They are also very easy to generate as there are great libraries out there to use to plunk them down in your application, or you can use google charts without doing much of anything. For example the below link will generate a QR code from google charts. Change the last part of the URL to encode anything (well anything short) you want.
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=150x150&cht=qr&chl=www.brookstevens.org
or embed it as an image if you want to generate them dynamically:
<img src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=150x150&cht=qr&chl=www.brookstevens.org" />
With a result (go ahead and try and scan it right on the screen if you have QR reader on your phone. I use QR Droid):
QR codes application really comes down to the ability to get data into a smart phone quickly and accurately. They are of course all over advertising, as a sample I opened a wired magazine from 8 months ago and a more recent one, there were 4 QR codes in the old one, and 30 in the new one. We are starting to see them used in other ways as well.
For example:
- You want to take a verify that someone shows up somewhere generate a QR code with a unique code and make the user scan it and open up a web address to update your server.
- You want to have some data entry done against a set of stocking levels.
- Tracking "things". This is how they started but they are starting to be used to track stuff outside of environments using specialized equipment.
- You want to run a scavenger hunt with a bunch of clues all printed and hidden on QR codes. Ok not the best business case here but it could be fun.