Who invented the QR code?

Masahiro Hara

Masahiro Hara was an engineer at Denso, the Toyota Group components manufacturer, working on barcode readers for factory logistics. By the early 1990s Toyota's production lines were drowning in 1D barcodes: each held roughly twenty characters, so a single crate of parts carried several, and workers scanned them one at a time. Hara's assignment was a code that held more and read faster.

The corporate detail trips people up: the QR code predates its owner. It was developed inside Denso in 1994; Denso Wave, the subsidiary that now holds the rights, was not incorporated until 2001.

The Go board

Hara has told the origin story many times. He played Go during lunch breaks, and the board (black and white stones arranged on a grid) suggested that data could be laid out in two dimensions rather than one. A 1D barcode is a single scan line; a grid multiplies capacity by the number of rows.

The idea sounds obvious in hindsight. The hard part was not storing data in a grid but finding the grid in a messy photograph, which is the problem the finder patterns solved. Hara's team surveyed printed material to find a black-white ratio that almost never occurs in ordinary print, and built the three corner squares around it. The full story of that search is on the history page.

A team of two

The development team was remarkably small: Hara has said the core work was done by two people, himself included, over roughly a year and a half. The result, released in 1994, held around 200 times more than a standard barcode and could be read from any angle.

The decision that mattered more than the invention

Denso patented the design, and then publicly declared it would not enforce the patents against anyone using the standardised format. Hara has been consistent about the reasoning: the team wanted the code used as widely as possible, and Denso's business was selling the scanners and readers, so a free format grew the market for its hardware.

That decision, not the geometry, is why QR codes are on every menu, boarding pass and payment terminal on earth while technically comparable proprietary codes stayed niche. The patents have since expired anyway: the details are on are QR codes patented and free to use, but "QR Code" remains a Denso Wave trademark.

Recognition, eventually

For two decades the invention earned Hara steady employment and little fame. In 2014, twenty years after release, Hara and the Denso Wave team received the European Patent Office's European Inventor Award (Popular Prize), voted by the public, fittingly for an invention given to the public.

Hara stayed at Denso Wave and kept working on the family: the company later developed Micro QR, SQRC and FrameQR, and Hara has spoken in interviews about pushing capacity further, including experiments with colour.

FAQ

Who invented the QR code?

Masahiro Hara, an engineer at Denso in Japan, leading a two-person team. The code was released in 1994. Denso Wave, the subsidiary that now owns the rights, was incorporated in 2001.

What inspired the QR code design?

Hara has said the idea of storing data in a two-dimensional grid came from the board game Go, which he played at lunchtime, black and white stones arranged on a grid.

Did the inventor of the QR code get rich from it?

No. Denso chose not to enforce its patents so the format would spread, and made its money selling readers instead. Hara remained a salaried engineer and has said he wanted the code used widely rather than monetised.

When did the QR code inventor win an award?

In 2014 Hara and the Denso Wave team received the European Patent Office's European Inventor Award in the Popular Prize category, twenty years after the code's release.