Isaac QR Codes

QR codes can be found everywhere these days, and with the ubiquity of smartphones they can be quite useful too. Almost every modern phone has a QR code reader built into the camera app, and modern mobile web browsers like Chrome have a button on the keyboard for scanning them. In their standard black and white form, though, QR codes can be quite boring - but the underlying specification actually allows for any colour provided there is enough contrast between it and the background.

You can do more than just change colours though; QR codes are based on a clever algorithm with error-correction built in. So you can actually cover up to 25% of the middle of a QR code so long as the four alignment squares are clearly visible and there’s nothing touching the edge. I’ve been experimenting with adding our logo to the centre, and making them Isaac green.

It’s quite easy to make these automatically, although only in SVG form for now. Right now it’s just a neat demo, but it may be useful for teachers to get their group join codes in QR code form or just to display a link to Isaac in their classroom. You can find some more example Isaac QR codes on this page.

If you can think of any other use for these QR codes, or feel they’d be useful to you: do let us know here.