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I feel like Meshtag[1] was built for exactly this. The trick is that the symbol doesn't encode the link the way a QR code does -- it just references one on their server, so the drawing can be loose and imperfect and still resolve. The flipside is of course that if Meshtag ever shuts down, every tag in the world goes dead.
Curious what the region restriction is about -- app store geo-blocking? That's a weird signal for something supposed to be infrastructure-like. If they're already restricting access geographically, the "server goes dark and every symbol dies" concern sssilver raised seems considerably more real.
Used Meshtag for a few event badges last year. Scan reliability was genuinely better than QR on wrinkled paper. But the server dependency bothered me enough that I kept a printed URL below each tag anyway. Basically admitted the whole thing was decorative at that point.
RMQR still requires knowing your payload size before you encode. All these variants share that constraint — you commit to dimensions upfront. It's a strange limitation that nobody seems bothered to solve for dynamic or streaming content.
I used something like this on a large sheet and cut it into pieces for a puzzle gift to a website where people left comments. Nowadays even easier to generate nice temporary websites for such things.
I’m picturing an acrylic version of it, or even some other fancier material.
The starter kit: a 21×21 board, with three 8×8 finder patterns, two 1×5 timing patterns, and 120 white and 119 black modules.
The Version 2 expansion pack includes a 25×25 board, two 1×4 timing patterns, one 5×5 alignment pattern, 76 white modules and 75 black modules.
And so on.
(I dunno about the desired ratio of individual black and white modules. I gather the general idea is to balance black and white, but does that include or exclude the fixed parts, where black is somewhat more common? Finder pattern is 33∶31 black∶white, alignment pattern is 17∶8, 1×5 timing pattern is 3∶2, 1×4 timing pattern is 2∶2.)
I saw similar engraved and then inked onto wooden boards at a restaurant, sadly, despite the error handling, 3 out of 4 I tried were not scannable, the 1 I did manage to scan to me to a reviews site for the restaurant (where a lot of reviews said they struggled to make the QR work - likely not the feedback the restaurant wanted)! I guess it kept me entertained whilst waiting for the bill.
There was a tweet a while back where I guy was riding a train in China and took a photo of the QR code for his seat. He mentioned that you can use the QR code to order food and drinks delivered directly to you.
About 5 minutes later there was another tweet from him where:
- someone saw the original tweet (Guy 2)
- scanned the QR code
- ordered the OP a drink
- added a note to the order saying it was from Guy 2
yea - as nice as they can look, many scanners expect very high contrast and a clear, unbroken bright border around the whole thing (many stylized ones I see lack a border). lacking either will mean many failures.
> Note that a lovely reader informed me shortly after publication that indeed I can include my full domain name in a version 1 QR code by using all capital letters instead of lowercase. TIL that the "alphanumeric" character set for QR codes actually contains symbols for URLs like : and /.
This is a nice trick worth remembering. I have used it myself in the past. Handy not just for creating ultra small QR codes, but also for getting as much data as possible into the limits of the largest QR codes.
That’s fun. I also love QR codes so I created https://qr-mailbox.com it gives u a we based inbox which just a unique string that lets you receive messages. I thought since Covid qrs have become a thing and ppl know how to scan and message
Anyone else scan their random junk that has QR codes to see where it goes? I've found a fair number of stuff has codes that do nothing. Bought an extra garage door opener remote, qr code on it does nothing. Got some SwitchBot gear, qr codes do absolutely nothing.
No. They were invented for whatever reason and then the ability to be a link a phone can scan became their primary function when everyone on Earth started carrying phones.
Pokemon cards have QR codes - every kid scans them, do you think they think whatever you do?
I had a startup in 2012 that extensively used QR codes to make a game kinda like Pokémon Go and various "Scan to Win" games (I had in 3 bars and were scanned 50k times in their 1st month in a town of 12k people) I over invested in the local area and I ultimately failed bc of a handful of Boomers that literally believed smartphones were a "fad" and convinced several organizations to spend their marketing budgets on literally the newspaper and convinced several organizations to back pedal their investment and cancel deals already made.
This post and all these comments proves most people still have no idea what a QR code actually is - none should ever be made that can't be changed at will later 1st off - they should also all be AR codes - bc a smartphone just needs to look at them with the camera open and you can have any graphic you start want start playing as they look at it without needing to scan.
They are the easiest link in reality to the digital world - nothing has come of them bc people severely lack imagination.
I work in hardware manufacturing. Our PCBs have QR codes both on the silkscreen and on stickers, but they don't encode websites. Rather, they are part numbers and serial/lot numbers for traceability and to assist manufacturing/inventory. Unless you know our (and our upstream manufacturers') specific patterns, they'll be irrelevant to you.
I used to in the mid 2000s but they kinda lost their magic for me at some point. They briefly regained the magic when I realized I could encode arbitrary text and make my own, but then I had so much trouble scanning the giant QR code I made (from printer paper) that the magic was gone again.
Then again, writing the url by hand and using OCR built into the camera app would probably be more practical and user friendly for everyone involved. Although for sure not as fun.
I found this page very helpful in understanding each step of the QR code creation process. I can't say I recall it all but it would be possible to turn this into a small booklet, I guess.
The Dan Hollick piece is genuinely the clearest walkthrough I've seen -- the way it separates error correction from the encoding steps makes the Reed-Solomon part finally click. As far as I know there's no shorter path to understanding it; the ISO spec is rough going.
Hand-drawn QR codes are charming until someone's phone camera can't parse it at 3am and you're getting paged because the warehouse crew can't scan inventory tags.
