In today’s NY Times Magazine, they discuss the QR Code as fashion:
You might not know what the new generation of bar codes looks like: a blocky collection of little pixel-like squares within a larger square in a manner that faintly resembles static on a television set.
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The new generation of code can handle more information because it is arranged in a dot-matrix style that communicates with a scanner both horizontally and vertically[.]
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This capability was what Fischer had in mind when he contacted his friends Uschi Lechner and Georg Lendorff. Based in London and Zurich, they run a small apparel brand that specializes in scarves, hats, laptop cases and the like. Designed by Lechner, these products frequently include pixel-style imagery, reminiscent of old video games like Space Invaders. That aesthetic, Fischer figured, matched up pretty well with the look of a QR Code. And so the “QR-Code enhanced pixel scarf” went on sale online in December. Snap the code with a properly equipped camera phone and you get a message. (In the case of the scarf, the messages are “Game Over” and “Insert Coin for Extra Life” — a little nostalgia for the old-school gamer.)
But they don’t seem to connect this technology, besides fetishizing of the barcode in fashion, with a previously reported on use of the QR Code in airline check-ins: Paper Is Out, Cellphones Are In:
At least half a dozen airlines in the United States currently allow customers to check in using their mobile devices, including American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest and Alaska.
But so far, Continental is the only carrier in the United States to begin testing the electronic passes, allowing those travelers to pass through security and board the plane without handling a piece of paper. Their boarding pass is an image of an encrypted bar code displayed on the phone’s screen, which can be scanned by gate agents and security personnel.
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The technology being tested by Continental uses a two-dimensional encrypted bar code, which is much tougher to copy than the one-dimensional bar code used by many airlines for boarding passes printed online. And that is a major reason the T.S.A. is expected to embrace the technology.
One could imagine that at some point you won’t even have to have a QR Code; your mobile or RFID-equipped passport alone will be enough to gain access to the secure side of the airport through ubiquitous computing and Everyware. Privacy concerns notwithstanding, we are almost at that point with the TSA’s Clear Card (read Anil’s Unsolicited Clear Card testimonial).
Not that the security line would be any faster.
