You may be seeing more and more strange looking squares appearing on posters and documents around campus this semester. The funny “dot” codes are called quick response (QR) codes and are found on everything from newspapers to business cards and even billboards. QR codes are very popular in Japan and are becoming more popular in the U.S. The QR codes allow people who are interested in the poster or document to instantly navigate the associated website and obtain additional information, just as if they had clicked a hyperlink on a webpage or document, and these “hyperlinks” can be placed on almost any physical medium.

To use the QR code you will need a smart phone that has either a QR code reader or some type of barcode scanning software like “Google Goggles”. A person with a smart phone can do a web search for the application that will work with their specific smart phone.