Shirt.Woot

@equazcion Sorry mate you are wrong, the code posted by 5of) is not square and works very well and is not square.

@kyrmada That is pretty cool, I never knew you could make designs like that... not that I've ever looked too much into QR code making more than a basic what are they level, but that is cool.


I'd buy this shirt if the code worked. There is no reason it could't of worked and still looked like the old composition book. I like the idea of having it lead to a story about a lonely composition book or at least back to shirt.woot.com. Anyway, fail shirt is fail. Novel idea, but bad delivery.

If anyone would like an in-depth look at how to make custom QR codes, check out this Hackaday article or visit your local library.

I need to play with some QR Codes and make some cool designs

I think the image is meant to double as an optical illusion. If you stare at the center line for 15 seconds, then stare at a white piece of paper or a blank wall, you'll see the Woot God's face.

5of0 wrote:I beg to differ:

Stick that in your QR scanner and decode it. A true geek would know that QR codes are built to be very error-resistant, so they can be pretty distorted/obscured and work just fine.

Now, I looked at it and noticed the lack of the fourth reference point in the lower-right and was sad - that, unlike non-squareness, is a dead giveaway - but tried scanning it anyway out of desperation and disappointment, because really, why would someone do this and *not* make it a real QR code? Sigh.

----------------------------------------------

So, basically, QR codes are meant to be able to be scanned at an angle, so you don't have to be "Head on" to them... or is there something more complicated than that? (i.e. Squares, when looked at from an oblique angle, do not look like squares, but still work for QR codes.)

Every time I scan this code with my cell phone, $10 keeps coming out of my checking account. Weird.

ROGETRAY wrote:

lawl

You guys would have to put up a design like this the day my smartphone is in the shop. My not-so-smart phone thinks it's just a composition book.

Do they still sell those black and white composition notebooks?

What was that pattern supposed to be anyway?

canard wrote:So, basically, QR codes are meant to be able to be scanned at an angle, so you don't have to be "Head on" to them... or is there something more complicated than that? (i.e. Squares, when looked at from an oblique angle, do not look like squares, but still work for QR codes.)

They do have the ability to be scanned at a fair range of angles, and yes in order to achieve this the scanner will pick up pixels that aren't actually square-shaped. That ability in itself actually IS rather "complicated" in that it's the result of complex algorithms, but it is just one of a few error-correcting functions that QR is capable of.

5of0 wrote:Oh yes, the shirt is invalid because it is rectangular pixel-wise - that there is true, and you were correct in that. Otherwise it could conceivably be a V1 code, even without the fourth alignment box. Good call, I hadn't thought about that.

handshake Hopefully things are cleared up now. Seems there was a good bit of miscommunication going on, sorry about that.

I've also updated the image in my original post, I realized after making the diagrams that my original image very nearly covered up the alignment column, making it hard to scan. I've corrected that, and it seems to scan better now. New image here.

Also, would you mind going back and taking the image out of the quote boxes? I don't think we need four copies of the image on page one, and the last three are the old, less-scannable ones anyway :P

Agreed

chrisprender wrote:Man... People take their QR codes seriously around here.

I, for one, congratulate Lucky on a creative design.

If you don't like the shirt, don't buy it, but you don't have to complain. Maybe it was designed with a different audience in mind-- not everything has to be made for you, you know.

I, for one, care not at all about such codes because I don't have anything that reads them (as far as I know, it's possible my messaging phone has that somewhere). But I do know what they are and that they exist. As such I would not be buying it either way.

That said, there are basically two groups of people who would look at this. People who have absolutely no clue what these are and people who would try to scan it. I would expect the people who don't know what they are to not care, and probably not be interested (unless they are somehow that into lab maunals). The other would be QR code fanatics (or at least junkies who use them when they show up in advertisements or whatever) who would obviously care. So what audience exactly would this in its current form be designed to cater to?

Would have been IDEAL if they let you provide your own QR design to be printed on the shirts....what a novel idea?

redjeep0 wrote:So, based on the number of Wooters that are disappointed that the QR code doesn't work ( myself included), someone should make a shirt design that does! ( I'm not one of the artsy-creative types, so don't look at me,)

Someone did. See this image from earlier in the thread.

5of0 wrote:

I would love to see 5of0's image substituted for the image on the shirt (still giving lucky1988 credit of course, since it was his idea).

I scanned the image with my Android phone's Google Goggles scanner, and when it came up with nothing, I suggested the permalink to this shirt. It'll be like when you cite Wikipedia in your term paper, then run and log in to Wikipedia to create the article you cited.

RobertB wrote:I scanned the image with my Android phone's Google Goggles scanner, and when it came up with nothing, I suggested the permalink to this shirt. It'll be like when you cite Wikipedia in your term paper, then run and log in to Wikipedia to create the article you cited.

I just tried, and it didn't come up with anything (I think it requires a few votes), so I did the same thing myself. Love it!

iofthestorm wrote:Oh wait, it *didn't* say QR Decomposition? Damn, linear algebra has infected my brain and I haven't even done it in years. I hope that was the pun that the artist was trying to go for though, otherwise I'm very disappointed.

Surprised more people didn't get this. I would have thought the math-geek:woot ratio was higher. QR-decomposition. Next-level geekiness.

Can't believe they didn't make it work. So disappointed.

5of0 wrote:But see, the QR format is neat and contains alignment pixels - there is a horizontal and a vertical row of "calibration" pixels that tell it what size the pixels are. From Wikipedia:



The label doesn't obscure that key column, so the scanners can figure out what the pixel size is, and correctly determine the QR code. I updated my image above to point those out.

Are there other Wooters who have tried and succeeded (or failed) in scanning my design? Because I can try tweaking it if no one else can scan it.

Your code works fine

paulec252 wrote:

hahaha!!

OMGOMGOMGPONIESOMG! You are a frickin' genius! It scanned!

chrixie wrote:

right back at ya!!

5of0 wrote:Are there other Wooters who have tried and succeeded (or failed) in scanning my design? Because I can try tweaking it if no one else can scan it.

Yes, it works just fine in the stock "Barcode Scanner" app, which is way less tolerant even than other apps. (For example it won't read the colorful one someone else posted). Pay no attention to the folks who just want to argue without actually trying it.

PocketBrain wrote:You guys would have to put up a design like this the day my smartphone is in the shop. My not-so-smart phone thinks it's just a composition book.

Why can't it be both?

I would have been all over this shirt if it was 5of0's QR on it.

skatimmy737 wrote:Do they still sell those black and white composition notebooks?

What was that pattern supposed to be anyway?

Yes, they do still sell the black & white composition books. If they stock spiral bound notebooks, there's a good chance composition books will be close by. Some stores even offer colors other than black.

Personally, I like this design. I like composition books, and I'm able to recognize it's supposed to be a QR code without having anything to scan it.

I suppose I understand why there's so many complaints about the code not scanning and/or not going anywhere special, but I just don't see it as nearly as much of a dealbreaker as others seem to do.

As for myself, I'm definitely buying one.

"Is that really a spiral bound notebook?"
No, It actually is not..

s12and wrote:Surprised more people didn't get this. I would have thought the math-geek:woot ratio was higher. QR-decomposition. Next-level geekiness.

Nice!

acekoolus wrote:Raise your hand if you tried to scan this with your droid and it didn't work?

~raises hand~

Yeah, huge disappointment for some reason.

5of0 wrote:I beg to differ:

That was awesome. Where can I buy that shirt?

TheGogmagog wrote:That was awesome. Where can I buy that shirt?

Unfortunately it's just a proof of concept - but as I mentioned in an earlier post, stuff like this would be a good candidate for Bleach Shirts, which would go especially well with today's Woot. It might get a little tedious with all the little squares, but I think it'd be doable.

SO clever!

First day sales: 387

DianaSprinkle wrote:First day sales: 387

Last wooter to woot: phip91
Last purchase time: Wednesday, September 21, 2011, 11:41:42 PM Central Time

Woots sold: 387

Let's see if this one changes

TheGolux wrote:Last wooter to woot: phip91
Last purchase time: Wednesday, September 21, 2011, 11:41:42 PM Central Time

Woots sold: 387

Let's see if this one changes

Been over an hour since the last sale and fourty-five minutes since central midnight - I think first day sales will not change!!!

I have enjoyed scanning this thread. With my eyes and my phone.