Milestone-Proposal:QR Code

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Docket #:2019-13

This Proposal has been approved, and is now a Milestone


To the proposer’s knowledge, is this achievement subject to litigation? No

Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s designated fields as defined by IEEE Bylaw I-104.11, namely: Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education, Management, and Law and Policy. Yes

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes

Was it of at least regional importance? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? Yes

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? Yes

Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an IEEE Milestone? Yes


Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

1994

Title of the proposed milestone:

QR ( Quick Response ) Code, 1994

Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance:

In 1994, DENSO developed QR Code, a two-dimensional code that is simple, inexpensive, and high speed reading. QR Code, which started with production management, has since become a technology used around the world due to the spread of mobile phones, Internet, and electronic payments. It has become one of the most popular information products in human history in terms of the number of users and uses.

200-250 word abstract describing the significance of the technical achievement being proposed, the person(s) involved, historical context, humanitarian and social impact, as well as any possible controversies the advocate might need to review.


IEEE technical societies and technical councils within whose fields of interest the Milestone proposal resides.


In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?

IEEE Nagoya Section

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):

Unit: IEEE Nagoya Section
Senior Officer Name: Jun SATO

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:

Unit: IEEE Nagoya Section
Senior Officer Name: Jun SATO

IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):

IEEE Section: IEEE Nagoya Section
IEEE Section Chair name: Naohiro HOZUMI

Milestone proposer(s):

Proposer name: Kunihiko SASAKI
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Proposer name: Masahiro HARA
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates in decimal form of the intended milestone plaque site(s):

1-1, Showa-cho, Kariya, Aichu, 448-8661, Japan 34.995533, 137.008989

Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.

Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need. A corporate museum named DENSO Gallery in the head office of DENSO CORPORATION

Are the original buildings extant?

yes

Details of the plaque mounting:

DENSO Gallery

How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?

DNSO Gallery is open to everyone for free admission. Opening days are from Monday to Friday and the first Saturday of every month. However, it is closed during the Japanese spring holidays, Japanese summer holidays and New Year holidays. The opening hours are from 9:30 to 17:00.

Who is the present owner of the site(s)?

DENSO CORPORATION

What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)? If personal names are included in citation, include justification here. (see section 6 of Milestone Guidelines)

(1)Development of QR Code DENSO considered that bar code are the limit in the information-oriented society that handles a lot of information accurately with the advancement of computer and network technology in the future, and started developing QR Code as the next generation codes in 1992. In March 1994, we completed the development of QR Code that can handle high-capacity information and that is easy to read and that can be read quickly and accurately in any environment. The developed QR Code can handle numbers of up to 7087 digits and can be read accurately even if 30% of the code area is soiled and damaged. The biggest feature of QR Code is that it can read 5 times the information of bar code with the same reading time as bar code. (2)Activities for popularization Together with the development, DENSO has actively introduced and promoted QR Code to companies and business organizations [4]. In addition, we believe that application development that creates value for users is the key to the spread of QR Codes, so that users can easily develop applications in the automobile / auto parts industry, electrical / electronic industry, etc. Acquired many industry standards such as distribution industry and aviation industry. In 2000, we acquired the ISO standard [5], an international standard. DENSO has obtained QR Code patents in Japan (1999) [1], U.S.A. (1998) [2], and Europe (2000) [3], but does not use patent rights to allow more people to use it in 1996 [6]. As a result, QR Code has become widespread as cheap and safe open codes. (3)Widespread usage of QR Code In the 1990s, QR Code was used in the manufacturing, logistics, and food fields for purposes such as process management, quality control, shipping management, inventory management, and expiration date management [7][8]. In the 2000s, it began to be used with camera-equipped mobile phones and became widely used as a communication tool to connect people and information [9]. As a result, QR Code started from industrial use and became a tool that strongly enhanced the convenience of consumer life and became widely used around the world. Because of these achievements, QR Code was awarded several awards, such as “R&D 100 Awards” (U.S.A.) in 2002 [23], “European Inventor Award Popular Prize” (Europe) in 2014 [24]. In this way, QR Code is indispensable in the advanced information society as a communication tool that connects people and things to information. In the future, the use of QR Code will continue to increase as a tool for creating new value [10] [11] [12].

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

Development of easily readable code from the viewpoint of users Reading performance is important for widespread use of QR Code in society. In order to improve reading performance, it is common to increase the speed of image processing technology. However, we have succeeded in increasing the market acceptance by choosing a method that makes the code easier to read by making it easier to read even with low-cost low-speed image processing technology. We implemented a finder pattern, alignment pattern and timing pattern as functions to assist reading, and an error correction code in QR Code [13] [14]. QR Code has a more complex structure than bar code, so most of the reading time is spent extracting codes from images. Therefore, a finder pattern indicating the position of the cord is arranged at the three corners of the cord. In this finder pattern, the scanning lines passing through the center all have a black and white ratio of 1: 1: 3: 1: 1. This ratio is a ratio that rarely appears in the black-and-white ratio constituting the characters printed on the printed matter, so that it can be easily distinguished from characters around the code, and the position of the code can be easily specified. In addition, the size and rotation of the code can be specified by arranging it at the three corners of the code, and only the code can be extracted at high speed from the captured image captured by the area sensor. As a result, it was possible to read about 30mS of information equivalent to a bar code with 5 times the bar code information [15]. In addition, as a countermeasure against code contamination and breakage, a restoration function using error correction codes has been implemented so that even if 30% of the code is contaminated or broken, it can be read[8]. Furthermore, an alignment pattern and a timing pattern were mounted to cope with optical distortion that occurs when a QR Code is printed on a curved surface such as a cylinder or when an angle is formed between the code surface and the reader.

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?

(1)Establishment of the infrastructure where users can use QR Code freely and comfortably No matter how excellent code is developed, it would not become popular unless its infrastructure is constructed and everyone can use it comfortably. In addition, QR Code application development is important for widespread use, and an environment that facilitates application development is required. Therefore, we actively acquired industry standards and requested ISO standards from various industries, and QR Code was established as an ISO standard (ISO / IEC18004) six years after its birth. By publishing QR Code specifications in ISO standards and knowing how to encode and decode QR Code, many companies entered QR Code market, and the infrastructure was developed early [16]. In creating an environment that anyone can use freely, QR Code patents were used as follows. The policy is to open patent rights to users of QR Code, but to eliminate them from the market by exercising patent rights for counterfeits and unauthorized use of QR Code. In addition, the acquisition of patent rights provided proof that no other patent infringement would be sued, and provided an environment that users could use freely and with confidence.

(2)Improvement of QR Code corresponding to the drastically changing needs in the society DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED, an operating company of the DENSO Group that inherited DENSO technology, captures changes in the social needs of QR Code, and focuses on creating user value, with the aim of "miniaturization", “increasing capacity”, “design”, and “security performance”. New QR Code have been developed and evolved in four categories. In "miniaturization", a micro QR Code that can print data of about 20 alphanumeric characters that can handle product numbers and serial numbers in 1 mm square was announced in 1997 [17]. In “increasing capacity”, we developed QR Code that efficiently encoded non-alphabet Asian languages such as Kanji and Korean characters other than Japan in 2001, and obtained national standards in Asian countries [18]. In “security”, SQRC (Security QR Code) was developed in 2007 [19] [20]. The main feature of SQRC is the two-layer structure of the public information area and the private information area. The public information area can be read by all readers such as mobile phones, but the information is encrypted in the private area. In addition, SQRC-specific recognition software is installed, and only readers with the same encryption key can read. In “design”, in 2014 we developed Frame QR Code that inherits QR Code reading performance and pursues maximum design. Frame QR Code is only available in Japan, but is expected to spread worldwide [21] [22]. In this way, QR Code continues to evolve in response to the needs of society and has become an indispensable part of society as a code that leads the times.

Supporting texts and citations to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or chapters in scholarly books. 'Scholarly' is defined as peer-reviewed, with references, and published. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article. All supporting materials must be in English, or accompanied by an English translation.

List of supporting materials included with nomination:

[1]Japan Patent No.2938338 Masahiro Hara et al. “Two-dimensional code” application filed at Mar.14,1994 and patented at Jun.11,1999

[2] US Patent No.5726435 Masahiro Hara et al. “Optically Readable Two-dimensional code and method and apparatus using the same” application filed at Mar.14, 1995, foreign application priority date Mar.14,1994(JP) and patented at Mar.10, 1998

[3] European Patent No. EP 0 672 994 B1 Masahiro Hara et al. “Method and apparatus for reading an optically two-dimensional code” application filed at Sep.20,1995, foreign application priority date at Mar.14,1994(JP) and patented at Jul.26,2000

[4]AIM Interntional Technical Standard ITS/97-001, Publication date at Oct.27, 1997

[5] ISO/IEC 18004:2000, Publication date at Jun. 2000

[6] Declared public domain policy to AIM Interntional at Apr.19, 1996

[7] Synthesiology - English edition Vol.12 No.1 2019 page25 https://www.aist.go.jp/pdf/aist_e/synthesiology_e/vol12_no1/vol12_01_p19_p28.pdf 

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code

[9] https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/J-SH09

 The following is a summary translated into English.

J-SH09 is a PDC communication type mobile phone terminal developed by Sharp and release date is Aug, 2002. A successor to J-SH08, with significant spec improvements. Until now, the camera used in the company's photo mail terminal was the CMOS method, but now it has changed from the model to the CCD method, and it has become stronger in shooting in the dark. Mobile lights were also provided to support shooting in the dark. In addition, a new close-up mode has been added as a shooting mode, enabling close-up shooting at about 5cm. A bar code reader function is installed to take advantage of this close-up mode, and it supports reading JAN codes and QR Code. This terminal is the first mobile phone terminal that supports QR code reading.

[10] ANA Corporation has introduced QR code boarding pass for Japan domestic flight https://www.ana.co.jp/en/jp/domestic/prepare/checkin/skip/

[11] Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has introduced QR code-based ticketing facility for travel on Airport Express Line. http://www.delhimetrorail.com/press_reldetails.aspx?id=iW5uUs6132Alld

[12] Synthesis journal 2008 Page70-77

   https://foxdesignsstudio.com/uploads/pdf/Three_QR_Code.pdf 

[13] Synthesis journal 2008 Page62-63

[14] Synthesiology - English edition Vol.12 No.1 2019 Page22-23

[15] Synthesiology - English edition Vol.12 No.1 2019 Page23-24

[16] Synthesis journal 2008 Page68-70

[17] Japan Patent No.3726395 Masahiro Hara et al. “Two-dimensional code and Read for reading Two-dimensional code” application filed at Jan.30, 1997 and patented at Oct.7, 2005

[18] Chinese National Standard GB/T 18284

The following is a summary translated into English. This standard is not equivalent to ISO/IEC 18004:2000 "Automatic Identification and Data Collection Technology - Bar Code Symbol Technical Specification - QR Code". QR Code is a matrix two-dimensional code,which is arranged by square modules in a square graphic. The square graphic also includes a unique companion pattern at the three corners of the symbol that helps determine the position, size, and slope of the symbol. And QR Code has a large size range and provides 4 levels of error correction. The square module width can be determined by the user based on the conditions of the application. According to the application status of China's two-dimensional code, this standard has made trade-offs and supplements to ISO/IEC 18004 on the basis of careful analysis and research. QR Code symbol specified in ISO/IEC 18004 has two symbol modes: mode 1 symbol and mode 2 symbol. Considering that QR Code mode 1 symbol is the initial specification of QR Code, mode 2 symbol is an enhanced form of QR Code, mode 2 symbol have been added many new features comparing with mode 1 symbol, and the ISO/IEC 18004 standard recommends the use of the mode 2 symbol in new and open systems. Therefore, this standard only specifies the technical requirements of QR Code mode 2 symbol code encoding, symbol structure and size, reference decoding algorithm in ISO/IEC 18004 standard, and discards the relevant content of QR Code mode 1 symbol. Chapter 14 of the International Standards was removed: Automatic Identification Capability, Appendix J (Appendix to the Prompt): Automatic Authentication and Appendix M (Appendix to the Prompt): Content of QR Code Mode 1 Symbol Feature. In order to facilitate the popularization and application of this standard in China, the JIS 0201 character set in the original standard is replaced by a specific extended ASCII character set. The Chinese character data representation mode replaces the content of the Japanese Kanji character representation mode in ISO/IEC 18004, which improves the efficiency of Chinese character two-dimensional code representation and satisfies the requirement of using Chinese characters in two-dimensional bar code, thus ensuring the application of this standard in China. Feasibility and practicality.

[19] Japan Patent No.4924206 Masahiro Hara “Method for producing Two-dimensional code and Read for reading Two-dimensional code” application filed at May29, 2007 and patented at Feb.17,2012

[20] US Patent No.5726435 Masahiro Hara “Method for producing Two-dimensional code and Read for reading Two-dimensional code” application filed at May 29, 2008, foreign application priority date at Mar.29, 2007(JP) and patented at Sep.10, 2013

[21] Japan Patent No.6136808 Masami Tanaka et al. “Information code, information code producing method, information code reader and system which uses information code” application filed at Sep.20, 2013 and patented at May 12, 2017

[22]US Patent No.9711113 Masami Tanaka et al. “Information code, information code producing method, information code reader and system which uses information code” application filed at Dec.18, 2013, foreign application priority date at Sep.20, 2013 (JP) and patented at Jul.18, 2017

[23] R&D 100 Conference Winner in 2002

[24] https://www.epo.org/learning-events/european-inventor/finalists/2014/hara.html

Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.


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