The Japanese Masahiro Hara revealed some of the secrets of his invention of the "QR code", which is in the form of small black and white squares.

In a report published by the French newspaper Le Figaro, Emma Convery stated that the Coronavirus pandemic has increased the popularity of the use of the QR code in restaurants, cinemas and various cultural facilities.

Whether in order to reach certain places or respecting the rules of distancing, the gradual return to normalcy depends in part on the use of mobile applications and a QR code.

The author indicated that the popularity of the QR code increased during the Coronavirus pandemic in France and many countries of the world, and the date of the appearance of this code dates back to 1994, and its inventor, Masahiro Hara, did not mind revealing some of the secrets related to it.

Photogram of Japanese origin

Masahiro Hara was inspired by the idea of ​​inventing the QR code from the strategy game "Go", which is based on placing black and white stones on a special board.

Masahiro Hara, an engineer at Denso Wave, was working on developing a new code to store more information.

And compared to a barcode that stores numbers or letters only, a QR code can store thousands of international and Asian numerical and alphabets codes.

Initially, a QR code from Denso, a Toyota subsidiary, was used to monitor the production of its automotive components.

The company popularized the use of the QR code in 1999 by granting a free license to the technology, and the goal of its inventor was to spread this unique technology throughout the year.

The QR code is having a hard time gaining popularity, especially in Europe and the United States.

According to statistical data from ComScore, a company that specializes in e-marketing research, only 20% of Americans used a QR code on their smartphones as of December 2011. This is due to the lack of agreement between countries on a unified international model, which is what It hinders its development.

For users, using the QR code is not easy;

But it requires you to download a special application to read it.

In 2017, Apple changed the data by updating its iOS 11 system, which enables scanning codes directly from the camera without the need for a special application.

While the QR code is struggling to spread in Western countries, it has proven its worth in the Asian continent.

A method of payment

The QR code in Asia is used in many places, including town halls, museums, shops, and even on public transport.

For example, readers of Chinese newspapers can scan a QR code to read articles in augmented reality, or view related content such as videos or interviews.

The use of a QR code has gone beyond that, to include the ability to make direct payments in China.

Masahiro Hara believes that there are two reasons for expanding the use of the QR code in Asia;

The first is the possibility of using it without an internet connection in many regions that lack an advanced IT infrastructure;

Secondly, it is less expensive compared to bank cards.

"I still have some concerns about how secure the QR code is, which is why I want to improve the reliability of the system in the coming years," says Masahiro Hara.

High fraud rates

Generating a QR code takes just seconds, and some sites offer ways to design it individually.

The problem is that ease of use can lead to a high rate of fraud and deceiving users.

In the shadow of the pandemic, cybercriminals have sought to capitalize on the popularity of the QR code and replace legitimate codes with malicious ones so that they can access sensitive user data or perform prohibited transactions.

In March 2020, Dutch fraudsters robbed some passers-by by asking them to scan a QR code.

After that, these people realized that they were victims of a ruse that lost them large sums of money from their accounts.

While the malicious links are easily identifiable, the fraudulent QR codes remain undetectable.