The History of QR Codes
QR codes are everywhere today, but their origin story begins in an unexpected place: automotive manufacturing.
Birth at Denso Wave (1994)
QR codes were invented by Masahiro Hara and his team at Denso Wave, a Toyota subsidiary, in 1994. The goal was to track vehicle parts during manufacturing.
Why Barcodes Weren't Enough
Traditional barcodes had limitations:
- Only held ~20 characters
- Required precise alignment to scan
- Couldn't handle Japanese characters (Kanji)
The QR Solution
QR (Quick Response) codes solved these problems:
- Store up to 7,089 numeric characters
- Can be read from any angle
- Support multiple character sets
- Include error correction
Key Milestones
| 1994 | QR code invented by Denso Wave |
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| 1997 | AIM International standard approved |
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| 2000 | ISO standard (ISO/IEC 18004) published |
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| 2002 | Camera phones with QR readers launch in Japan |
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| 2010 | Smartphone adoption drives global awareness |
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| 2017 | iOS adds native QR scanner to Camera app |
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| 2020 | COVID-19 accelerates contactless QR adoption |
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Open Standard Decision
Denso Wave made a crucial decision: they held the patent but made the technology freely available. This open approach enabled global adoption.
Modern Ubiquity
Today QR codes are used for:
- Mobile payments (WeChat Pay, Alipay)
- Restaurant menus
- Product information
- Authentication (2FA)
- COVID vaccination records
- Event tickets
- WiFi sharing