Category: QR Codes

QR codes test tattoo artist skills

| February 25, 2013

QR Codes test tattoo skillsA Turkish small business has used the barcodes to filter out applicants who aren’t accurate enough.

An upscale tattoo business in Istanbul has launched a hiring campaign that uses QR codes to help to test an individual’s accuracy, even before he or she is allowed to actually apply for the job.

The print ad barcodes were used as a unique and innovative strategy to stop sloppy artists from applying.

The typical application process for a tattoo artist would involve filling in the form, having an interview, and performing a test to make sure that he or she is adequately skilled. However, this can lead to a lengthy, uncomfortable, or even angry process as there are far more people who apply for the job than are actually up to the standards of the business. Some of this struggle has been overcome through the use of QR codes.

The tattoo artists who wanted to apply were required to fill out blank QR codes in the print advertisements.

The tattoo business, Berrge Tattoo, hired Istanbul based marketing agency, BÜRO, in order to help to create the smartphone friendly campaign. It integrated the use of a print ad, QR codes, and the innovative website to add an additional important step to its hiring process. The result was highly creative and completely unique.

The QR codes within the ad, itself, became a central part of the hiring process. There were blank barcodes printed in flesh color in the ad, which were required to be completed in order to make it possible to scan them with a smartphone using a scanner app. Scanning a properly completed barcode directed the individual to the application form for the position. However, if the task was not completed with enough accuracy, the code would not resolve and the individual would not be able to apply.

This use of the QR codes was very helpful in weeding out those applicants that paid the least attention to detail and accuracy, before the company was even required to receive their application forms or meet them for an interview. As the majority of scanners allow for a 30 percent margin of error, there was still some room to make mistakes, but those applicants would have the opportunity to prove themselves in their interviews and actual tests.

QR codes seen only under infrared light combat forgeries

| February 23, 2013

Invisible QR CodesA team in South Dakota have created invisible printing for security barcodes.

Stanley May, a professor at the University of South Dakota, and a team that includes Jon Kellar, from that institution’s School of Mines and Technology, have combined the use of an invisible ink and a special printing process in order to make invisible QR codes that can be used to identify counterfeit goods.

The barcodes can be seen only when they are viewed under an infrared light.

The research team from the college found a way to add QR codes that cannot be seen by the unassisted eye, to various types of surfaces including paper. This suggests that they could be added to items that are commonly forged, such as official documents, paper currency, and even designer products.

These QR codes could make it much more challenging for counterfeits to be convincingly made.

May and his team have been working over the last few years to create a clear ink solvent, and have now applied nano-particle technology to this accomplishment in order to create the ink that can be seen only when displayed under infrared. The most recent effort involved using this ink in a way that would make it printable. This included the involvement of William Cross, in addition to Kellar.

Through the use of a special aerosol lab printer, the research team was able to apply invisible, basic shapes and letters to various surfaces. The idea to print QR codes came from Jeevan Meruga, a graduate student who had been working with Kellar. He thought up the concept and successfully tested it with the printer before presenting it to Kellar, who said that he wasn’t sure what it was at first. However, he explained that “I quickly figured out what it was and how important this could be.”

The team is now working to perfect the printing of the invisible QR codes so that they can be used in anti-counterfeiting operations. It has been suggested that it could be applied to items such as currency, or identification such as passports or drivers licenses. This would make forgeries much harder to accomplish.