In 1994, the Japanese invented the QR code, but he didn't see the value of the QR code and was not even willing to apply for a patent, he thought that the QR code would be eliminated within 10 years. Unexpectedly, the QR code was carried forward by the Chinese, and the Japanese were very popular!
One afternoon in 1994, in an ordinary car factory in Nagoya, Japan, Chief Engineer Masahiro Hara was lost in thought over the piles of parts in front of him.
Faced with the dense barcodes on the parts, the workers had to scan them over and over again, which was inefficient and full of complaints. "There must be a better way," Hara thought to himself.
After lunch, Yuan played a game of Go before returning to his workstation. The black and white chess pieces form an interesting pattern on the board, like dancing musical notes jumping between square inches.
Yuan Masahiro's gaze suddenly froze, and a wonderful thought flashed through his mind like a flint: If the information is encoded into such a black and white pattern, will it be possible to break through the limitations of barcodes?
At the moment of inspiration, Yuan Changhong's heart was surging. He immediately found a pen and paper and began to write and draw frantically. It's a simple idea, but the possibilities are endless. If successful, it will not only solve the efficiency challenges of the moment, but also potentially revolutionize the way information is stored and transmitted.
However, the reality is skinny. Hara's superiors showed little interest in this whimsical idea, and were only willing to give him a team of two people. Faced with everything starting from scratch, the atmosphere in the team gradually changed from the initial excitement to the sluggishness. Without sufficient human and material support, the project was in trouble.
But Hara did not give up. He knows that giving up means giving up; And persistence, even if there is only a 1 in 10,000 chance, is worth a fight. So, he chose the latter.
Day after day, he and his small team worked hard to navigate through countless failures and setbacks. After more than two years of hard work, a new way of encoding information was finally born, which they called "QR code".
Yuan Changhong held this square-sized black and white square, and his heart was full of mixed feelings. It may seem simple, but it carries the countless all-nighters efforts of the team. What's more, it's a key that opens the door to connect the physical and digital worlds, and the potential is limitless.
However, fate once again played a joke on Masahiro Hara. For a variety of reasons, the company's top brass decided to abandon patenting the QR code. When the news came, Yuan Changhong was stunned. Applying for a patent means the protection of the results of painstaking efforts; Giving up a patent is tantamount to giving up the "gold mine" in the palm of your hand.
After much hesitation, Yuan made a difficult decision: respect the company's arrangement and give up the patent. This decision made him miss the opportunity to become a billionaire. But at the same time, it also allows the key of QR code to plug in the wings of freedom, and since then it has sprouted and flourished around the world.
In the days that followed, Yuan Changhong returned to work, and the matter of QR codes was gradually forgotten. Who would have thought that more than ten years later, the bland QR code would "become popular" overnight.
In 2000, QR codes were unveiled in Japan as an information carrier for horse racing betting, but the response was mediocre. It wasn't until smartphones began to become widespread that it finally came to its own stage.
In China, QR codes have become more frequent on restaurant tables, in front of museum exhibits, and at turnstiles on buses and subways...... People are gradually accustomed to "sweeping" and using the "magic wand" of mobile phones to seamlessly connect offline and online.
Overnight, QR codes have gone from obscurity to sweetness, especially in the field of mobile payments. In the streets and alleys, people "scan the code" to pay easily, and traditional wallets have become dispensable. QR codes are changing the lives of Chinese at an unprecedented speed.
However, the rise of QR codes is no accident. Behind it is the rapid development of Internet technology, China is backed by the world's largest mobile Internet user group, is the world's first Internet enterprises, developers and entrepreneurs, and is the hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers who like to try first.
QR codes are leveraged by the ambition and ambition of an ancient country to embrace digitalization.
In 2020, a sudden epidemic made QR codes "popular" in China to a new height.
Under the raging virus, "contactless" has become a rigid need, and QR codes serve as a "transit station" for "contactless" services. From ordering food to health codes to vaccinations, it has witnessed the normalization of epidemic prevention and control in a country.
That year, Yuan Changhong was once again pushed to the forefront of public opinion. Most of the overwhelming news reports portrayed him as an inventor with "selfless dedication".
People lamented that he gave up patents and missed the opportunity to harvest billions of dollars, and lamented that "invention is not for making money".
In this regard, Yuan Changhong, who is almost ancient, seems very indifferent. In his opinion, money was never the most important thing. His greatest wish is to make his invention benefit more people. If you apply for a patent, it may hinder the promotion of QR codes, which will be more than worth the loss.
Moreover, Yuan Changhong has already made a break with fame and fortune in this life. He has always demanded himself as an engineer, regarding invention as his mission and solving practical problems as his own responsibility.
Nowadays, QR codes have become a global information carrier that has profoundly changed human life. Looking back on the development of QR code in the past 30 years, it reflects the epitome of technological progress and changes of the times.
From the niche technology that was not favored at the beginning, to the "Internet celebrity" whose applications are blooming everywhere, QR code has gone through a road intertwined with innovation and agitation.
As the father of QR codes, Yuan Changhong is lucky, he has witnessed the blossoming of "hard work"; He also has no regrets, freeing his invention from the shackles of self-interest and taking root in the world. He often said that invention is not for himself, but to change the world and pave a broad road for future generations.
"Invention is never just for yourself, but to change the world." Masahiro Hara once said, "When your invention can change the life of even one person, you have the whole world." This must be his original intention of invention.
(Source: CPPCC Network - The QR code you scan every day was invented by the Japanese, and it is indeed Chinese who make money)
