
Retailer uses 3D QR codes and the Sun to time limit discounts - timthorn
http://www.springwise.com/retail/seoul-retailer-3d-qr-codes-sun-deliver-discounts-quiet-times/
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techiferous
Very creative.

I would expect the biggest win for this campaign to be in the very beginning
when the novelty attracts people.

I don't think this would be sustainable, because the QR code sculptures would
require continual adjustment throughout the year to account for the procession
of the sun. And clouds.

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jws
At 1:09 in the video you can see the sculpture get pivoted on a horizontal
axle. That is sufficient. At some point during the day (near noon if it faces
south) the left/right alignment will be correct, at that point you can tip it
on the axle for optimum legibility.

The angle will vary by season, but if it is legible for an hour a day, there
is a fair degree of slop available.

It should be intuitively human adjustable, simply maximize the square
pixelation nature, or if you want something more explicit, make the bottoms of
the long vertical dark spots line up with adjacent short vertical dark spots.

It is near June and they appear to be vertical. In the winter, with a lower
sun, it will need to be tipped down and people will need to hold their phones
lower and perhaps come closer. Good thing they didn't build it like this for
winter. Then in the summer people would have to sit on a friend's shoulders to
take the pictures.

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nsns
IMO this is a PR move, meant to garner publicity, but not really workable. The
sun changes positions throughout the year, then there are clouds, it doesn't
make sense.

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maybird
"Sorry, offer not available in Seattle." ;)

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ecocentrik
It would require hard shadows... since clouds defuse light resulting in soft
shadows it wouldn't work if there are any clouds covering the sun.

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MrEnigma
The box on the delivery made has some questionable spelling on it. There is a
Team America joke in here somewhere.

<http://i.imgur.com/BG7mxl.jpg>

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Toenex
Very cool. A variation on this might be the create a QR code that can only be
seen from a particular orientation - a bit like the 4 on the UK TV Channel 4
interludes. You could use it to ensure people were looking in the right
direction or perhaps or at the right thing.

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TazeTSchnitzel
One of the Channel 4 logos in question, for non-Brits:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R94X1M7r1SU>

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sp332
Here's the April Fool's version, where they removed the CGI effects from the
video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEgmhwP7XWc> :)

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Oh that's clever. Although it's less of an April Fool, more of an April prank.

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yogrish
Appears to me that Koreans are fighting a lot in Retail space. Earlier, Tesco
(Home+ in Korea) launched Virtual Grocery store which is a big hit. Now its
competitor came up with this innovative idea. More innovations in pipeline ;)

~~~
olliesaunders
The 2D (virtual) shop you are referring to:
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-
phones/8601147/...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-
phones/8601147/Tesco-builds-virtual-shops-for-Korean-commuters.html)

~~~
Dn_Ab
This service would be even more awesome with self driving vans optimizing
logistics. Now to solve the delivery from van to door problem - as usual the
last 1% takes as much effort as the previous 99%.

~~~
j-b
That's an interesting idea. I'm coding Direct Store Delivery software that
manages inventory through wireless handheld devices. The problem is that a lot
of shipping is from vendor to store directly and the receivers are required to
validate the shipment has the correct products, quantity, cost/deal invoice
details and then work it out with the vendor delivery driver as needed. There
are companies that strategically attempt to offload certain products that the
store doesn't want at that point in time but will save the vendor $ if they
can ship today vs. next week when different cost/deals take effect.

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artursapek
When I read the headline I thought I was going to see a QR code printed in UV-
sensitive ink. This is much more creative.

Like people have said though, this probably isn't as maintainable as a UV-
sensitive one might have been.

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shabble
For a more technological solution to the copied image problem, and also the
reorientation necessary throughout the year, I think you could perhaps build a
very large Pin Grid[1], with actuators for each pin, able to extend or retract
them to the required position.

Then you can figure out different patterns which are valid when lit from a
particular direction, as well as altering the actual data it encodes,
synchronised with updating the coupon code that merchants will accept.

Could be kinda pricey for that number of actuators though, but if you were
willing to have very slow update frequency, a single 2-axis adjustment head
(think plotter or laser-cutter) with a smaller number of push/pull elements
could move around, changing only X pins at a time, maybe with a friction lock
to stop them moving once it progresses onto the next group.

[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin_Art>

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altrego99
It will be an interesting challenge to write a program that can 'scan' the QR
code at all time.

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javajosh
Impressive. But you know what would be more impressive? Build a sculpture that
yields different, _valid_ QR codes in every season.

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biot
It would be interesting to hack this and augment the sculpture to produce a
URL under your own control. By changing the heights of the various
protrusions, you could alter the shadows and thereby alter the code. Hopefully
someone would be able to do this in an easy to reverse manner by taping on
foam pieces rather than literally hacking pieces off.

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Digit-Al
I wonder if you could hack it with a spotlight?

~~~
digitalsushi
You could just take a photo of the sculpture and paint it on your phone with a
cheap editing app. You would just need to infer the shadow areas and paint
them black, and the sunny parts white squares. QR codes were made to be very
resilient to noise, and I can attest that you can mess with them quite a bit
before they won't decipher. My boss asked me to take a QR code linking to our
website and to try and rearrange some of the squares to be our initials. I got
a few to work, and learned that the Reed Solomon encoding duplicates the data
so much that this egregious manipulation was still acceptable.

~~~
garethadams
Of course by doing this, you remove some of the error correction. Your mutated
QR code is less likely to be scanned by a camera which is lo-res, at an angle,
in dim light or affected by some other imperfection. People who test
customised QR codes almost certainly only test them under close-to-perfect
conditions.

~~~
digitalsushi
Nope.

My test conditions were transferring them to a black t-shirt with an iron-on
printer sheet, and then taking a jpeg of my wife wearing it in the kitchen
with an iphone and using a QR code recoder app.

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joejohnson
This is very clever. Of course, they will need to move the signs slightly
every day, as the alignment of the 12-1 o'clock hour will change with the
seasons. Also, what's preventing someone from taking a picture at the proper
time and posting that photo on the internet?

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jrockway
The article, in fact, does this. So nothing. It's just an ad.

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wiradikusuma
a statue is a permanent installation right? how do they prevent one guy
scanning it and sharing the URL(?) to everyone?

or just bookmark the url and open it again next day without scanning the
statue again.

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tytso
I assume it goes to a URL which is only valid between noon and 1pm. The QR
code is probably scannable during a time period slightly wider than that,
depending on the time of year.

It looks like the QR "statue" pivots to correct for the changing path of the
sun across the sky, but the positioning doesn't have to be accurate to the
point of working exactly from 12:00:00 to 13:00:00 local time. You can also
add enforcement on the web server.

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mertd
So if you increase sales during certain hours, does that mean you make some
sales that you otherwise would not have made or are you just shifting
customers around different time slots?

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URSpider94
I'm sure it's a little of both. Sounds like they recruited a lot of new email
subscribers, which is valuable. But, even shifting demand can be good if you
can level out demand -- may mean fewer staff at peak times, shorter delivery
queues, etc.

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capex
Korea must enjoy fine sunny mornings I presume..

