QR code for camera phone decoding comes to UK

Permalink: QR code for camera phone decoding comes to UK

When the DVD of zombie-movie ‘28 Weeks Later’ is released in the UK next week, it will be accompanied by an innovative marketing widget - the QR code.

The QR code, which is already widely used in Japan but is new to the UK, will be contained in a square box on the film poster. It comprises black and white dots which contain details about the DVD and links to relevant material on the Internet.

QR codes, which can also contain information such as web addresses and phone numbers, can be decoded by a camera on a mobile phone, providing the correct software is installed. The information can then be stored on the phone.

The 28 Weeks Later DVD is currently being advertised in Shoreditch, London, with a giant poster which shows nothing but a QR code.

High-end phones such as the Nokia N93 come equipped with QR readers, but QR code-reading software is available to install on camera phones which do not have a reader already in place.

It is also possible to easily create QR codes to serve as hyperlinks to mobile content.

With nearly all new phones coming equipped with a camera, it seems that QR codes could soon be as prevalent in the UK as they are in Japan.