QR Code in shopping cart handle
mathematica.stackexchange.com
mathematica.stackexchange.com
I for sure know there are times when marketing has a clear thing of what they want, and you are not allowed to brainstorm the pro's and con's; but the con's seem to far outweigh the pro's in this specific strategy.
You're telling me that the shopper would have to contort their phone an unnaturally specific angle just to scan a QR code. Now the problem statement is back to the marketing team of "How do I tell the shopper to contort their phone at this angle?". I doubt that the marketing folks will like this being back on their lap.
The question is what happens here. The theory behind it is pretty easy and the good thing is, it explains what you have to do from any (meaningful) viewpoint. Let's use a simple cylinder graphic as example to explain what I mean
I'm pretty sure his example is at a contorted sideways angle because it demonstrates that you can line it up from any angle. The OP in the question could reasonably expect that the customer will be facing the handle from directly behind it when they push the trolley, and adjust his maths accordingly.
This will result in the same thing I initially mentioned in that marketing will have to communicate to the shopper that they can use this just like a normal QR code, which is a communication problem, not a tech problem.
www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen
>This tale with its message of simplicity and thrift--not to mention a failure of common sense in a bureaucracy--floats around the Internet, hopping from in-box to in-box, and even surfaced during a 2002 episode of the West Wing. But, alas, it is just a myth.
And anyway (also covered in both the article and Snopes):
>Pencils may not have been the best choice anyway. The tips flaked and broke off, drifting in microgravity where they could potentially harm an astronaut or equipment.
And the article ends back at square 1, with a new, cheaper space pen which the Soviets also purchased because pencils are problematic in space:
>According to an Associated Press report from February 1968, NASA ordered 400 of Fisher's antigravity ballpoint pens for the Apollo program. A year later, the Soviet Union ordered 100 pens and 1,000 ink cartridges to use on their Soyuz space missions, said the United Press International. The AP later noted that both NASA and the Soviet space agency received the same 40 percent discount for buying their pens in bulk. They both paid $2.39 per pen instead of $3.98.
To me I see them everywhere, but curiously most phones don't have them built into their camera apps (iPhone's camera doesn't have built in scanner) or have some quick an easy way to scan QR codes.
Rather you have to download an app and then later find that app, then fidget a bit too much to get the app to read the code.
Not the greatest user experience and I have found it frustrating!
What advances have been made and or are being made to make QR code scanning quick and painless?
But on a more serious note google now/the camera search in android has QR code support integrated and you don't necessarily have to install additional applications.
I wish people would just let it die.
2D barcodes are really useful for things like that (and part identification in manufacturing, etc.), but pretty silly on advertising.
I was in a meeting where a marketing group wanted to implement it all over the place. I shut it down by going around the office and asking if anyone in the office even a) knew what it was, and b) had ever used it. About 1/4 had heard about it, but nobody had a clear understanding of how to use it or had ever actually scanned one.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi...
I'm not sure about the experience on other platforms, but that particular app scans so well and easily, it'll often grab the code before you even really begin to purposefully line up the camera. Scanning the little guys has become second nature to me, at least. It is only a pity they aren't used in more novel ways, because seriously, we can do better than having one right next to a 10-character URL that I could type just as easily.
Also, I recall seeing them displayed and used far more often on my last trip to Japan. I'm guessing that many of the phones there must have the scanner installed by default, or the hands-off, self-serve approach is somehow appealing to the 倭-way.
The biggest problem I have with them is that they are a machine code representation of data, usually a URL, but almost nobody ever prints the human representation of that data. Makes as much sense as printing traditional UPC codes on the media. If marketers would place the short URL that the code points to, people might understand that that's where the code will take them, and they also then have the option of opening their browser and entering it by hand.
I still think that's unlikely to happen, of course, given how poorly marketers engage people, but at least it's no longer just machine code.
But of course I wouldn't generally bother to use it on advertising.
How come HN allowed a duplicate link?
some people are experts
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5008285
Someone posted the "print" version and got 333 points for it a couple hours later.
However the inside of the back of the cart is flat and in 100% visual range.
The QR-Code is meant to be easy to decode, adding compensation for non-planar surfaces might make it non-trivial to implement on embedded devices.
Awesome discussion, though!
For this particular problem, attaching a QR code to a flat surface (if possible), or using "old fashioned" 1D barcodes (they probably carry enough information) is probably a better solution.
The general problem is designing a high density, 2D barcode system that can cope with perspective shifting with a cylindrical topology ; now that would be a neat mathematical trick!
sometimes the internet is full of cat gifs, and other times you get great minds in a sharing mood. This is what hn used to be when I started reading it.
I wonder if there is a "best of" search you can do.
http://serverfault.com/questions/greatest-hits
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/greatest-hits
http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/greatest-hits
http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/greatest-hits
There's of course an "is:answer" search sorted by votes for each site as well:
http://serverfault.com/search?tab=votes&q=is%3aanswer
http://stackoverflow.com/search?tab=votes&q=is%3aanswer