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QR Code
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Example of a QR code. A shopper holds a smartphone displaying a QR code near a self-checkout kiosk screen, using contactless payment technology in a retail store.
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Example of a QR code.
Example of a QR code.

QR Code

bar code
Also known as: Quick Response Code
Written by
Erik Gregersen
Erik Gregersen is a senior editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica, specializing in the physical sciences and technology. Before joining Britannica in 2007, he worked at the University of Chicago Press on the...
Erik Gregersen
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

QR Code, a type of bar code that consists of a printed square pattern of small black and white squares that encode data which can be scanned into a computer system. The black and white squares can represent numbers from 0 to 9, letters from A to Z, or characters in non-Latin scripts such as Japanese kanji. QR Codes were developed in 1994 by the Japanese corporation Denso Wave—a division of Denso, which is a...

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