Remediate Your Daily Life with P8tch QRCode Patches

QRCodes are heating up as a way to bring 'net connectivity into our everyday life. For those unfamiliar with them, these relatives of the bar code were designed specifically with mobile functionality in mind, and can be scanned with the camera on your phone. Snapping a picture of the coded block with scanning software generally triggers a link to a url, kind of like a real-world hotlink. These have taken off big time in Japan over the past few years but have been catching on slowly in the US as well.


Recently (like in the last couple days) this website has begun offering patches emblazoned with QRCodes that, when scanned with a compatible phone, can link to a website, YouTube video, or conceivably anything else you can link to on the web. These are being hand made by the site's owner, who also is hosting the redirect server. Each patch's code is unique, and comes with a passcode to change what it redirects to as often as you like.

I'm moving to Japan soon and, given that almost every phone there is capable of scanning QRCodes, thought this might be a cool way to introduce myself, like an e-business card. So I ordered one. There are currently 6 designs to choose from. I got the "You Are Here" icon because it seems like it would work horizontally or vertically, and also resonates with the kind of Lost In Translation theme. Shipping timeframes are currently looking like a couple weeks, but I'll update once I get it and try it out.