Engineers Find Way To Securely Display 3D Images By Scanning QR Codes

If you thought those Quick Response (QR) codes could serve no other purpose than acting as a label that holds all information about the item to which it is attached or accessing webpages using your smart device, think again because you are about to be proven wrong by the engineers at University of Connecticut. Using a series of small lenses attached to any normal smartphone, the optical engineers have been able to display 3D images by scanning an array of QR codes. The interesting part is that you don't have to be connected to the internet. The applications of this kind of technology are immense and we can imagine having apps for playing 3D games, product visualization to be used for marketing or in manufacturing sector, as also secure transmission and storage of 3D data.

The optical engineering team achieved this by developing QR codes that can store encrypted and compressed images. Moreover, with their research they also detected a security flaw with QR codes that let's the user access a website link including malicious data if any. To solve this issue, they simply eliminated the need of the Internet, by storing self-contained slices of data in the QR codes itself. The primary image is captured as a series of 2D images from different angle and all these elemental images are combined into a final 3D image. Each elemental image goes through a program that compresses, encrypts, and stores that information as a QR code. With a QR code reader app in your smartphone, this information can be easily retrieved, whereas a separate decryption app can be used to decompress and create a 3D image out of it on top of the smartphone screen.

QR-codes-secure-3D-displays

Though the system isn't yet full-proof or available for commercial use yet, the future applications indeed look promising. Those interested could take a look at the paper published at #-Link-Snipped-# titled "3D Integral Imaging Displays Using a QR Encoded Elemental Image Array". What are your ideas about QR codes revolutionizing the 3D technology world? Share with us in comments below.

Replies

You are reading an archived discussion.

Related Posts

With an aim to build customized motorcycles, Rajputana Customs was started by Vijay Singh in Jaipur in the year 2009. Rajputana Customs is a small motorcycle outfit that modifies bikes...
So, we are in the process for spreading out the word about the CrazyEngineers Week Celebrations and are actively posting about it on CE, Twitter and Facebook. We would love...
i have thought of making a door security system that uses smart card to lock and unlock. but i have no idea about any of the smart card module that...
I was browsing CE and it hit me that we really miss a dedicated thread about LEDs. Does that matter? No, it doesn't. But, I thought it would be great...
Today i got placed in NIIT technologies ltd. Noida. Job profile will be either system admin or technical writer. Does anyone know how is the company and how is the...