Gadgetory

I'm going to tell you about something images with data stored inside them and you might ask what are you rambling on about now Linus are you talking about like crazy magic eye pictures or something more sinister no actually what I'm talking about is something very mundane bar codes those like square lyonie images found on everything from cereal boxes to serial killers that store information in sequences of lines that can be read and interpreted by machines but where did they come from well Norman Joseph woodland inspired by a conversation that he overheard and taking inspiration from Morse codes dots and dashes theorized by shining a bright light at a series of elongated dots and dashes then using a machine to read the pattern of light reflection back to a receiver remember black absorbs light and white reflects it one could quickly read stocking codes for groceries dramatically simplifying records keeping and speeding up the customer experience in one fell swoop well the theory was solid but in practice while it did work the first attempt was the size of a desk and used a 500 watt bulb that got so hot it could light paper on fire not exactly practical to deploy for price checks in the aisles at the local Toys R Us am i right but the proof of concept was enough that when combined with laser technology a 1 milliwatt helium-neon laser in the early days and more recently the super awesome disco dance party ones that we all like yo that's a jar of Marmite from any angle within a fraction of a second barcodes became the most efficient way to quickly read a string of alphanumeric characters but while all barcodes look pretty darn similar to the naked eye and share common features like a start and end code so they can be read correctly regardless of orientation there are a variety of different standards with different characteristics with UPC being the most common that encode data in different fashions and can only be read by compatible scanners and software so watch out for that when you're getting barcodes to itemize your stamp collection another thing that all barcodes share is that practically speaking they are limited to about 20 alphanumeric characters that my friends is where QR or quick response codes developed in 1994 come in these consist of black dots arranged in a square grid on a white background and they've got a couple of significant advantages while the Venerable barcode functions in just one dimension QR codes work in both the horizontal and vertical and can hold up to 350 times the information of a UPC barcode with finer or higher dpi prints capable of holding more information than fuzzy ones on top of that they have built in error correction making them less susceptible to damage from water wear and tear or killer penguins and this was more relevant before phone cameras got so badass they are much easier to read with a camera versus a specialized reader meaning that throwing a QR code onto your product will allow a marketer to direct smartphone equipped shoppers to see more detailed product information check out educational videos and more cool right so what does the future hold for the barcode though it's hard to say 40 years of dominance would suggest that it's not going to be completely overthrown anytime soon but that doesn't mean that time is standing still and 3d codes where height can also be used to store data already exist but with the way that 24/7 Internet connectivity and cloud-based image recognition are advancing I'd say a more likely long-term replacement even if we're still a few years away from it is simply pointing your camera or looking forward even further your augmented reality glasses or contact lenses at something and having its key stats show up in your peripheral vision so it'll be kind of like tinder but for everything speaking of the future and looking forward wouldn't it be cool if instead of like sitting at your desktop computer at the end of the day and crunching all of your accounting for your small or home business you could just do that stuff while you're on the go with your smartphone using an online tool that's always connected oh right fresh books all the little details about your cash flow and your business can be kept in one place with fresh books you can do things like log your hours I'll show a full history of each invoice and even snoop on your clients to see if they viewed that invoice which at which point there is no excuse for not having paid it and billing them through fresh books via credit card directly so fresh books is basically the tool that lets you spend the time doing what you're supposed to be doing working as opposed to fussing about with paperwork and you can get started today by heading over to FreshBooks dot-com slash tech quickie entering tech quickie and how did you hear about a section and starting a free trial now so thanks for watching guys if you like this video hit that like button if you disliked it well there's the other button to 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