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Comment by guynamedloren | Hacker News Reader

First legitimately useful execution of QR codes I've seen. In 2 years of Android ownership, not once have I been compelled enough to scan a QR code to learn more about something.

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This made me laugh the first time I saw it: http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/

Over lunch yesterday a graphic designer friend was trying to convince me to include a QR code on my business cards. We ran through the many steps required to scan a QR code... and end of conversation. It is a very limited technology.

QR codes on name badges at conferences may be useful. But then some kind of augmented reality splotch would be better. You point a smart phone at the splotch and up pops information about the person - name, company, specialities, etc.

I'm imagining QR codes will really come into their own when the Google Goggles (and later competitors) make augmented reality default to on. Then QR codes will probably just always have a little hypermedia description-augment floating about in space in front of them, and you just have to focus on it to "go" there. I feel science-fiction-y just thinking about it.

I think those glasses will be able to decipher text directly.

I think those glasses will be able to recognise faces directly. Great for avoiding those "Hello Mrs, er, yeah so How are you anyway?" moments.

I think augmented reality hardware of the future (and smartphones too) will quickly replace QR codes with Near Field Communication.

This assumes everything is capable of being powered. QR codes can be printed on paper, chiseled into stone, engraved into metal; NFC hardware, for the most part, can't. (And even where it can, it won't last nearly as long as the equivalent code. Passive technology usually greatly outlasts active.) There will indeed be a great amount of NFC- and RFID-triggered hypertext in the future, but there'll probably be just as much QR, serving complementary rather than competitive purposes.

Now run through getting your phone out, opening up the barcode scanning app and pointing it at a badge on the chest of the person you're talking to.

I'd prefer to just shake hands and exchange cards. Even Bump▼ is a much better solution with it's problem of ensuring people have the app.

▼ http://bu.mp/

While your experience surely will always be true to you I know times it has been useful. For instance, at my job there is an app with the lunch menu, and the url to it is on a barcode on the door to the lunch room.

To have contact information on a qr on the back of a business card is a good idea, and I've seen local businesses with their website on barcodes outside their offices/stores.

Not something you use daily, but still a good way to tranfer information from the analogue world to the digital.

It's a nice initiative and certainly an alternative to sticking up an outdated poster everywhere. However I don't quite understand the benefit of a qr code versus just googling or looking directly on wiki.

I remember seeing a massive qr code on the side off a double Decker bus. Can codes that big be scanned?

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