are automatically recognized as soon as they’re in range of a (compatible) receiver (which physically is a transmitter indeed)) and Barcodes (1D/2D/3D) need activ scanning to get recognized and read.
The actual success of the Barcode systems also for marketing use is only based on the ease of production. To produce a working QR code you just need a potato and a knife and to read out this information you just need a smartphone with a compatible (and mostly free) App. Doing the same (or better a similar thing) with RFID is possible but you will need a writable Tag (costs), a Tag-writer (available as handhelds nowadays) (more costs), a Receiver (transmitter indeed) (further costs), a database management system (…) and finally the database. So it’s logical that RFID based marketing or any other use is not easily available for most of us.
But for the use in logistic RFID has an enormous advantage: you can bulk scan them. No need for serialization, no need for visual contact. This means that you can (theoretically) scan the cargo of a whole truck in one single step. Practically this is still wishful thinking due to many technical (and organizational) problems we still need to solve.
So comparing RFID with printed codes is the same as comparing apples with pears.
BTW much more interesting for me is the next level of interactivity. Just think about what is possible with advanced recognition software that near in future won’t need barcodes anymore – for example face recognition or real life augmented reality. Or systems that are geo-based – with much higher resolution (our next milestone in geo location).
I’ve written a complex article about these topics early in 2007 and it’s still extremely up to date but it’s unfortunately only available in German. Maybe I should really think about a translation…
Last but not least: privacy and malevolence. Bear in mind that all systems and technologies can get manipulated for bad use. But this works for RFID the same as for QR or any other codes. And there’s no chance to reduce this endangerment to zero. To minimize your risk you can only try to avoid to make use of such systems provided you’re aware of your usage. On the other hand you’ll even lose a lot of chances, fun, ideas and biz models and in a few years you’ll become one of those lonesome old (but possibly contented) anchorites.
Alex
http://profile.typepad.com/1229300852s23985 Ryan McAbee

@Alex and Michael,
I think your comments are longer than the original post. Good thing we aren’t on Twitter!
@Alex
If you have a URL of the article mentioned? All of the non German speaking folks can use Google to get the highlights.
QR and RFID are two completely different technologies and both currently have limitations as you mention. The first main point was that QR is a pull technology where RFID is a push technology which you also conceded. The second main point is that RFID costs are continuously getting cheaper and the complexity is getting simplified. At some merging point, RFID could be as simple, cost effective, easier for the end consumer, and have more useful applications than QR narrower scope.
Now time to go register at printerslounge.com finally.
http://profile.typepad.com/printerslounge PrintersLounge

Ryan, here’s the link to the related article on another network of mine: http://bit.ly/Utopia2_0
But it might be really hard work to read through with Google translation. On the other hand I think that such a translation might possibly be much better to read and understand than a manual translation made by me.
http://twitter.com/qassoom Qasim A. Rasool

QR Codes are used for purposes that are different from RFIDs. QR Codes are – as you have mentioned – are used when a consumer requests information, in the time that RFIDs are “there all the time”, the great difference here is that in the QR Code case, you have to activate your smart-phone camera to scan such code, in the time that turning on your RFID to “read” such information is just like turning on your GPS functionality on your mobile phone to read nearby RFID signals from RFID tags.

It is way much cheaper & much easier to print a QR Code than to manufacture an RFID tag, but it is a breeze to read RFID tags due to their radio wave nature. On the other hand, such process consumes more power than activating a camera & optically scanning a printed code. On such distances where RFIDs cannot be read, QR Codes are a great alternative to read & extract visual information to be input in the smart-phone itself without the need of typing it.

As a conclusion, RFID may not be fully utilized until a revolution in mobile batteries & charging technologies where a smart-phone with all its “sensors” on can last for 3 days without charging, so RFIDs can be used for marketing purposes the way business owners like to get their products & services advertised. But for the mean time, I think adding a native QR Code reader in major mobile phones operating systems (Android, iOS, Blackberry… etc) can help boost the spread of QR Codes around us.

http://www.m-bossed.com Ryan McAbee

@Qasim

Thanks for dropping by!
There are, as you point out, obvious differences in the technology utilized between QR & RFID. As fast as the technology in mobile and other technologies is advancing, the cost and current limitations will become non-issues. When this happens RFID, or some other type of always on sensor, can provide a more seamless customer experience.
Ryan

John Noi

Actually, you don’t need a smartphone to read QR codes – although it does make the experience smoother. RFID tags most likely will take over at some point, but the technology is still far from being widely used on the consumer level.
http://twitter.com/wujesse Jesse Wu

There is no argument for QR vs RFID. They are different. The ultimate solution is a QR-RFID hybrid (search google for “How ISO Standards speed up RFID applications by Barcode”). The real battle is QR codes vs. bar codes.

QR codes have advantages in print/static media and when compared to bar codes during manufacturing. Will companies really want to phase out the use of bar codes though? After all, bar codes are the most widely used ID system in the world.

As Qasim mentioned, RFID tech requires high start-up costs and more energy. Give RFID and the NFC capabilities that you blogged about a couple more years to integrate into the mainstream. The release of the Google smart phone Nexus S will undoubtedly promote more advancement in this capability though.
Jack

when is the last time you ever used a QR code except the first time you did to check it out?
They’re already done for NFC and RFID is the real solution.
Mcosta

It is my humble opinion RFID tage will rule the future for a number of reasons. Products that have RFID’s embedded can be tracked beyond the store. As an axample, I buy a product embedded with an RFID chip at Walmart. The product can be traced whereever there is a RFID reader in place. So, theoretically, it can be traced from the time I purchase it until I dispose of it. And it can be traced by my name, where I live, and include my demographic information, etc. This will give Walmart and its suppliers and corporate marketers vast insights into my buying preferences etc. They use thsi onfo to manipulate the price, packaging etc., so I will buy more.

RFID chips are already imbedded in passports, drivers licenses, credit cards, etc. They will also make it easier to shop, where as today in the supermarket, each item has to be emptied from the cart to scan; when they all have RFID chips, we will be able to scan the entire cart with one pass and we can pay with our smart phones (by using an RFID reader App); thus eliminating the need for cash and cashiers. Moreoever, if I think the product is too pricey, I can scan it and search the web for a cheaper price…It promotes global competition and access.

Who knows, some theorize we will all have an RFID chip embedded in our persons, as the military is already emperimenting with this approach with troops. That way big brother can know our every more…
Chris Self

This is an interesing blog and I mostly agree. QR codes should only be used in conjuction with and ad, but still creates a compelling piece for those who have what is needed. Also, the use of QR codes for contact info will always be effective. Nothing else ensures that you’re info will be ented into a consmer’s address book…

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