It is no secret that one can alter the time of a picture when it was taken. There are many ways to maintain false records on our Smartphones when it comes to placing a certain media or activity at a particular time.
A QR code could help in assigning information about time and place about activities on a Smartphone. BERG, a London based designed consultant company has created a concept called the ‘Clocks for Robots’. It allows the user to authenticate time and date to the sensors of devices like cameras and Smartphones. This may have various implications in Smartphone usage especially when it comes to information exchange, validation of media and assigning time and place in a universally verified standard.
The QR code based ‘Clocks for Robots’ is not really a gadget that can be used alongside a Smartphone, but a concept that gets you to think about the very essence of time and space. The clock utilizes the pattern of a QR code just below the area where the time is shown, digitally. Each second is assigned a QR code which can be accessed from any place or at any point of time later. The concept designers also revealed that much of the concept was aimed to encourage discussions about how markings and shapes attract the attention of computer vision as opposed to human vision.
Computers see things differently than we do, and this is pretty obvious in QR codes. QR codes are patterns that hold a wealth of information. One could use a Smartphone to capture a QR code and scan it, and later use the code to download information from an online location. Many Japanese people use QR codes in their business cards, which can later be used to gain more information about the bearer of the card. This information may be too large to fir the size of a business card. A static marking like a QR code contains dynamic information which could change with time and space.
This paradox was captured in the conceptual clock, which seeks to raise our own perceptions about time and space, and how computers may understand these patterns differently than we do. The clock, if manufactured may not have any particular function but gets you to think about how time and space can be reduced to a static pattern, written in a QR code. You can also take a look at the 10 Uses of QR Codes which we had listed sometime back. We had also written about the QR Coins, and prophesized that they could be the currency for the future.
