Quick & curious · Technology

QR codes were invented for car parts.

A black-and-white QR code
Illustration: Brdall · Public domain · Original

1994invented at Denso Wave

The story behind it

The QR code was invented for car parts.

In 1994 Masahiro Hara at the Japanese company Denso Wave developed the code to label vehicle parts. Because it reads faster and holds more data than a barcode, it later took over the world.

Sources

Every statement in this discovery is backed by one of these sources and was checked before publication.

  1. Wikipedia: QR code (accessed 2026-10-05)

Image credits

  • “QR code for mobile English Wikipedia.svg”, Brdall, Public domain