Prediction.... 'about to', will mean over the next fewdecades. Retail product barcodes may be the fastest to go, over the next 2 decades. Other uses, like self printed labels for warehouse stock control will be here for the foreseeable. You might install a new Manufacturing Execution System in 20 years that supports it. But the Warehouse Management System and ERP don't...
- Retail 2D codes are being rolled out at scale from next year already in many markets; 2d codes will be on many products in the supermarket. Preparations for this have been ongoing for quite long. Mostly scanners have been ready for this for some time. Most recent hardware should handle all this fine. Scanners that don't handle 2D will rapidly disappear.
- For industrial use, QR codes are already quite common. Use of QR codes is much less about replacing existing bar codes with QR codes and more about completely new uses for QR codes. You are right that most factories won't do invasive changes in their setups unless there's a good reason. But efficiency improvements tend to be a good reason.
I was at the Logimat fair in Stuttgart earlier this year. Lots of companies demonstrating scanners, sticker printing, camera modules, and all the rest. There are a lot of companies actively pushing all sorts of solutions around 2D codes.
If someone works out how to print a 2D code that can be read when wrapped on a 2mm diameter cable (with a single scan, no rolling/twisting of the cable as it's fibre optic) I'll be interested. For now, regular Code128 style codes are the only ones that work reliably on cables that small.
How do you exactly define "no rolling/twisting of the cable"?
For a quick test I projected a flat QR code onto the surface of a cylinder, printed the distorted image on a household printer, wrapped the paper around a 3 mm diameter wire. The result is readable from a still image made by a smartphone.
It haven't worked with 2 mm image / cable, but I'm pretty sure that's just limit of my printer's resolution. With 600 DPI there is only 2-3 dots per QR code pixel.
You could repeat that pattern with few degrees of rotation so one will always be in the right enough orientation to decode.
Sure, a 1d object is best served by a 1d code. There are always a variety of jobs that need their own solutions. Just like there are jobs that need the label to be e-ink instead of ink.
jimnotgym · · focus · HN ↗
jillesvangurp · · focus · HN ↗
- Retail 2D codes are being rolled out at scale from next year already in many markets; 2d codes will be on many products in the supermarket. Preparations for this have been ongoing for quite long. Mostly scanners have been ready for this for some time. Most recent hardware should handle all this fine. Scanners that don't handle 2D will rapidly disappear.
- For industrial use, QR codes are already quite common. Use of QR codes is much less about replacing existing bar codes with QR codes and more about completely new uses for QR codes. You are right that most factories won't do invasive changes in their setups unless there's a good reason. But efficiency improvements tend to be a good reason.
I was at the Logimat fair in Stuttgart earlier this year. Lots of companies demonstrating scanners, sticker printing, camera modules, and all the rest. There are a lot of companies actively pushing all sorts of solutions around 2D codes.
cricalix · · focus · HN ↗
raron · · focus · HN ↗
For a quick test I projected a flat QR code onto the surface of a cylinder, printed the distorted image on a household printer, wrapped the paper around a 3 mm diameter wire. The result is readable from a still image made by a smartphone.
It haven't worked with 2 mm image / cable, but I'm pretty sure that's just limit of my printer's resolution. With 600 DPI there is only 2-3 dots per QR code pixel.
You could repeat that pattern with few degrees of rotation so one will always be in the right enough orientation to decode.
gumby · · focus · HN ↗
MisterMunchkin · · focus · HN ↗
fragmede · · focus · HN ↗
Brian_K_White · · focus · HN ↗