Invented for car parts in 1994
DENSO WAVE, then a division of the Toyota group company DENSO, developed the QR code in 1994 for tracking parts in automotive manufacturing. Linear barcodes held too little data and needed many labels, so the team led by Masahiro Hara set out to build a code that held more and could be read quickly.
The team chose the 1:1:3:1:1 ratio for the finder patterns after studying printed matter and finding that this ratio rarely appears in text and images. That choice lets a scanner pick out a QR code quickly from any angle.
Open to everyone and standardized
DENSO WAVE holds patents on the QR code but chose not to exercise them for the standardized code, so anyone can create and read QR codes freely. That decision, together with formal standards, is a large part of why the format spread so widely.
- 1994: QR code developed at DENSO WAVE
- 1997: approved as an AIM International standard
- 1999: published as Japanese standard JIS X 0510
- 2000: published as international standard ISO/IEC 18004
- 2000s: Micro QR code introduced and included in the 2006 edition of ISO/IEC 18004
- Later editions of ISO/IEC 18004: 2015 and 2024
From factories to phones
In the early 2000s, camera phones in Japan began shipping with QR code readers, and codes appeared in magazines, ads and train tickets. Outside Asia, scanning usually required a separate app until Apple added QR scanning to the iPhone camera with iOS 11 in 2017, and Android phones followed through camera apps and Google Lens.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses turned to QR codes for contactless menus, check-ins and payments, which made scanning a habit for a much wider public. QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.