Reblog

Here I have a neat feature for you: you probably have noticed the dotted icon on the right side of this page. This is a two-dimensional bar code called QR image that mobile phones can read and process.
QR images are very popular in Japan and gain more and more traction in the rest of the world. Some phones are already equipped with QR readers, for lots of other phones companies such as i-nigma provider readers free of charge.

Using QR images is pretty simple

1. point your mobile phone camera to the icon.
2. the QR reader decodes the information stored on the icon.
3. usually the reader then lets the user decide how to proceed. Most QR images contain a URL and with that the reader enables the user to visit the website referred in the icon without the user ever entering the site’s URL.

Pretty cool that is, especially for phones that do not have a qwerty keyboard.

You can create your own icons using a simple web service that is available here. Just change the text in the URL from ‘my first icon’ to whatever text you like and hit reload. Voila, there is your own QR image.
Feel free to use the generated icons on your website or even use the webservice dynamically to create any icon that you need.

As I mentioned above a QR image may also contain a URL that enables the user to visit a website. Common websites display poorly on mobile phones due to severe phone limitations. Any URL that you specify in your request will be rewritten to use a service that specializes on rendering websites for mobile phones. With that you can be sure that the web site will display properly on the user’s phone.

See also:

• QR code page on Wikipedia