I got a thing in the mail about using USPS (post office) to ship holiday gifts. It says to scan your QR code at home to speed up shipping. I know
that a smartphone with an app can do this, using the phone's camera, but
how can someone using a computer do this? (Or maybe it's not
possible)....
I just take my stuff to the post office, but I always like to learn how
this technology stuff all works....
james@nospam.com wrote:
I got a thing in the mail about using USPS (post office) to ship holiday
gifts. It says to scan your QR code at home to speed up shipping. I know
that a smartphone with an app can do this, using the phone's camera, but
how can someone using a computer do this? (Or maybe it's not
possible)....
I just take my stuff to the post office, but I always like to learn
how
this technology stuff all works....
Well, without knowing the answer, I'd say your machine
needs "vision". Your desktop would at least need a webcam.
Or alternately, if you have a point&shoot digital camera,
you could take a picture of the offensive QR code, and
load that into your computer.
Then the next job, is getting a program to orient the
picture so it can be decoded, then convert it into
a URL for you.
https://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-scan-qr-code-on-your-pc
So for fun, I took the picture of a QR code from that sample
article (cropped it in GIMP so just the QR squares were
in the picture), and uploaded it here.
https://webqr.com/
And that site gave back a URL of "http://en.m.wikipedia.org".
That means you don't even need a resident Win32 program
on your PC. You can also upload the image of the QR to
a web site and the web site can decode it for you. And
out comes a URL. Or other textual info.
Paul
In message <ouqask$kco$1@dont-email.me>, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> writes:
james@nospam.com wrote:
I got a thing in the mail about using USPS (post office) to ship holiday >>> gifts. It says to scan your QR code at home to speed up shipping. I know >>> that a smartphone with an app can do this, using the phone's camera, but >>> how can someone using a computer do this? (Or maybe it's not
possible)....
I just take my stuff to the post office, but I always like to learn how >>> this technology stuff all works....
Me too. I'm puzzled: how are you supposed to get the QR code to scan
before you've handed the parcel over the counter?
Well, without knowing the answer, I'd say your machine
needs "vision". Your desktop would at least need a webcam.
Or alternately, if you have a point&shoot digital camera,
you could take a picture of the offensive QR code, and
load that into your computer.
Or a scanner of course.
Then the next job, is getting a program to orient the
picture so it can be decoded, then convert it into
a URL for you.
https://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-scan-qr-code-on-your-pc
So for fun, I took the picture of a QR code from that sample
article (cropped it in GIMP so just the QR squares were
in the picture), and uploaded it here.
https://webqr.com/
Thanks for that - looks like a useful site. (Asked if I wanted to
"share" my webcam! I closed the asking box this time, but presumably if
I'd said yes, I could have held something with a QR in front of it!)
In practice, are QR codes - at least on products, in magazine articles,
And that site gave back a URL of "http://en.m.wikipedia.org".
That means you don't even need a resident Win32 program
on your PC. You can also upload the image of the QR to
a web site and the web site can decode it for you. And
out comes a URL. Or other textual info.
Paul
and the like - used for anything _other_ than URLs? I ask because I'm
off and on looking for something that will interpret them for my blind friends (might well be an iPhone app.), but if all they normally contain
are URLs, I doubt they'd be that useful. (In that most things that have
them also have the URL printed nearby anyway, and OCR can do that for my friends anyway - and URLs probably aren't much use to them anyway, given
the poor design [for VH/VI folk] of most web pages.)
In practice, are QR codes - at least on products, in magazine articles,
and the like - used for anything _other_ than URLs? I ask because I'm
off and on looking for something that will interpret them for my blind
friends (might well be an iPhone app.), but if all they normally contain
are URLs, I doubt they'd be that useful. (In that most things that have
them also have the URL printed nearby anyway, and OCR can do that for my
friends anyway - and URLs probably aren't much use to them anyway, given
the poor design [for VH/VI folk] of most web pages.)
I always wonder how average people are supposed to know about this
stuff, unless they are tech savvy.
james@nospam.com wrote:
I always wonder how average people are supposed to know about this
stuff, unless they are tech savvy.
When there's no way for you to get service,
that's when you'll figure it out.
"What, you don't take cash ?!?"
That day is coming. And it's not that far off.
Paul
On Sat, 18 Nov 2017 21:03:51 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
In practice, are QR codes - at least on products, in magazine articles,
and the like - used for anything _other_ than URLs? I ask because I'm
off and on looking for something that will interpret them for my blind
friends (might well be an iPhone app.), but if all they normally contain >>> are URLs, I doubt they'd be that useful. (In that most things that have
them also have the URL printed nearby anyway, and OCR can do that for my >>> friends anyway - and URLs probably aren't much use to them anyway, given >>> the poor design [for VH/VI folk] of most web pages.)
I dont think they are all for URLs. I've seem them used at fast food >reataurants in place of coupons. Sometimes they are used as "price tags"
on items in stores (in place of UPC bars).
I have seen them at events,
for example if I am at the State Fair, if I have a smartphone, I can
scan one of them and my phone will give me the fair's schedule. (this
use probably is a URL). Another one I saw was a radio station contest
poster that said scan this QR code to enter the contest. They are
everywhere now. Magazines use them to (I guess) identify the name month
and year of the magazine.
I've even seen them on billboards now. I
suppose you're supposed to photograph the billboard... ???
One other thing I wonder about, wont they ever run out of codes? There
are only so many ways to modify those dots before they run out of
them... And considering how often they are being used, there has to be a >point in time when they simply run out....
I dont remember what website I saw this, but someone made a QR code that >looked like a horse's head in the middle, with the usual large corner >squares. I dont know if it would actually scan, or was just someone
being creative, but it made me wonder if they could be made as artwork >pertaining to their use. For example, can the radio station contest
make the QR code look like a radio, or can the fast food place make the
QR look like a hamburger, or their logo?
I recall when they first started using them QR codes (not too many years >ago), and I began seeing them everywhere and had no idea why they were >putting those funny looking boxes on stuff. Since I did not know what
they were called, I tried to google them, with no results, (since I did
not know what to search for). I finally used google/images and searched
for barcodes and found a QR code and then I was able to search for that.
I always wonder how average people are supposed to know about this
stuff, unless they are tech savvy.
I think the error-correcting in them does allow quite a lot to be
obscured by a logo or similar. Or do you mean they made it so the little >square dots made the horse?
being creative, but it made me wonder if they could be made as artwork >>pertaining to their use. For example, can the radio station contest
make the QR code look like a radio, or can the fast food place make the
QR look like a hamburger, or their logo?
I think you _do_ mean the actual dot pattern made the pictures!
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