APOD: QR Codes: Not for Human Eyes (2011 Oct 04)

[APOD Robot]

QR Codes: Not for Human Eyes

Explanation: This communication was not meant for human eyes. It was not even meant for aliens eyes. It's an attempt to communicate directly with your smartphone. Cameras on many smartphones can image the above Quick Response (QR) code and then common applications can tell you what it means. Sometimes the deciphered code will reveal a web site address, prompting the smartphone to then ask you if you want to access this address to learn more about the object. QR codes are two-dimensional analogs of bar codes that can be scanned in any orientation and tolerate several types of errors. These codes are being used increasingly as doors between real objects and web-based information about those objects, and so are popping up increasingly in unexpected places. Anyone can create a QR code from any of several free online services, print it out, and affix it to an object. Although not meant to communicate with aliens, QR codes employ several attributes common to famous alien communication attempts. Can you -- or a local smartphone -- figure out what the above QR code means?

<< Previous APOD

Discuss Any APOD

Next APOD >>

[/b]

[zerro1]

This is by far the most insulting image you could have posted! With all of the amature astronmers who have taken the time to submit their images and you people choose this as an APOD....I'm through! Bye Bye!

[Endyo]

Well that's kind of disappointing...

Not only is it a QR code in place of one of the many amazing astronomy images that could be there, but it just links back to the main page. You'd at least thing you'd have it linking to a real image actually related to astronomy...

oh well....

[mek]

you know there are still many of us without any kind of cell phone

[alter-ego]

Is it the APOD URL?

[orionll]

I'm stuck in a loop!

[kazemaniac]

This was by far the worst APOD I've encountered.

[jtempleton]

Please put an astronomy image on tomorrow's website. APOD is my home page. I think of astronomy as a pure science and linking aliens to cell phones is a bit far fetched. Or are you telling us something?

A nebula photo would be a great recovery tomorrow.

[nebosite]

What? Did I happen to browse to "QR code of the day?" I am sad. I need an astronomy fix.

[Mr.No.Scope]

I don't have a smart phone and don't want the cell phone that I do have. I don't want the land phone that I have either. So my answer is: I don't know and I don't care. I wish to see pictures about astronomy, not futuristic bar codes that only computers can read and, based on other posts, only lead back to the home page anyway.

[Martian1]

If you squint it kind of looks like it could be an image of a cute alien.

P.S. APOD will continue to be the homepage on our computer. Thanks, APOD people!

[harmonica1@cox.net]

E+MC2

[fizzbin]

This is APOD not Barcode of the Day.

[geckzilla]

Pretty funny scanning this and then having the code shift from the camera image to the APOD page with the code on it.


And wow, 38 minutes into the day and already this many posts. Is it possible that this simple QR code will outdo the old global warming thread?

[wavelet]

online qr-code decoder:

http://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx

the url to paste:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1110/qr ... wa_372.png

results:

Raw text http://apod.nasa.gov/
Raw bytes 41 56 87 47 47 03 a2 f2 f6 17 06 f6 42 e6 e6 17 36 12 e6 76 f7 62 f0 ec 11 ec 11 ec 11 ec 11 ec 11 ec 11 ec
Barcode format QR_CODE
Parsed Result Type URI
Parsed Result http://apod.nasa.gov/

Click to view full size image

[Vikon99]

Sadly, NASA no longer does science. Only Outreach and other "touchy-feelie" crap. Hell we even use the Russians for manned space flight now.

Christ what a waste this was.

[Chris Peterson]

Thanks to the editors for occasionally posting this sort of APOD. It helps me figure out who the idiots are who need to be on my ignore list!

[stowaway]

By far the worst APOD yet. Come - on - you - Guys!

[Bandit]

Seems by the responses today some people had bad Mondays. I like what Martin posted
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 70#p159060

[Duke]

Print out the QR code and put it somewhere where it might lead the public to our favorite Astro picture site. I think this is the meaning of today's APOD.

[Ann]

I'm a bit disappointed too, but then, since I am a non-mathematician, this kind of APOD has little chance of ever really pleasing me. On the other hand, if we ever encounter an alien intelligence, we will have to speak to them (it?) using clever codes. So there is nothing wrong with exploring the subject, as such, and nothing wrong with showing images of the codes, as such.

But now I'm longing for a really colorful sparkling RGB image of a galaxy!

Ann

[Tucanae72]

Please give us a cluster of galaxies - not codes, ok?

[BenTorrey]

Actually, I found it helpful. I've been seeing these things more and more and was wondering what they are. Thank you for enlightening me.

[Anon]

I didn't know an innocuous entity like APOD could draw so much ire for a perceived minor misstep. It seems unwarranted considering this is a free, amazing archive of thousands of pictures. If you don't a post, all you need to do is click on any of the thousands of links in the archive and it will probably be more to your liking. I certainly don't understand where the hate is coming from.

[Hartful]

This is the worst image in a long line of bad images posted over this past year. Just about every day's picture has been a disappointment. I was expecting the pictures to get better considering the improvements in satellites in orbit and those sent to the other planets in our solar system. I find better pictures at Wiki and NASA. What the hay!!