Benefits of Cost Free: QR Code | Daily News

Benefits of Cost Free: QR Code

Obtaining the weekly fuel quota for the QR Code-based National Fuel Pass
Obtaining the weekly fuel quota for the QR Code-based National Fuel Pass

The little black dots and white spaces, jumbled in a square grid, have become a treasure for every vehicle owner since last week, as they are the only hope for fuel when the tank runs dry. The “QR Code” has become a new household word in Sri Lanka, as pumping fuel at any shed is no longer possible without it.

Under the fuel rationing system in place, amidst a very limited fuel supply across the country in the face of the current Foreign Exchange scarcity, a weekly quota has been assured for all users with the help of the QR Code.

Thanks to this technology, the lengthy fuel queues have eased, the black market for fuel has dwindled, and thuggery, other irregularities and altercations at pumping stations have subsided. For a country, which has already seen the deaths of about a score of people in fuel queues, this is a relief. Many people were heard saying it should have been introduced much earlier.

The success of the QR Code-based National Fuel Pass speaks that the Sri Lankan people, in general, are tech literate enough to use this system for many other purposes as well. As the QR Code has become a practical and effective way of managing the fuel crisis, the same technology can be applied in an innovative way to deal with many other problems or to make everyday tasks more convenient for the people. What has been lacking is not the capacity, but the initiative coupled with the will.

Evolution

QR is an acronym for “Quick Response”, and as the words themselves reflect, the QR Code allows the user to access encoded information instantly when scanned. Though it is a square-shaped grid that looks simple, it can store a lot of data, but only a digital device can read them. Most of the smartphones, which are in use today, are able to read them as they have built-in QR scanners. If not, applications (Apps) to read them are readily available on the ‘Apple App Store’ and ‘Google Play’.

Opening the camera or the QR scanning application on the smartphone and pointing it at the QR Code will direct one to the information stored in it within a few seconds. The three black squares in the bottom left, top left, and top right corners of the QR Code, which are called ‘Finder pattern’, help the digital device to identify the code.

QR Codes are considered the next generation of Barcodes. Unlike standard barcodes, which can only be read from top to bottom (one-dimensional), QR Codes are read from top to bottom as well as from right to left (two-dimensional), enabling them to store more data. A QR Code can hold 7,000 characters compared to 20 with the one-dimensional barcode.

Another wonder of the QR Code is that it can be read even if it is skewed or at an angle or even damaged. This has been possible with the help of two distinctive features called ‘Alignment pattern’, another smaller square or squares within the Code, and ‘Timing pattern’, an L-shaped line that runs between the three squares in the finder pattern.

The rest of the QR Code communicates the actual information encoded in it, such as a website address (a Uniform Resource Locator- URL), a phone number, or a message. The blank area on all sides of the QR Code allows readers to optically place where the QR Code begins and ends.

The QR Code is another proud invention by the Japanese. Its birth can be traced back to 1994, when a development team led by Engineer Masahiro Hara of the automotive company ‘Denso Wave’, a Toyota subsidiary, created an improved version of barcode that could easily track automobiles and automobile parts during manufacturing. Although ‘Denso Wave’ would retain the patent rights to the QR Code, it declared that it would not exercise them, thus making it publicly available for anybody to make and use QR Codes.

Hara, who is dubbed the ‘father of the QR Code’, may not have imagined then that his invention would redefine the digital world and people would soon be scanning QR Codes even on the streets. QR Codes gathered momentum in the world from around 2010 and today they are in common place usage.

National efforts

QR Codes have been in use for several years in Sri Lanka as well, but only in limited ways as only a handful of people understood and used that system until recently.

In 2020, the Government used QR Codes during the COVID-19 outbreak for contact tracing of the infected. QR check-ins to all workplaces and retail businesses were encouraged through the “Stay Safe” programme launched by the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka, but at the same time a guest registry was also maintained at those venues for those who were not familiar with the QR Code scanning. Other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, China and Russia also used QR check-ins during the pandemic to trace Coronavirus exposure and thereby slow its spread.

When it comes to the National Fuel Pass, everybody has to comply with the QR Code requirement as no other option has been made available, but that was the very reason which made it a success. The Fuel Pass took the national awareness of QR Codes to a whole new level.

“The whole system should be under the QR Code, if it is to be a success, because that is the only way we can identify the vehicle number or the equipment, to which the fuel is given, and the owner, and thereby prevent people exploiting or excusing the system, which is the biggest challenge we had,” ICTA Chairman Jayantha De Silva told the Daily News.

De Silva, who first floated the idea of a QR-based system for rationing fuel when he also served as the Technology Ministry Secretary, said it was adopted following a discussion with all stakeholders.

“It is an easy system which can be used by shed owners and the public alike without any cost, whereas other technical solutions are expensive. The Government did not spend any money to develop the system. Though some were reluctant and sceptical at the beginning, I was confident that this would work well. When you are going for a national programme, challenges are many. We go ahead step by step,” he commented.

Responding to a question on the personal data it collects, the Chairman assured that all conditions in the Personal Data Protection Act, which was passed into law in March this year, have been adhered to during the entire process. “We are collecting only very simple information such as name, Identity Card number, vehicle number, chassis number and mobile phone number etc. In today’s context, such information is available everywhere,” he replied.

Cashless payments

Now that the public understanding on QR Codes has improved, it may be an opportune time to promote other uses of QR Codes, which will come in handy for the people in their day-to-day work and businesses.

In October 2020 and again in November last year, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) began a nationwide rollout of the ‘LANKAQR’ digital payments solution that enables consumers to make payments to merchants and service providers directly from their bank account by scanning a QR Code with their mobile phone.

It allows consumers to pay from a payments app provided by any LANKAQR-certified bank or financial institution. A total of 24 payments apps provided by 21 financial institutions in Sri Lanka have been certified for the above purpose as at the end of last year.

Customers are not charged for using LANKAQR-based payments, but merchants have to pay a nominal fee to the relevant bank. The aim of the project is to push for a cashless economy in Sri Lanka. However, in a context where even the use of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Cards for payments is not up to a satisfactory level in Sri Lanka and some people still use ATM Cards only to draw cash from the nearest machine, promotion of the QR Code-based payment system has been challenging. Also, many taxi drivers prefer cash payments as against payments by cards or QR Codes.

Even though the initial uptake of the idea has been slow in the country, QR Codes are increasingly being adopted for business purposes. QR Codes are frequently used to track information about products in a supply chain, and marketing and advertising as they are faster than entering information manually.

“Barcodes have been in use for a long time now in many places in Sri Lanka, but QR Codes are a better system. It can be used for a variety of purposes because the QR Code can be configured according to one’s requirements. Most of the companies go for very sophisticated methods, such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), which are expensive. The QR Code is a very simple and almost costless system. The people have now understood its value. It will definitely pick up steam in Sri Lanka in the future,” the ICTA Chairman noted.

Other uses

However, QR Codes are not without certain security risks. Sometimes, the users can be directed on malicious URLs to extract data from a mobile phone or a phishing website to steal personal or financial information. To avoid these, mobile users have to be wary only to scan QR Codes coming from a trusted source.

The newspaper industry is using QR Codes lately to provide the readers with additional information such as video clips and new features such as that of listening to the articles via a voice assistant. When it comes to advertising in newspapers and magazines, the QR Code can attract more readers if used in an innovative way. For example, if it is a car that is being advertised, the QR Code can provide a short video of the car or its three-dimensional images, including the interior, so that the people can get the feel of it.

Though not much used in Sri Lanka, QR Codes can be used in education to direct children through useful web-links for them to learn more about what is being taught, or allow them to easily copy or download relevant tutorials.

In addition, QR Codes are frequently used to authenticate online accounts and verify login details and to access Wi-Fi by storing encryption details. Nowadays, QR Codes in restaurants take the customers directly to the menu, allowing them to instantly order without having to wait for a waiter to come to the table. QR Codes are often found in entertainment and gaming experiences. There are new uses for the QR Code such as determining objects’ positions within ‘Augmented Reality’.

These are only a few ways QR Codes are being used in various domains. In some countries, QR Codes have gained high popularity to the extent of representing the dead on gravestones. The people visiting the graveyard can read online tributes of the dead, or more information about that deceased person’s life and career by scanning the QR Code in a headstone.

(Information in official or trusted websites in the Internet has been used in the article to support its content)

LANKAQR payment method at the expressways
 


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