A closer look
Quick Response codes were invented in 1994 by a Japanese company called Denso Wave purely to track automotive parts during the manufacturing process. For over two decades, they were widely considered an embarrassing marketing gimmick that desperate companies slapped onto bus stops, knowing full well that nobody was going to download a dedicated app just to scan them. Then a global pandemic hit, and suddenly reading a physical menu became a public health hazard, resurrecting this dead technology from the grave overnight. Now we are forced to squint at our phone cameras in dimly lit restaurants just to find out how much a burger costs, all while dealing with pop-up ads and terrible mobile websites. A system designed to efficiently track car engines was weaponized to make dining out significantly more annoying, proving that technology never truly dies, it just waits for the perfect moment to inconvenience us
