You’ve probably bought groceries and seen the cashier scan an item to get its price. It works because each product has a code that’s a shortcut. It prevents the cashier from having to look up each item.

Well, these days new kinds of codes are appearing that are scanable with camera phones.
And like a cashier scanner, they create shortcuts to all kinds of information.

In our online world, everything is linked together. You visit a website, and click a link to visit another site, send a message, view a photo or download a video.  A simple click makes everything possible.

On the other hand, our physical world is what you see walking down the street.   The problem is – nothing is clickable. You can’t click a URL on a container to see recipes.  You can’t click a statue to read about it on Wikipedia. So, you end up having to type in a link, take notes or just keep walking. But that’s starting to change.

You may have seen codes like these. They’re called QR or “quick response” codes and they mean your camera phone can now be a little like a cashier’s scanner.

Once you have an QR reader app on your smartphone, you can point your camera phone at these codes and immediately grab useful information.

Let’s say you’re running errands and walk by a sign that says “New Show Coming Soon” and there’s a QR code.   You can just open your QR reader app, point your camera phone at the code and the app will automatically give you options.

No links to remember, no notes - just point your phone at the QR code and the real world becomes clickable.

But that’s just the beginning.  Imagine visiting a landmark and using a QR code to watch a video about it. Or scanning a QR code in a newspaper or magazine to email a link to a friend. Or scanning one to follow your local bakery on Twitter.

QR codes are important because, for the first time, they make the real world...clickable.