QR codes come to us from Japan where they are very common. QR is short for Quick Response (because they can be read quickly by a mobile phone). They are kind of like a supercharged barcode, holding far more information, and can be used to take a piece of information from a transitory media and put it in to your cell phone. You have probably already started noticing QR Codes in magazine adverts, billboards, on web page, for example ours ;-), or even on somebody’s t-shirt. Once you have scanned it into your mobile/cell phone, it will give you details about that website/business, or details about the person wearing the t-shirt etc, show you a URL which you can click to see a trailer for a movie, or it may give you a coupon which you can use in a local outlet. It is very easy to use and is predicted to get more and more popular over the coming years.

There are lots of QR readers for smartphones as you will see if you type in QR reader on the appstore for your device. For example for the iphone there is an app called QR reader for iphone.