You may have seen QR codes before. These codes are everywhere from websites to advertisements. They look a bit like barcodes, but they're square templates instead of vertical stripes. QR codes have become more familiar as the number of businesses using them has increased, and many smartphones now have built-in QR code readers. But what exactly are these so-called QR codes and how do they work? Here you can find everything you need to know.

While QR codes may seem simple, they can actually store a lot of data. However, no matter how much data QR codes contain, they provide users with instant access to information when scanned; that's why they are called quick response codes. Normal barcodes can only be read in one direction: top to bottom. However, barcodes can only store a small amount of information, usually in alphanumeric form.

However, QR codes can be read in both directions, top-down and right-to-left. In this way, the QR code can store more data. The QR code development team designed the QR code to be easily scanned so that the operator does not waste time scanning the code from the right angle, and they wanted it to have a unique design for easy identification. This caused them to choose the famous QR code that is still used today.

It took more than a year to develop the first QR code. The code can contain up to 7,000 numeric and Chinese characters and can be read ten times faster than regular barcodes. As soon as QR codes were released, they were quickly adopted by the automotive industry. This was particularly important at the time, as many consumers in Japan demanded greater transparency from large organizations. Consumers want to know exactly where it comes from, not just in cars, but also in food, medical and other products. For this reason, QR codes are slowly starting to become a part of the manufacturing industry.

Denso Wave shared these systems with the world and said that it would not patent QR codes. This means that even today anyone can create and use their own QR codes. Initially, however, the idea was slow to adopt. While creating a QR code is easy, not everyone has access to a QR reader. Until.. In 2002, the first mobile phone with a built-in QR code reader was launched in Japan. While this development led to an increase in the number of companies using QR codes, the first QR codes that consumers could use began to appear.

At the same time, technology is constantly evolving. Micro QR codes were created in 2004 and iQR codes with rectangular modules were introduced in 2008. Also, the first iPhone was released during this period and the QR code reader attracted many consumers around the world. Realizing the potential of QR codes in sales and marketing, brands and organizations started to create their own codes.

The templates within QR codes represent binary codes that decipher these codes, revealing the data within the codes. QR code readers can recognize standard QR codes based on the three large squares outside the QR code. Once the reader detects these three shapes, he realizes that everything inside the square is a QR code. The QR code is then analyzed by the QR reader and the entire code is reduced to a grid. The reader looks at each square in the grid and assigns a value to each square depending on whether the square is black or white. It then groups the squares in a grid to create larger templates.