Following my last QR test, I got an email from Roger Smolski who runs the 2D Code web site. He had previously posted about the iPhone being an unsuitable device for QR codes due to the poor quality of the camera and this has resulted in several perfectly good QR decoding apps getting a poor rating on the AppStore due to the fuzzy quality of the camera. I’ve had good experiences mostly with QR codes on the iPhone as long as the URI is short but once the information gets much longer, the iPhone is unable to recognise a snapshot of it.
So, what’s the solution?
A clear still of a QR code will work – even a complex one so I reckon the alternative might be to find another way of getting them into the phone. Loading a URL or receiving them in email both work fine.
Why is this important?
Anyone who has read my earlier posts on Alternate Reality Games would realise that I think QR codes are an excellent way of distributing clues to a game where you want to hide it a little but not make it too hard for people to find. The poor quality of the camera in the iPhone just really means the QR code display has to be big enough or they have to get the information from another source.
Anyone who has seen Serenity would realise the relevance and importance of this (2d Code link).