Category: QR Codes

Photobombs made from the black and white square barcodes could cause problems for device wearers.

Google Glass owners may want to be careful where they aim their new headsets, as researchers have now discovered that scanning the wrong QR codes could result in the corruption of the device.

The research firm said that they were capable of developing their own attack of this nature.

Lookout Mobile security firm researchers claim to have been able to come up with an attack as of last spring that could compromise Google Glass through the use of QR codes. This functioned extremely simply when the user scanned a malicious barcode.

The vast majority of QR codes are used simply to provide device users with a fast way to link to a website.

However, in this case, the seemingly innocent QR codes caused the device to be hacked. According to the researchers who developed the malicious attack to take advantage of the bug, they have already come up with a fix for the issue. This is important because according to what was reported to Google, the attack could crash the device or force it to connect to a rogue Wi-Fi hotspot that could eliminate the encryption of the communications of the device. It could also send it directly to a malicious website that would allow full control of the device to be handed over to the attacker.

According to Marc Rogers, one of the researchers at Lookout, “Google has set up the device so that Glass scans every photo you take for something interesting.” He added that “While that’s exciting, the fact that Glass can parse photographs opened up a vulnerability. By understanding and reverse engineering the QR codes, we were able to create malicious ones that would silently reconfigure the device.

Rogers went on to describe a situation in which a person could wear a t-shirt that features QR codes that have been maliciously crafted. The result to a passing user of Google Glass is that he or she could be “photobombed”, and the owner of the barcode could attack the device. Similar situations include printed stickers of the barcodes that are placed overtop of innocent ones on billboards and other ads.

The latest “smart diaper” product provides parents with a color coded system to detect urinary tract infections.

A new form of diaper that uses scannable QR codes has just been invented by an American husband and wife team that will help other parents to be able to detect potentially developing urinary issues before they become problematic.

Though the product is only in its prototype phase now, it has the potential to be very helpful to concerned parents.

The design of the diaper includes strips that come in contact with the absorbent area and that change color when they are wet. These strips are located around QR codes that can then be scanned by the parents of the child.

When the QR codes are scanned the associated app snaps an image of the color of the strips.

The app then proceeds to perform an analysis of the color of the strips so that the parent can tell whether or not a urinary infection may be present. The reason that these QR codes can be very helpful to parents is that urinary tract infections (UTIs) impact approximately 8 percent of all babies. They are a particular concern among girls.

Without tools such as the QR codes on the color coded diapers, it can be very difficult for parents to detect the infections until they have fully developed and begin presenting very unpleasant symptoms such as fever and irritability.

With the smart diaper, parents are armed with a form of early warning system that can let them know if an infection could be coming on, even before any other symptoms have appeared. All that is required is that QR codes be scanned once per day or so. The app not only scans the color of the strips on the diaper, but it also stores the data so that medical professionals can examine it during checkups or if a problem has been detected. This can help doctors to recognize potential dehydration or kidney dysfunction.

Though the response to these QR codes on diapers has been very positive, Netmums, a U.K. based parenting advice website has cautioned parents not to forget to use common sense just because they have a new technology tool.