COLUMN: QR codes and smartphones are the wave of the future

Facebook, Twitter, television, email, mp3 player, video chat and weather updates are only a few things I can do on my phone. Why? Because it’s smart.
I’m one of the one-out-of-three Americans who have turned to relying on smartphone devices for everyday uses. I use it to keep up with my friends on social sites, communicate via email to family members and work, and my favorite of all, schedule my television to DVR shows automatically (Like American Idol).
I rely on my phone for most everything I do, but sometimes it’s smarter than me.
A few months ago I noticed an ad in The LaRue County Herald News that had an odd little box filled with what appeared to be black smudge marks. Below it, it read, “Use your phone’s QR scanner app to find out more information.”
 I knew that I could scan it but I was hoping I had the correct scanner. So I used my barcode scanner in hopes that it would work on these nifty little nameless boxes. (Barcode scanners allow for a consumer to check the price of a product in a store and compare products over the Internet instantly on their phone.) With one scan it worked. It took me directly to a webpage on the Internet, where their products were advertised and explained in detail. To say the least, I was impressed.
Through a little research I found out that the black smudge mark had a name – QR code. The code is basically an image that is encoded with information such as phone numbers, web addresses and text, and come to find out they are becoming increasingly popular – mainly with businesses.
With a little extra digging, I even found out how to create these neat codes. So now I have a code that will send a text of “Candis is awesome!” if scanned by a smartphone. Seriously.
The kicker is, there is no use for it if you don’t have a smartphone. However, the good news is (for most people anyway) experts anticipate that all cell phone users will eventually be equipped with smartphones as contract renewals and upgrades go into effect over the next several years – unless of course you like the Jitterbug phone from the dinosaur age.
So just in case you were wondering what the “smudge” in the paper is, you now know – it’s a “smart smudge,” better known as a QR code. If you have a smartphone check out the codes, it’s interesting what pops up.