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When QR codes first came out I thought it was really cool. But then re-entering meatspace after the pandemic I was honestly saddened to see so many in-person ve
by em3rgent0rdr 2y ago
When QR codes first came out I thought it was really cool. But then re-entering meatspace after the pandemic I was honestly saddened to see so many in-person venues start using QR codes. QR codes are machine-readable, but they sure aren't human-readable, but why can't we have both? For instance, plain text using a low-pixel font with a dotted line underneath for error-correction and alignment.
- bitwize 2y agoOr maybe OCR-A? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCR-A https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCR-A
- lynnharry 2y agoThat's basically converting a QR scanner into a text detector. It might work but why do they need to be human-readable? Most part of the encoded string would be UUID that's useless for human eyes anyway. After scanning, the important info will also usually show on the phone screen.
- em3rgent0rdr 2y agoI want it human readable so I'm not presented with QR codes when I'm in meatspace. I'd rather see a pixel-font that say MENU://JOES-CHICKEN when I want to look up the menu at my local chicken restaurant than look at a QR.
- em3rgent0rdr 2y agoIf part of the data is just a random number like a UUID that is meaningless to a human, well that number could simply be placed after the pixel-font text or as a rectangle outline...if using a 3x5 pixel font then that gives 4x5=20 bits per character cell, so a 128-bit UUID with 12 bits of overhead could fit within the space of 7 characters...fine...but at least put the parts of the info that the human can relate to (like that this a MENU for RESTAURANT) as pixel text so both the human and machine are happy.
- nayuki 2y agoAgreed. I like how most 1D barcodes have human-readable numbers/text printed under the barcode. For example, think of UPC barcodes on retail products. Not many 2D barcodes respect this convention.
- DocTomoe 2y agoThis is directly caused by UPC codes being numerical and short, while 2D barcode have significantly higher, and often ASCII-space, data density in which human readability does not bring much of an advantage.
- dylan604 2y agoWhat does 1D barcode mean? I can think of no bar that can be represented in 1D.
- krapp 2y agoA normal UPC barcode, as the parent said. The data is read along the horizontal dimension. The only reason the lines extend in the vertical direction is to make them easier to scan.
- tredre3 2y agoYou're taking it too literally. 1D is the industry term for such code, to mean that data is encoded in one direction/dimension. Getting hung up on the fact that the printed code needs some height to work isn't productive to the conversation.
- dylan604 2y agoi'm not hung up on it nor trying to be unproductive. i asked a simple question and then get chastised for it. that's not productive at all. In fact, someone much posted a much more productive response much earlier than you did, so you very much added nothing to the conversation
- guappa 2y agoIf a restaurant has no way to allow customers to not use their phone I normally just leave.
- laurencerowe 2y agoI find that surprising because in my experience QR code ordering systems are almost always worse than paper menus and ordering at the bar.
- rkagerer 2y agoThe comment you replied to was in agreement with you. They're saying they don't want to be forced to order via a QR code.
- laurencerowe 2y agoThank you for pointing this out! I think I missed a double negative.
- johnisgood 2y agoYes, if I cannot eat without pulling out my phone, then no thanks, I will leave my money elsewhere (which is what parent said).
- amelius 2y agoWaiting for Apple watch to have a camera. And __not__ this one: https://wristcam.com https://wristcam.com
- brookst 2y agoSeems unlikely. They day I can’t wear my watch in the changing room is the day I stop wearing it to the gym, and therefore stop wearing it altogether, and therefore stop buying new ones every 5ish years.
- 2y ago
- achairapart 2y agoYes, I'd love to see menus printed in OCR-A[0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCR-A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCR-A
- em3rgent0rdr 2y agoOCR-A looks cool, but my above post isn't saying I want the menus in a machine-readable font, but rather I want the human-relevant parts of the lookup to be both human-readable and machine-readable.
- fragmede 2y agoI'm not sure I see the distinction. if the human readable part is machine readable, there's no need for a separate machine only readable region. I'm on iOS and selecting text from images is assumed by this point. I'm not sure SOTA on Android for that though.
- em3rgent0rdr 2y ago"if the human readable part is machine readable, there's no need for a separate machine only readable region" So why are physical venues in 2025 presenting me with QR codes? If there is some randomish number (like another commented pointed out QRs may have a UUID number) or a checksum, then encode those randomish bits as a dotted rectangular outline or a line underneath, so a big QR doesn't ruin my human experience.
- fragmede 2y agoI have no idea which restaurants your frequent but take it up with them, not me. having a url written out http://restaurantname.com/menu http://restaurantname.com/menu on a sign that you can take a picture of and click on is functionally the same as a having a qr code that links to the exact same url
- em3rgent0rdr 2y ago
- CamouflagedKiwi 2y ago100%, I remember this being a big pain during the period where places were open but you had to order from the table. If your phone didn't want to scan the code you were kind of stuck - and to make it worse some of them _deliberately_ degraded the code to add a cutesy logo or whatever.
- PaulHoule 2y agoI've seen QR codes to join a discord that have text under them that looks like discord.gg/{... a few random characters ...} which are just fine to scan or type in. My own 'discovery' about QR codes a few years is that you can make them "module 2" sized that ought to be easy to read with a low-spec system and have astronomical capacity if you use uppercase characters, a reasonably short domain and identifiers similar to random UUIDs. These were part of the system of "three-sided cards" https://mastodon.social/@UP8/111013706271196029 https://mastodon.social/@UP8/111013706271196029 but new-style cards put the QR code in front because (1) I have a huge amount of glossy paper that I can't print on the back of, (2) you can't read the QR code on the back if the card is stuck to the wall with mounting putting, (3) three-sided cards struggled with branding in that people didn't really understand the affordances they offered, a problem that the new-style cards attack in various ways. https://mastodon.social/@UP8/113541119391897096 https://mastodon.social/@UP8/113541119391897096 (Note the QR codes on both of those cards do not point at safebooru but at a redirect that I control that fits my QRL specification) Personally I don't think any QR code for the web should ever require more than a "module 2" QR code and that printing a QR code which requires extra alignment markers is a sign of failure. (e.g. sure you can make a QR-code with 2000 bytes of form data embedded in it, but should you? Random UUIDs are so numerous and redirects so cheap that every new-style card like that Yakumo Ran card has a unique id because with inkjet printing it doesn't cost anything more)
- patrikr 2y agoThere is no "after the pandemic" (yet). The pandemic is still ongoing. (Source: WHO)
- pseudosavant 2y agoWhenever people are suggesting adding a QR somewhere (ad, in-app, etc) I always advocate for showing the short URL too. But about half the time they insist that "everyone knows how to scan a QR code". They clearly haven't tried to ask a few people to scan a QR code to see how easily most people do it.