Those distinctive black and white squares are everywhere now: restaurant tables, product packaging, business cards, advertisements, even gravestones. Point your phone at a QR code, and it takes you to a website, displays information, or initiates a payment. This simple interaction has become so common that it's hard to remember when we didn't have it.
But QR codes had a long journey to ubiquity. Invented in 1994, they spent decades as an obscure industrial technology. Then smartphones gave everyone a scanner in their pocket, and a global pandemic made touchless interactions suddenly essential. The QR code's moment had finally arrived.
Understanding why QR codes exist reveals a story about patience, free licensing, and how the right technology can wait decades for its moment.
The Problem This Was Meant to Solve
In the early 1990s, Toyota's manufacturing plants had a problem. They used barcodes to track car parts through the factory, but traditional barcodes had severe limitations. A standard barcode holds only about 20 characters of information—enough for a product ID, but not much else. Factory workers had to scan multiple barcodes to get all the information they needed about a part.
Barcodes also have to be scanned straight-on at a specific distance. In a busy factory, workers couldn't always position their scanners perfectly. Failed scans meant delays, and delays meant inefficiency. Toyota needed something better: a code that could hold more information, scan quickly from any angle, and work even when partially damaged.
The request went to Denso Wave, a Toyota subsidiary that made automatic identification products. A team led by engineer Masahiro Hara took on the challenge. They needed to rethink the barcode from scratch—not just improve it, but replace it with something fundamentally more capable.
How It Actually Came to Exist
Hara's team studied everything about barcode scanning. They analyzed why scans failed, what slowed readers down, and how information could be packed more densely. Traditional barcodes encode data in one dimension—the varying widths of lines. What if you could encode data in two dimensions—both horizontally and vertically?
Two-dimensional codes existed, but they were slow to read because scanners couldn't quickly find where the code started. Hara needed a distinctive pattern that would stand out from any background and tell the scanner exactly how to orient itself. He found inspiration in an unlikely place: the game of Go.
Go boards have a distinctive grid pattern that's easy to recognize. Hara designed positioning patterns—those large squares in three corners of every QR code—that would be instantly recognizable and couldn't be confused with any common patterns in nature or manufactured goods. No matter how the code was rotated or what surrounded it, a scanner could immediately find these landmarks and orient itself.
The team released the QR code specification in 1994. "QR" stands for "Quick Response," reflecting the speed advantage over traditional barcodes. A QR code can be scanned in about a tenth the time of a barcode, can hold thousands of characters instead of dozens, and can be read even when up to 30% of the code is damaged or obscured.
Then Denso Wave made a decision that would prove crucial: they released the patent for free. Anyone could create or read QR codes without paying licensing fees. This open approach meant manufacturers, software developers, and anyone else could adopt the technology without financial barriers. Toyota's factory solution became available to the world.
Why It Still Exists Today
For years after their invention, QR codes were primarily an industrial and Asian phenomenon. Japanese companies used them widely, but Western consumers rarely encountered them. Various marketing campaigns in the 2000s tried to popularize QR codes, but they required dedicated scanner apps, and the experience was clunky. The technology existed, but the infrastructure wasn't ready.
Two developments changed everything. First, smartphone cameras became good enough to scan QR codes easily, and major mobile operating systems built QR scanning directly into their camera apps. No more downloading special software—just point your phone at a code. The friction that had blocked adoption disappeared.
Second, the COVID-19 pandemic created urgent demand for touchless interactions. Restaurants replaced physical menus with QR codes. Vaccine verification systems used QR codes. Payment systems already popular in Asia expanded westward. Suddenly, everyone needed to scan QR codes, and everyone had smartphones that could do it. Years of gradual adoption compressed into months of explosive growth.
QR codes succeeded where other two-dimensional codes failed largely because of that free licensing decision. When Apple or Google decided to build QR scanning into their phones, they didn't need to negotiate licenses. When a restaurant wants to create a menu QR code, they can use any number of free generators. The openness that Denso Wave chose created an ecosystem that proprietary alternatives couldn't match.
What People Misunderstand About It
The biggest misconception is that QR codes are new. They're older than Google, older than widespread consumer internet, older than most people realize. What's new is the infrastructure that makes them useful: ubiquitous smartphones, built-in camera scanning, and social acceptance of the interaction. The technology waited nearly three decades for its moment.
Many people worry that QR codes are inherently unsafe. While it's true that a QR code can link to malicious websites, this isn't a flaw in QR codes themselves—it's the same risk as clicking any unknown link. The QR code is just a way to transmit information; what you do with that information determines the safety. Most phone cameras show the URL before opening it, allowing you to verify the destination.
Another misconception is that QR codes are ugly and should be hidden or minimized. Designers have actually found creative ways to incorporate QR codes into visual designs, adding colors, logos, and artistic elements. The error correction that Hara built in—that ability to read damaged codes—means portions of the code can be replaced with images without breaking functionality.
Perhaps most interesting is the assumption that QR codes will eventually be replaced by something better. They might be, but their free licensing and widespread adoption create powerful network effects. Every smartphone can scan them, every printer can produce them, and everyone knows how to use them. Technologies don't get replaced just because something newer exists—they get replaced when something newer provides enough additional value to overcome switching costs. For now, QR codes are good enough, universal enough, and free enough to remain the default choice for encoding information in a scannable square.