DENSO ADC announced that the QR Code® development team from DENSO Wave, Incorporated and Toyota Central R&D Labs was awarded the European Inventor Award Popular Prize, at a ceremony held June 17, 2014, in Berlin, Germany.  Masahiro Hara, of DENSO Wave, Incorporated, led the QR Code development team that won the 2014 European Inventor Award Popular Prize.

The award is given annually by the European Patent Office to inventors of technologically, socially and economically excellent inventions. The Popular Prize winner is chosen by a public vote. “This award reflects the widespread acceptance the QR Code has achieved in the 20 years since its introduction,” said Fran Labun, vice president, Sales Group, DENSO Products and Services Americas, Inc. “It underscores the QR Code’s social value as well as its technological importance.”

The QR Code, which DENSO continues to evolve, is a compact, two-dimensional barcode that can hold many times more information than a one-dimensional barcode, and in a smaller space.

Among the latest QR Code developments is the Security QR Code. The SQRC® can contain both encrypted as well as normally readable data, to help detect and prevent counterfeit, gray-market and black-market goods, and protect patient health-care privacy.

Other recent QR Code innovations are LogoQ® and LogoQ Face, which allow a full-color logo or photo to be embedded into a QR Code. Applications include enhanced branding opportunities, loyalty-card and badge identification, and promotional items.

DENSO ADC is the Americas sales arm of DENSO Wave Incorporated, a pioneer of CCD technology and inventor of the QR Code. DENSO Wave is among the world’s largest manufacturers of mobile data-capture systems. The company also offers the industry’s only QR Code-generating software that ensures ISO-compliant, optimally readable codes.