Created in 1994 by Toyota subsidiary 'Denso Wave' to quickly track vehicles and parts through the company's automotive manufacturing process, QR codes are used more commonly today for logging into websites or Wi-Fi networks, sharing contact information, making mobile payments or storing data for plane and train tickets on your phone.

QR codes (short for Quick Response codes) were internationally standardized in 2000 and mobile phone users in Japan had already widely adopted the technology by 2002. Although Denso Wave still holds patents over the technology, QR codes are free for anyone to use without a license fee as long as the intellectual property is being used within the defined ISO/JIS standards.