great idea
Printable View
great idea
It's an interesting idea Tom. A laser would be fast and incredibly precise. One potential issue with both of those types of codes though is that they both rely on contrast. If the background and foreground colours don't have enough contrast between them, the code will likely fail to scan correctly. Etching into bare metal might not provide enough contrast. As we touched on in the Hangout, there are ways to get around this with paint that can be etched, etc.. but then I think you might be adding more complexity than you want to the whole process.
Josh - been thinking about the marking of the steel in the steel yard. It is done with paint and caulk which makes it easy to read from a short distance by the workers. However, with adding of QR coding the yard can have the best of both. Have you ever etched a circuit board before? I have done many and the patterns are very clean and precise. I envisioned a QR Code of at least 4x4 laser etched or painted on the steel to be affective. Check out this process :http://www.matthewsmarking.com/produ...content=ad2571.
•Non-contact printing that is fast, clean and dry
•Extremely reliable production even at high throughput speeds
•Environmentally friendly printing requiring no inks or ribbons
•Virtually no marking content restrictions
If a company used Steel Color Codes markings then QR Codes could be Etched on to that color... Interesting???? Read a bit on a Sandblasting technique that is being used. Doesn't seem to be very good for quick marking though.
Hey Tom, that is a really interesting technique. A general rule of thumb for QR Code sizing is: Size of the Code= Distance from the scanner divided by 10, so it would depend on how far away the scans would be happening from. That would definitely solve the contrast issue and it sounds like they have lasers that can be installed almost anywhere. And yes, I agree, I think sandblasting would be impractical. Are there any yards that you know of using QR codes now?
Josh,
Looks like the Brits have a good understanding of QR Codes use in Marin... BBC News: Workers building the UK's largest-ever warships are using a mobile application to stop them getting lost inside the huge vessels.
The app lets workers scan QR codes with their phones which will then display navigation routes available to them..... http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-26741391
That's the article that Denis mentioned during our chat - I think there are a lot of potential ways to use QR codes to bridge the gap between information and users. I think it's interesting that there are roughly 3,600 of them around the ship and that the workers are using their phones to interact with the codes - apparently there is a phone-friendly policy in place there. This image is from a dailymail.co.uk article. I like how the QR code has a white "safe zone" around it to facilitate scanning and that it is big enough to be easily scanned from a distance.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-300-crew.html