LONG BEACH, Calif. — 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.
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.
For more information, visit www.denso-adc.com.
DENSO Corporation, headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan, is a leading global automotive supplier of advanced technology, systems and components in the areas of thermal, powertrain control, electronics and information and safety. Its customers include all the world’s major carmakers. Worldwide, the company has more than 200 subsidiaries and affiliates in 38 countries and regions (including Japan) and employs nearly 140,000 people. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, totaled US$39.8 billion. Last fiscal year, DENSO spent 9 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development. DENSO common stock is traded on the Tokyo and Nagoya stock exchanges.
Currently, in North America, DENSO employs more than 17,000 people at 33 consolidated companies and affiliates. Of these, 28 are manufacturing facilities located in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. In the U.S. alone, DENSO employs more than 14,000 people in California, Alabama, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, Arkansas and Pennsylvania. DENSO’s North American consolidated sales totaled US$7.9 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014.
QR Code® and SQRC® are registered trademarks of DENSO Wave, Incorporated. LogoQ® is a registered trademark of A.T Communications Co., Ltd.