Tag: quick response codes

QR codes at the Yamba Museum bring history to the present

| January 15, 2014

A free app in combination with the quick response codes are all that visitors need on their smartphones.

The Yamba Museum may be focusing on the past, but it is doing so with 21st century technology, with the development of QR codes as well as a free app that can be used on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets that are frequently carried by visitors to the location.

The application allows the quick response codes to be scanned in order to enhance their experience.

All that a visitor must do in order to take advantage of the additional mobile features at Yamba, is to download a free app and scan the special QR codes. This allows them to be able to take a tour of the museum that involves access to additional images and interesting pieces of historical information that apply to what they are actually seeing in front of them in reality.

The QR codes have been printed onto stickers and free postcards that have been distributed around the area.

QR Codes at a MuseumNearby shops and holiday accommodation sites displayed and shared the stickers and postcards that were available to visitors in Yamba for free. The alternative to scanning the barcodes was to visit the museum’s official website where the entire tour could be downloaded so that it could be accessed once the visitor headed out to the Yamba Museum.

The downloadable tour is broken down into six different parts so that the visitor can access them as needed or wanted. They consist of the Pilot Station, the Bay, the Flat, the Hill, the River Training Works, and the Museum. The design of the parts of the tour are all meant to be compatible with a mobile device and are easy to view and read while the gadget’s user is taking the Yamba tour.

Beyond smartphones and tablets, the app can be downloaded into desktops, laptops, notebook computers, and any other device with a platform that supports a standard HTML browser. It was developed by Jon Henry, a Port of Yamba Historical Society member, based on the information that was provided by John McNamara, a research officer. It also used some of the museum’s own historical photographs from its collection. Henry will be updating the History Tour application on a regular basis. The QR codes were created by the society’s member, Rob Knight.

QR codes can help schools to keep property from going missing

| December 16, 2013

These quick response codes can help items to find their way back to their owners.

A startup company called My Lost Property has now been created by the parents of a boy who needed a way to find items that had gone missing, using inexpensive QR codes to make sure that belongings didn’t have to be replaced.

The last straw occurred when the son of the creators – the Sheedy family – lost his school blazer that cost $250.

Spencer Sheedy and his wife Rita recognized that while it is frustrating that their own two kids always had their possessions go missing, their children were far from the only ones who had this happen. It was this realization that encouraged the couple to create My Lost Property. Though the concept is quite simple as it is based on the use of QR codes, it is more innovative than simply using stickers and iron-on labels.

These QR codes are each unique and are registered on a website so that when the item is found it can be returned.

QR Codes - Lost School ItemsA missing item’s quick response code can be scanned by someone who finds it. They can then enter the location of the item, which will be automatically texted to the parents so that a pick-up can be arranged. The original concept had involved only stickers for the Sheedy kids. However, it didn’t take long before they found themselves creating labels, keyrings, stickers, and other barcodes for friends. Soon, it became evident that they had a business.

Since then, Mr. Sheedy had brought his barcodes and My Lost Property idea to the local schools. He has managed to create a sponsorship arrangement through Schoolzine, which is an online company that produces bulk school newsletters. According to Sheedy, “Schools have been really responsive. They like the simplicity of it, and lost property is such a problem for them.” He explained that he just wants parents to be able to find out about it.

The Sheedy’s knew that they could solve a very expensive problem for many parents and children with the simplicity and ease of QR codes. “When that $250 blazer went missing, we thought we needed to do something more than just the hit-and-miss putting a name on there and hoping it will come back. This just gives you a bit more of a chance of it coming back,” said Mr. Sheedy.