Barcodes help to share information about the various locations.
The area of downtown Quincy, Illinois, is now offering a new method of gaining information about the various historic buildings within its business district, by posting QR codes that allow smartphone users to scan in order to learn more.
The Historic Quincy Business District now has stickers posted on many building windows.
These stickers feature custom QR codes that, when scanned, redirect users to a website about that specific building. The barcode stickers are posted in the windows of their relevant buildings. According to the executive director of the Historic Quincy Business District, there are approximately thirty buildings that now sport these mobile barcodes. His hope is that there will be a larger number with the feature in the near future.
The QR codes provide a quick and simple way for smartphone users to learn more.
These mobile barcodes are used in the same way as they are in other circumstances, such as for those found on product packages or magazine advertisements. Each building’s QR codes redirect their scanners to a website that features a video. The running time for the videos is between two and a half and five minutes. Each video is specific to the building that sports its quick response code.
These recorded presentations are voiced by Rich Cain at WGEM, and provide more information about the building’s history and place within the city.
Brown explained the project by saying that “It’s kind of bringing to life all the great architecture – and you know, bringing that to life through stories about what happened to the building, what happened in the building, some different things like that bring the architecture to life.”
Aside from using QR codes in order to learn more about the various buildings in the Quincy Business District, there is also an app that has been created for the users of Android smartphones and iPhones. This allows individuals to skip the step of having to scan the code, so that they can choose the building they want and find out more about it, regardless of whether or not they are standing in front of it.
