QR-Style Codes Could Replace Barcodes 'Within Two Years' (theguardian.com) 79
Traditional barcodes are set to be replaced by next-generation QR-style codes by 2027, offering enhanced functionality such as embedding sell-by dates, allergens, and recycling information. The Guardian reports: Tesco has started using them on some products, and other trials have suggested that waste of perishable food such as poultry can be cut by embedding sell-by dates in the new QR-style codes, allowing for more dynamic discounting. QR (quick response) codes will allow customers to instantly access more information about the product, including how to recycle batteries, clothes and building materials when tougher environmental regulations bite. But they will also put a greater demand on the world's cloud computing resources, where the extra data they contain will be stored -- meaning a potentially greater carbon footprint.
The first barcode was read in an Ohio supermarket in June 1974 when a packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum was rung up. It was devised by Joe Woodland, an inventor who had been implored by a retailer frustrated at losing profits, to speed up checkout queues and stocktaking. Coca-Cola has used the new generation of codes in parts of Latin America for refillable bottles, with the QR code allowing the counting of refills so that a requirement of 25 before recycling can be enforced. The Australian supermarket chain Woolworths is said to have reduced food waste by up to 40% in some areas, as the codes allow stores to better spot products approaching expiry and discount more efficiently. "We've defined an ambition that by the end of 2027 all retailers in the world will be able to read those next-generation barcodes," said Renaud de Barbuat, the president and chief executive of GS1. "We think it's doable ... It represents some investment on the part of retailers to adapt their point-of-sale systems, but it's already well under way."
Anne Godfrey, the chief executive of GS1 UK, said: "This has been in the works for some time, but Covid really accelerated it. During the pandemic, everyone got used to pointing their phones at QR codes in pubs and restaurants to access the menu."
The first barcode was read in an Ohio supermarket in June 1974 when a packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum was rung up. It was devised by Joe Woodland, an inventor who had been implored by a retailer frustrated at losing profits, to speed up checkout queues and stocktaking. Coca-Cola has used the new generation of codes in parts of Latin America for refillable bottles, with the QR code allowing the counting of refills so that a requirement of 25 before recycling can be enforced. The Australian supermarket chain Woolworths is said to have reduced food waste by up to 40% in some areas, as the codes allow stores to better spot products approaching expiry and discount more efficiently. "We've defined an ambition that by the end of 2027 all retailers in the world will be able to read those next-generation barcodes," said Renaud de Barbuat, the president and chief executive of GS1. "We think it's doable ... It represents some investment on the part of retailers to adapt their point-of-sale systems, but it's already well under way."
Anne Godfrey, the chief executive of GS1 UK, said: "This has been in the works for some time, but Covid really accelerated it. During the pandemic, everyone got used to pointing their phones at QR codes in pubs and restaurants to access the menu."
Exploits (Score:3)
Barcodes don't have the ability to hijack a consumer's browser. I bet a buffer overflow exploit on simple scanners is already prepped and ready to roll.
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Can phone browsers/OS be set to display the decoded QR URL and present an "Accept/Deny" prompt box?
Purely theoretical question, as my phone doesn't read QRs or open web pages.
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Ever QR code reader I've seen does exactly that by default. But why would the consumer being reading QR codes on product packaging to begin with?
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Re:Exploits (Score:4, Insightful)
So rather than have them plainly visible on a package like they are now, they should be in a machine-readable-only QR code? To shop for safe food you have to constantly scan things with your phone? How does that benefit the customer?
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Advertisers will love this. I suspect the QR codes won't just have the information proposed in this article but embedded links that you'll have to follow to get the information you are looking for. Along with that you'll get advertisements and tracking cookies.
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So rather than have them plainly visible on a package like they are now, they should be in a machine-readable-only QR code? To shop for safe food you have to constantly scan things with your phone? How does that benefit the customer?
The election is over. This isn't an either or situation. It's not republican or democrat. This is literally a case of having *BOTH* The benefit being that both a human being and a machine can now understand if a product is expired.
Please use both hemispheres of your brain at once, most things discussed in our world are not "either - or" situations and will require a bit of active thinking to understand.
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All of which is currently printed on the packing, which doesn't require a phone to read.
Re: Exploits (Score:2)
It's printed too small for me to read due to an uncorrectable vision problem. I already need to use my phone to read it, as a magnifier. This is extra work, and most of the time, I don't bother.
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Sucks to be you. But that's no excuse for fucking over everyone else by destroying a system that works perfectly for nearly everyone else. Particularly when you have a solution to your problem already.
Again, this does nothing that UPCs don't, and often better.
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Dynamic discounts are only possible with this model - buying bread that will expire in 3 days versus 13 days for ~$1-2 less is a win-win. Customer gets a discount and the store gets to offload expiring goods before being forced to throw them out. Lots of people buy the thing with the furthest date out even if they plan on using it within the next week.
The current expiration dates are in inconsistent locations (even on the same product from the same brand) which is difficult for limited visibility people. Al
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Nothing you mention requires QR codes to "fix." And most of it isn't well serviced by QR codes.
My point remains.
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You're mistaken if you believe I'm favor of the new system.
Re: Exploits (Score:2)
And tracking, don't forget all the tracking that will be included in the URL.
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It is mentioned in the summary ...
To read the info in it, for example: "minimum good until".
Allergenes.
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My phone certain requires interaction before it will blindly open a scanned URL. And in fact the QR could just be plain text.
Honestly though I don't see the advantage to consumer. There are already sell-by dates on price tags. Instructions are already on packaging. People still don't know what to do about food post it's sell-by. Do they really think people are going to whip out their phones to get information from a QR code when they currently can't even be bothered to read the packaging?
Different people (Score:3)
There are some people who will certainly scan the QR code for more information, even as there are people who will ignore stuff written right on the packaging in big letters.
Most things these days don't have price tags, especially in grocery stores. But QR code price labels could encode the expiration date into it so that the low level employee could scan the items to identify which items to pull, which to mark down, and the store could even advertise that "expires tomorrow" items are discounted, without ne
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Phone sees QR code.
Phone dedicates a section of the screen to going to the URL.
There are now a thousand QR codes in the store.
X% of these clicks are the legitimate intentions of the phones owner.
Y% are the result of fat fingers and accidental swipes.
Smartphones aggressively look for shit like QR codes, faces, and even ears.
They probably shouldnt.
Re: Different people (Score:2)
You could imagine all kind of applications. You could scan to check if the product as a return order. You could have the cashier notify you that an item is passed expiration date.
You could have an app on your phone knowing your dietary requirenents and alergy that notifies you when you scan an item that doesnt match it.
I could imagine all kinds of things.
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Yeah, I figured that having the scanner throw some sort of alert if it scans an expired item could be a thing.
Thing with the phone app you describe, to look up dietary stuff, isn't actually necessary, you can do that with standard barcodes, as all you need in that case is to identify the item in question.
Though I find my phone scans QR codes faster than regular.
Re: Different people (Score:2)
Indeed some of those could be done with barcodes. Though QR codes tend to be smaller and more compact. So you could put some on each side of the packaging. It could be helpful to help smart fridges do automated inventory.
I am not super gungho about it. But we've been using barcodes for what 50 years or so? We probably can do better now. So we can let them figure it out!
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The problem with standard barcodes is lack of space. You only get around 34 bits with that, only enough information to ID the product, basically.
You can go with a longer barcode, like on gift cards, where the system needs to know that specific card has been bought and needs to be activated. But that takes a lot more space on packaging.
A QR code gives in the range of 4k bits.
That is enough to ID the item, and embed common food product information like sell by date, lot number, and such..
Lot number would he
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Android apps pop up with all the details, and ask you if you want to proceed
https://f-droid.org/en/package... [f-droid.org]
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You do not need a web browser to decode an QR code.
Unless the only thing coded in that QR code is a web address. And why would that be the case in a supermarket?
And yes: the web browser asks first, if you want to follow that link in that QR code.
Otherwise, you just use the free app of the supermarket to scan and display its info, or a free QR code reader.
A QR code can encode everything, usually it is just text.
Re: Exploits (Score:2)
Open source
https://gitlab.com/Atharok/BarcodeScanner
Re:Exploits (Score:4, Informative)
There isn't any kind of hijack you can do with a QR code that can't be done with a UPC. It's just another machine readable code.
You can't hijack someone's phone with it unless they scan it with their phone. Why would the consumer do that? If the consumer is looking for info on a product, they're going to use the one on the sign in front of it, not the one on the package, because they won't be the same. (And every QR code app I've ever seen on a phone will read UPCs, too, and automatically do a search for them on your favorite search engine.)
The cash register won't care if it's a malicious code, it will just just read as "item not found" because it's looking it up on its own database, not on the internet.
Yeah, you could print stickers for QR codes for cheap items and put them on expensive items, but you can - and people do - do that now with UPCs.
Advertising weasels may have big dreams of all the ways they can make money off this, but retailers won't give a damn. Any POS barcode scanner bought in the last ten years (at least) will read either UPCs or QR codes (and a lot of other stuff, too), so there's no hardware updates needed. And no point in updating the software, which will just take the scanned value and translate it into a SKU. That's how QR codes as UPCs will actually be used, no matter what pipe dreams the weasels imagine.
At most, it'll be used as a serial number, which stores have have need of already have built in, and stuff like expiration dates will be attached to the serial number in the POS database, where you can have as much data as you want, and manipulate it in a million more useful ways than running around the store scanning every item (because you can't read QR codes by eye, unlike expiration dates printed on the label).
Just not seeing the value in it, since it doesn't do anything that isn't already being done by existing technology, and often done better.
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Having the use by date in machine readable form would be nice. Could scan it with an app or a scanner in the fridge door, so it can keep track of when things are expiring.
I wish receipts had a QR code that was tied to the payment method or store, and the date, so it could be used as proof of warranty. Would make it easy to collect warranty proofs and keep track of expiry.
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Having the use by date in machine readable form would be nice. Could scan it with an app or a scanner in the fridge door, so it can keep track of when things are expiring.
Or you could just pay attention, or look at the use by date on the label before you use it. You know, like a grown up.
I wish receipts had a QR code that was tied to the payment method or store, and the date, so it could be used as proof of warranty. Would make it easy to collect warranty proofs and keep track of expiry.
Our receipts have a UPC code that brings up the specific transaction in its entirety. Since that brings up everything about the transaction from the POS server, there's - again - nothing a QR code can do that the UPC can't. And why would the consumer need anything embedded in a QR code when they have the receipt in their hand? It has everything about the transaction printed on it.
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The UPC code must be a pointer to some database, presumably online. I'd rather have an offline solution.
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It's called a "label," and virtually every product has one.
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So they print a warranty label and attach it when you buy the product? How does that work for e.g. car parts that must be designed for rough service?
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There isn't any kind of hijack you can do with a QR code that can't be done with a UPC. It's just another machine readable code.
Well, QR codes can impart more information than just the numbers you get from a bar code. That has the potential for exploits if you can find a string that can crash a program or worse.
But that's a minimal risk.
The bigger point is that QR codes are nowhere near as user friendly as bar codes. With bar codes it's easy to set up a scanner that will read it within a second no matter what orientation the code is in. With a QR code it needs to be held still enough for the scanner to recognise it as a QR cod
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Lol, my dude, when's the last time you used a QR code?
We got a copy of The Audio Game for christmas, think 'cards against humanity, but with audio clips.' The cards tell you what the clip says, and the back is a QR code that the app uses to play the clip.
Orientation didn't matter. We had to space things out so the mere act of moving the phone over the discard pile didn't trigger it to play the top card.
Next you're going to say the problem with fax machines is that they need that fancy thermal paper,
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There isn't any kind of hijack you can do with a QR code that can't be done with a UPC. It's just another machine readable code.
Well, QR codes can impart more information than just the numbers you get from a bar code. That has the potential for exploits if you can find a string that can crash a program or worse.
Crash what program? If there's nothing the QR code can do that isn't already being done by the printed label (and there's not) which doesn't require anything more than eyeballs to read - and you need eyeballs to aim the camera to read the QR code, too - then there's zero value to the consumer. Literally nothing that isn't already being done, and better.
The merchant will use the QR code exactly the same way they use barcodes now. No matter what's in the QR code, the cash register (or other piece of equipment
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Aren't these still barcodes? A standard UPC barcode is apparently 34 bits. A standard QR code can apparently hold 4k.
It'd take some really bad programming to get a buffer overflow out of a QR code, as you still need to have interpretation to figure out what the string is supposed to be.
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I bet a buffer overflow exploit on simple scanners is already prepped
I am skeptical. QR codes have a predefined number of bits that can be encoded, and the simple scanners probably just fixed their buffers at the max number of bytes or digits that can be embedded in a QR.
The real exploit is going to be embedding a malicious link in the QR, so when a customer scans it they're prompted to browse to a "legit-looking" URL which turns out to redirect to a malicious page. Upon visiting the malicious URL on t
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But they can put a QR code with a URL to a webpage that has a 0 day exploit. A bit more work, but a ton of people will just visit the URL.
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You might be surprised. Many years ago I fixed a product that would crash if you input too many characters on its configuration RS232 port. The spec said that commands could be up to 80 characters, but the contractor pointed out that it didn't say "must not corrupt memory and crash if you enter more than 80 characters" so he didn't bother with that check.
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but the contractor pointed out that it didn't say "must not corrupt memory and crash if you enter more than 80 characters"
Well the think with RS-232 is there is no limit to how many characters can be sent over the wire and will have to be parsed.
With the QR code it is not just a fixed number of bytes, but before your scanner even interprets the QR your device has to determine which version of a QR code you are dealing with and what its error correction parameters are, Since there is no way to interpret
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Indeed. But why go to all the trouble of a buffer overflow in the scanner? Simply send people to websites that attack them, lie to them or scam them. Combine this with, say, a zero0interaction browser vulnerability and you are golden. It is already being done and the attack mechanism is dead-simple: Put a sticker with the attack code over the real code. Has been employed on parking meters, info-posters, etc. in the wild for a few years now. Protection for the average consumer: Do not ever scan a QR code tha
Re: Exploits (Score:2)
The security issues affecting QR codes also affect regular hyperlinks, and yet we somehow manage to use them without the world ending.
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What a stupid comment that ignores reality.
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The sheer magnitude of possible exploits this could generate is staggering.
Not really. No one is talking about scanning these with your phone and then blindly following the links. You'd need to generate a new level of incompetence for the checkout machine at the supermarket to be exploited by a barcode it doesn't understand.
A QR code is just text, nothing more, nothing less. The previous barcode is also just text only limited to the number character space. The ability to exploit anything relies on fooling the device being used to scan it, or having a real moron as a user.
I could be Emperor of Earth in Two Years (Score:2)
Low odds, but not impossible.
'Could' lets you write a lot of nonsense without getting called out for it.
This is not about UPC or generic "bar" codes (Score:2)
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At least this is GS1 and not some idiot (Score:2)
They've been advocating for the use of advanced barcodes for years, as well as getting every business on the planet to get their own company prefix that allows for issuing all sorts of globally distinct identifiers. Unless it has changed in recent years, the big problem is that you just had to trust that the barcode wasn't modified. It's bad enough where there's a simple numeric key being passed from scanner to host, but GS1 sort of thinks you should toss in a whole bunch of things like the expiration date
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Well, I can think of a number of options:
1. With the date code and regular scan-ins, the computer could know the expiration date of all the stock currently in the store. IE time to have an employee go through and pull older stock, mark it for discount, that sort of thing. Automatically trigger an action if a customer tries to buy expired goods. Etc...
2. For some items, you could embed the item's serial number into the barcode, so when sold it is automatically associated with the sale. So if they try t
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GS1, as well intentioned as they are, really just want to have an excuse to sell you a larger company prefix. That's how they make their money.
Most of this has been possible for decades now. Point of sale systems were pretty great back in the 90s.
Re: At least this is GS1 and not some idiot (Score:2)
Wouldn't the proper fix be to sign the data with a private key? Dunno if they have enough bits available to do that, though.
NO technology gets adopted THAT quickly (Score:2)
We already see lots of QR codes, such as on airline boarding passes. So they are being adopted already. But it's a lot bigger deal to replace them on every product sold by stores. Somebody has to devise the processes and the software to produce these "information-rich" codes. The cost of implementation will be a lot higher than the cost of new equipment, which itself will be significant.
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Yeah.. figures. The real cost behind implementing them would likely be the change in business process. For that extra information to get added to products: the business has to change so that someone types that extra information in, and some kind of system stores that extra data and incorporates it into codes that get stamped onto products.
The Use-by date stamper is likely just a part of a packaging machine at a factory that someone configures in the morning To ink every box with the same date before
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Aztec is more popular the US and Europe, QR is still more popular in Asia. They're really both about as good as the other all things considered, though Aztec is slightly more robust. They're also more aesthetically pleasing than Data Matrix. Well, there's enough legacy crap in the US you're probably going to see PDF417 everywhere.
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The main advantage of Aztec is the lack of a quiet zone. If you can't design the product around the label, that's a big plus. In general, the only strong argument for QR codes is that they are visually more recognizable than the other types. Otherwise the
Say what? (Score:4, Funny)
have suggested that waste of perishable food such as poultry can be cut by embedding sell-by dates in the new QR-style codes
You mean all those sell-by dates printed on packages of chicken are wrong?
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It means it does not pass the cashier if it's beyond the date (say they forgot to remove fresh products from yesterday). It gets detected by the registering machine and it refuses the sale. My local shop implemented this with normal barcodes (once I picked up a soup and it refused sale at the cashier due to expiry coded into the barcode).
I guess it can be implemented with any sort of barcoding method that can be printed by an industrial dot matrix printer. One usually implements with today's standards, so i
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(my emphasis)
Aye, there's the rub. I came to this discussion knowing that there were at least 2 types of "QR code" (with different data densities, levels of error-correcting repetition, and whether they had that space in the middle for a logo. I've learned, so far, that the odd "2D bar code-likes" that I've seen on airline tickets and also in some stock-control syste
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Imagine if, instead of somebody needing to walk around manually inspecting the sell-by date printed on the meat label and slapping on '30% off, enjoy tonight' type stickers, the QR code simply had the sell-by date also encoded, and the POS terminal could then use simple rules to automatically apply a scaling discount based on how close to sell-by that specific package is.
No fuss, no muss.
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You mean all those sell-by dates printed on packages of chicken are wrong?
No it means those sell-by dates will be embedded in the QR code meaning you the consumer (who almost certainly doesn't do it now) will not be relied on to read the expiry date on everything you buy.
This kind of shit isn't checked by the cashier and is rarely caught during a stocktake either without machine prediction - i.e. stock orders show we ordered X 2 weeks ago and we only sold Y so pay someone to manually go and look at every can on the shelf and throw a 30% off sticker on it. It's a dumb error prone
Re: Say what? (Score:2)
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There's basic heuristics that can be employed here. You're making assumptions about what the QR code will contain and whether it applies to all products. It is perfectly reasonable to assume soft drink, beer, canned goods, or other such items won't actually register the expiration date. They aren't relevant. The odds of a 2-10 year old can being on the shelf are close to zero. The odds of a 5 day old chicken on the other hand are quite higher.
On the flip side very few people bulk buy small scale expirable g
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Sell-by dates are an indicator of the failure of FDA and FTC. What should be required is "packed on" dates. If you want to also recommend a "sell-by", knock yourself out, but I want to know when you actually killed the chicken.
"Hey babe, wanna see my bar code?" (Score:1)
I tried that one already. Slapped, as usual.
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All the creases and folds around your clit would make it difficult to put ... "washing instructions" there.
No, maybe ... "Data Matrix [wikipedia.org]"with a "corner mark, plus two solid edges for orientation" format would work. Say, 7mm by 7mm of food dye painted (silk-screened?) onto the skin while preparing
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Maybe if you had a bigger barcode and didn't rely on her getting so close and zooming in for the scanning you'd get a better reaction.
tmi (Score:2)
QR code has too much information. Standard bar code is a single number that is printed and can be read by a human.
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QR code has too much information. Standard bar code is a single number that is printed and can be read by a human.
As it already happens with the barcode, the data can always be printed along the QRCode.