That ubiquitous code
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Who would have ever thought that a simple application (however to some it’s still complicated), would end the recent queues at fuel stations!I was gently reminded of the QR (Quick Response) code having overheard a conversation among the trio on Thursday morning. And as it had been on many occasions that conversation led to a column piece, the one I am writing today.
“Mama eeye Lankadeepa paththare rasawath warthavak dekka ara QR kethaya gena. Eka hinda indana polim nethi wuna ne (I read a report in the Lankadeepa newspaper yesterday about the QR code which is very interesting; it has ended the queues at fuel stations),” said Kussi Amma Sera.
“Mata kisima hoduwawak ne QR kethaya gena. Kohomada eka kriyathmaka wenne (I am a bit clueless about the QR code; how does it operate),” asked Mabel Rasthiyadu.
“Apita thava tikak-kal yayi eka weda karanne kohomada kiyala therum ganna. Eth may kethaya godak katauthu walata pavichchi karanna puluwan (It would take us some more time to understand how it functions. However, this code could be used for many activities),” noted Serapina.
I was running out of options for a column piece on Thursday until this gem of an idea from the trio fell on my lap. If there is one decision by the current regime that the people should be happy about is the success of the QR code in various fields of public activity and services.
The code, essentially started for fuel purchases, – currently a car owner is entitled to 20 litres per week, much less for trishaws and motorbikes – has dramatically eliminated the queues at fuel stations. It happened the moment the code was introduced.
It has now been extended to liquor. According to media reports, the Department of Excise has introduced a mobile application to detect the authenticity of liquor bottles sold in the market. The app, named ‘Excise Tax Stamp Validator’, was introduced to crack down on the distilling, marketing, distribution and sale of spurious liquor. It was reported that the consumers can scan the QR code displayed on liquor bottles from a mobile phone to determine the authenticity of the product.
As stated earlier, it could be used for many other trade and service related activities, for example in the collection of taxes – both income and trade related; at the passport office and the office issuing national identity cards. The success of the QR code for fuel could be replicated in many other areas of public activity and services.
Media reports said the QR code system is to be extended for Samurdhi and social welfare programmes. It is to be used to identify eligible recipients and families for the distribution of welfare packages under different programmes for those living below the poverty-line, such as Samurdhi, the elderly persons’ dole, Disabled Persons and Kidney Disease Livelihood programmes, etc.
As I took a deeper insight into the QR code, the silence of the morning was broken by a call on the landline. The caller was ‘Reconditioned’ Ranjith – a know-all in the second-hand car market but today’s conversation was anything but second-hand vehicles. I hadn’t spoken to Ranjith for a long time and welcomed the call.
After the usual “hello…how have you been” opening remarks, Ranjith said: “I am intrigued by the murder of Dinesh Schaffter, a well-known Colombo businessman. This has shocked the elite and many others in the city.”
”It is shocking indeed and so far the Police have drawn a blank in their investigations and the finger-pointing (as to the actual killer) doesn’t seem to be happening,” I said.
“This would have touched a nerve among businessmen in the city. The killing was during the day and so far there are no witnesses. Many businesspersons must be beefing up their private security,” he said, adding that it was puzzling that the victim didn’t use a driver on that day.
“There are still no suspects and the individual whom he was supposed to have scheduled a meeting with on that fateful day, is not a key suspect though an overseas travel ban has been imposed on him,” I replied.
After a long conversation on the killing and other business-related developments in the city, we promised to meet in the New Year over a coffee.
Getting back to today’s topic, according to a report in https://www.tech.gov.sg, the QR codes (used globally) have saved many people from filling up endless paper forms, Describing a QR code, the report said “When you use the self-checkout counter at a supermarket, you scan the barcodes of your purchases. The barcode contains data about the item it’s attached to, so the electronic cashier immediately knows you’re buying an item the moment you scan it.”
While the barcode holds information horizontally, the QR code does so both horizontally and vertically. This enables the QR code to hold over a hundred times more information. Describing how the QR code began to dominate people’s lives, the report said that in the early 1990s, barcode scanning was becoming increasingly laborious. Each barcode could hold just 20 characters of data, so it often took multiple barcodes on a box to convey what was inside. When a Japanese engineer by the name of Hara Masahiro – who made barcode scanners for a living – learnt of the problem, he set about solving it.
Together with his team, Hara developed a two-dimensional barcode in the shape of a square, tackling the issue of limited data capacity. However, when these new barcodes were printed with other forms of text next to them, scanning machines could not pick them up. This rendered the square barcodes impractical. This impasse was overcome one day when Hara, looking out of the subway window on the way to work, noticed that skyscrapers stood out distinctively from the rest of the landscape. He began searching for ways to distinguish the square barcodes from text. Finally, he created a solution of embedding three small squares (with a specific ratio of black-to-white areas) at the corners of the new barcode, enabling scanners to recognise them instantaneously, the report said.
Just imagine, the QR code being used to access the passport office to get an appointment, the National ID office to get an appointment, to check in purchases from a supermarket – scan each item, collect them in a trolley and by the time you reach the cashier, she or he has tracked your purchases.
Just imagine the impact it would have on our lives, for example being able to get an appointment at a government hospital or any government office for that matter.
As Kussi Amma Sera brought in my second mug of tea, I was on cloud nine dreaming about how this ubiquitous application would impact our lives and provide easier access to government services and facilities.
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