Generating personal QR codes on mobile device

Abstract

Quick response (QR) code is a machine-readable code consisting of black and white squares also known as modules, typically used for storing information such as URL and the information can be easily decoded by using QR scanners on smartphones. Businesses are using QR codes on printed medias and business cards for marketing or advertising purposes to lead potential buyers to their websites and listings. To attract users to scan QR code, visually significant QR codes can be achieved by blending QR code with another image. Since pixel art has numerous modules and its properties are similar to those of QR code, a pixelated image module can blend perfectly with the QR code module. By adjusting the luminance of image pixel, it can help to achieve the blending of QR code and image. Blending with gradient effect can further be achieved by setting different thresholds and adjusting the luminance accordingly. By resizing the QR modules smaller allows more image pixels to be shown. The purpose of this project is to implement the customization of QR on mobile platform, so that users can easily customized QR codes according to their needs. Parallel processing is introduced in the pixelation and blending method to speed up the overall processing time on mobile platform. In addition, further experiments were done to test the reliability and comparison of visual appearance of different pixelation and blending methods. The user interface and its design principles are discussed in the last part of the report.