It records where brushes are placed. Which allows for labeling of dataset in great detail. Which might lead to better tool in the future that is more automated.
This is a continuation of an effort to collect a data set of broken QR codes and provide a way to fix broken QR codes. All the QR codes that are uploaded get saved and go into a data set that may eventually be published.
Depends on the situation. It also depends on how sentimental a person is for their data or information needed in a given situation.
If a cat shows up on your doorstep and now you got to figure out who owns the cat because you become concerned about it over time, what do you do if you can't scan the QR code on its collar?
Of course it depends on the situation. Almost everything "depends on the situation".
The point is that in general, QR code content is less important than hard drive content. And that (the low demand) is the simple explanation to why there aren't as many tools for recovery.
It would probably be nifty for pet owners if, instead of putting a QR code on something that is known to wear, we came up with something a bit more resilient. Maybe something that could be permanently affixed to the pet in some way. Perhaps even under the skin. And it could even be powered by the device that reads it.
I'm less interested in the theory and am more interested in the practice. I own a printed copy of the 2015 version of the spec, but don't find the insights I get from it have much to do with its ability to scan as compared to taking my phone out and scanning a QR code does.
In practice, I mostly I find that the corners are the most finicky part. However, that is just my current opinion.
I think if the corners really are more sensitive, it’s because the reader can’t find the QR code and it’s orientation, not because the data is not recoverable. If you would manually enter the pixels into a decoder, the corners shouldn’t be more sensitive than other spaces of the code, I think.
A software tool should exist to repair QR codes. People could really benefit from it because QR codes are used everywhere.
I'd like to find a way to repair QR codes through software. However, that begins with collecting a bunch of broken and corrupted QR codes people stumble across and fixing them up by hand. This will help spot patterns in how they fail. So please help out by submitting your QR code that doesn't scan. Please don't create QR codes that don't scan just to submit them. Thank you! In the past I have fixed one QR code by hand and it is shown at the link.
> A software tool should exist to repair QR codes.
Seems that the solution is to add more redundancy (and stop covering the center pixels with an icon). The codes are designed to be self-correcting if the damage is slight enough or more redundancy is added.
The problem isn't that it can't find the center, it's that you reduce redundancy by replacing those pixels with the icon. It can find the center fine and still be unable to scan because there isn't enough information there.
but also because the link used has a bunch of tracking clumsily added, which further complicates scanning the thing. Compare the visual complexity of the QR code for HTTP://INSTAGRAM.COM/USERNAME (all caps is important*) vs the cutesy one the app generates.
I wanted to lampshade the caps part, but more explicitly, the QR code's Instagram link to my profile has igsh=xxxxxxxxxxxxx%3D%3D&utm_source=qr appened to it, where the X's are some tracking id. that tracking id that instafram app forces on people makes the qr code much more complicated (= smaller dots on a bigger qr code) which scans just fine on a iPhone 16 that instagram devs use, but that an 8 year old $50 Android phone isn't going to like as much.
The bulk of the QR code is about specifying, quite exhaustively, multiple means of error prevention, detection , and correction.
I guess some applications don’t use these features effectively, but compliant QR codes are really quite hard to corrupt.
> People could really benefit from it because QR codes are used everywhere.
I hear you, and at the same time we're solving the wrong end of that pipeline, in my opinion. Almost every QR code I have ever seen in my life either points to bit.ly or some other link-shortener or marketing tracker domain which I would put good money will be dead way before the QR code's ink deteriorates
I don't mean that QR is a terrible standard, but at least until we can get URL forms that are on the whole less than 128 characters, I wish they had met the world where it is. I believe the http2 compression scheme comes with dedicated dictionary slots for header strings that they know are going to appear, so QR would have benefited from the same (e.g. http/https taking less than 4/5 bytes, :// less than 3)
Then again, having thought further about this, I guess Marketing's Razor is the most likely explanation: it wasn't a technical reason they're using bit.ly, it's for those sweet engagement metrics
I imagine that a really useful piece of information is where the QR code was spotted. So that means treating the photo of the QR code and its exif data as part of the puzzle. No doubt some URLs are more common in some parts of the world than others in a kind of ode to geoguessing games.
