When you enter a restaurant and ask for the menu, chances are you are told to scan a QR code with your phone to view and order food and drinks – no paper menu needed. Similarly, many people now scan a QR code daily to buy groceries, make payments, or access Wi-Fi. These pixelated black-and-white squares have become a signature of our digital lives. But have you ever wondered where they came from?

Before QR Codes: The Barcode Era

The story of the QR code begins with its predecessor: the barcode. Barcode technology was first patented in 1949 by Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver. Their patent described using pairs of lines to represent numbers—a method still used in barcodes today. Interestingly, the first barcode design didn't use vertical lines at all; instead, it used a series of concentric circles.

The breakthrough came in the 1960s when Theodore H. Maiman built the first working laser, making it possible to quickly decode barcode patterns. By the late 1960s, grocery stores across the US were facing rising labour costs and inventory tracking challenges. The industry formed a committee to develop a universal standard, resulting in the Universal Product Code (UPC). After three years of deliberation, they chose IBM's design, and the very first UPC barcode was scanned on a pack of Wrigley's gum at a grocery store in Troy, Ohio, on June 26, 1974.

The Birth of the QR Code

A Problem to Solve

In the early 1990s, Masahiro Hara was an engineer at Denso Wave, a Toyota subsidiary in Japan. The automotive industry was going through a transitional phase, and field workers were requesting a better way to scan inventories. A single box of components often carried as many as 10 barcodes that had to be scanned individually—a labour-intensive process. Hara knew there had to be a better way.

Inspiration from a Go Board

The breakthrough came during a lunch break. Hara, an avid fan of the ancient board game Go, was playing at work when he noticed the arrangement of black and white stones on the grid. The concept of placing black and white dots on a grid sparked an idea: what if information could be encoded in two dimensions, both horizontally and vertically? This would dramatically increase storage capacity compared to one-dimensional barcodes.

Solving the Scanning Problem

Hara and his team developed a two-dimensional square barcode that could store up to 7,089 digits or 4,296 alphanumeric characters—more than 200 times the information contained in a traditional barcode. However, they faced a critical challenge: when printed alongside other text, scanning machines often failed to detect the square codes.

The solution came from an unexpected source. On his commute to work one day, Hara looked out the subway window and noticed how skyscrapers stood out distinctly from the surrounding landscape. This observation led him to develop the idea of embedding distinctive markers. After many iterations, he designed three position detection patterns—small squares placed at the corners of the barcode with a specific black-to-white ratio of 1:1:3:1:1. This pattern was rarely found in printed materials, allowing scanners to instantly recognize and read the code from any orientation.

Official Release and Early Adoption

In 1994, Denso Wave officially announced the QR code. It was initially used within the Toyota group for tracking automobile parts during manufacturing, replacing the multiple barcode system. Toyota's adoption validated the technology's potential and demonstrated its efficiency on assembly lines.

Key Milestones

Beyond Automotive: New Applications

While QR codes started in automotive manufacturing, their utility soon spread to other industries. In the late 1990s, the food sector began adopting QR codes for traceability in response to concerns over bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "Mad Cow disease"). Manufacturers used QR codes to make their supply chains more visible and ensure food safety.

Marketing and advertising soon followed. QR codes provided a way to bridge physical and digital media—connecting print advertisements directly to websites, videos, and promotional offers. This "hardlinking" from physical objects to digital content opened new possibilities for engagement.

The Smartphone Revolution

The widespread adoption of smartphones with built-in cameras transformed QR codes from industrial tools to everyday utilities. Initially, users needed separate apps to scan QR codes—a significant friction point. This changed when mobile operating systems began integrating native scanning capabilities.

In 2017, Apple integrated QR code scanning directly into the iPhone camera app, eliminating the need for third-party applications. Android devices followed suit, and scanning became as simple as pointing your camera. This integration was a turning point for consumer adoption.

The COVID-19 Catalyst

In September 2020, a survey found that 18.8% of consumers in the United States and the United Kingdom strongly agreed that they had noticed an increase in QR code use since COVID-19 restrictions began. Contactless became essential, and QR codes offered a perfect solution.

Restaurants replaced paper menus with QR codes. Venues used them for contactless check-ins. Payment systems expanded rapidly. In 2022, 89 million people in the United States scanned a QR code using their mobile devices—up 26% compared to 2020. The majority used them to make payments or access product and menu information.

Case Study: India's UPI Revolution

Perhaps nowhere has QR code adoption been more transformative than in India. With the launch of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), mobile apps built on this infrastructure could securely access multiple bank accounts and enable real-time digital payments. QR codes became the interface for this revolution.

The numbers are staggering: UPI transactions hit ₹24.77 trillion in value and 19.78 billion in volume in March 2025, showcasing how cashless payments using QR codes have caught on across India. From street vendors to high-end retailers, QR codes have democratized digital payments.

What Makes QR Codes Special?

QR Codes Today

QR codes are now ubiquitous. They appear on:

• Payment apps for instant transactions
• Menus in restaurants worldwide
• Boarding passes for airlines like Delta and American
• Museum exhibits for additional information
• Business cards for easy contact sharing
• Gravestones in Japan, linking to information about the deceased
• Currency – the Central Bank of Nigeria issued the first banknote with a QR code in 2014

The Legacy of Masahiro Hara

Masahiro Hara, born August 8, 1957, never imagined his invention would transform the world. In 2025, the World Records Union officially declared him "The world's first person to invent the QR code." From a lunchtime game of Go to billions of daily scans, his creation has become an invisible thread connecting our physical and digital worlds.

Ironically, Japan—where the QR code was invented—has been slower to adopt it for consumer use, with cash remaining king. But the COVID-19 pandemic pushed even Japan toward contactless solutions, and the government now promotes cashless initiatives. The rest of the world, however, embraced the QR code wholeheartedly, making it one of the most successful open technologies in history.