HR code
Languages and libraries
machine-readable codes
SHOW HN2019
124points
56comments
#369of 2,195 in 2019
Top 17%of 2019 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
5 positive, 16 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 14 critical, out of 35 comments about the project. Thread score -0.19.
Performance: 1 for, 5 againstIdea: 1 for, 5 againstDesign: 1 for, 2 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 2 againstExecution: 2 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Interesting idea and fast prototype
From 3 comments
This is awesome! Feels like there's a kernel of a very interesting idea here. Could see how this evolves into a successor for QR codes. Looking forward to see where it goes.
breck on HNI need to ask, is this in response to the discussion in [1]? I see that the initial commit happened after that discussion started. If so, that’s an impressively fast prototype.…
tobr on HNThis is pretty awesome! I just read a related thread on HN a few hours ago on this very issue, so big kudos for the time of execution.
ecesena on HN
Objections
Lacks error correction, unlike QR codes
From 4 comments
The problem with this is that it's prone to error (doesn't have error correcting bits). Unfortunately, that combined with speed of scanning is really what's key for codes. I have…
citilife on HNThe biggest win with QR codes is their error recovery capability, though. This will just corrupt data if there's errors.
KenanSulayman on HNThis seems to be the worst of both worlds. It's not easy for a human to read a square (compared to a line of text). The pixellated font is also not easily readable compared to a…
gnode on HN"Guessing" and "a bit like" are key qualifiers here; error correction codes in QR provide a pretty hard guarantee and won't scan corrupted. With this scheme, who knows?
theon144 on HN
Hard for humans to read as a square grid and the font is not very readable
From 2 comments
This seems to be the worst of both worlds. It's not easy for a human to read a square (compared to a line of text). The pixellated font is also not easily readable compared to a…
gnode on HNThe font and the way to break words is not quite human readable IMO …
aabbcc1241 on HN
Name HR is confused with Human Resources
From 2 comments
The name is bad. "HR code" is immediately associated in my mind with "HR" as in Human Resources. You should pick a better name.
mlindner on HNIndeed, I had the same expectation that it was something related to Human Resources, and it's not like the H replaced a word that means "machine" or anything. It could have been…
jolmg on HN
Human-readable code could still be tampered with or misread, so trust is misplaced
From 3 comments
The whole point of having human readable code is to help avoid being scammed, so having a code embedded that a human cant read but is what actually used for the link defeats the…
basicplus2 on HNAs I suggested at the end, you could still employ OCR and have a barcode checksum. The checksum would ensure a misread of the human readable text would fail. As long as the…
gnode on HNBut making QR code’s readable by users doesn’t protect against that. Whatever the QR code looks like, you have to trust the scanner. It could open “evil.com” every tenth time you…
Someone on HN
Requests
Add error correction
From 2 comments
The problem this is addressing is a code being impenetrable by a human. If your solution is adding a second (human readable) code beneath the machine readable code...you haven't…
noobiemcfoob on HNWow, I didn't expect this post to have any traction. Many thanks for the diverse feedback. This is just a PoC of an idea I've created after reading…
emrehan on HN
Consider a readable OCR font such as Westminster or OCR-B
From 2 comments
That's probably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCR-B - developed in the 1960s. (OCR-A might be more common but I'd say less human readable).
mfkp on HNWow, I didn't expect this post to have any traction. Many thanks for the diverse feedback. This is just a PoC of an idea I've created after reading…
emrehan on HN
Rename the project
From 2 comments
The name is bad. "HR code" is immediately associated in my mind with "HR" as in Human Resources. You should pick a better name.
mlindner on HNWow, I didn't expect this post to have any traction. Many thanks for the diverse feedback. This is just a PoC of an idea I've created after reading…
emrehan on HN
Questions
What problem does this solve that MICR does not?
From 1 comment
What problem does this solve that MICR couldn't do better?
mark-r on HN
Would the same technique improve QR code scanning speed?
From 1 comment
Thank you for sharing your chroma tags work. Could the same technique be applied to QR codes? Would it improve QR read times? At rush hour I have to wait for many people to scan…
SmileyJames on HN
Alternatives named
QR codes
From 2 comments
The problem with this is that it's prone to error (doesn't have error correcting bits). Unfortunately, that combined with speed of scanning is really what's key for codes. I have…
citilife on HNThis seems to be the worst of both worlds. It's not easy for a human to read a square (compared to a line of text). The pixellated font is also not easily readable compared to a…
gnode on HN
Plain text URLs with OCR
From 2 comments
If OCR is required, then why not just put the link in plaintext? Makes it even easier to be read by humans.
fbrchps on HNIt's interesting, but I agree not easy on human eyes. I think plain old text in a clear font, with an OCR reader than can lift URL's out of any text, would be nearly as effective…
rkagerer on HN
MICR and E-13B
From 2 comments
This reminds me of the E-13B font [1] seen on checks since the early 1960s, but in a square format. The goals are similar, produce machine readable and human readable text. There…
badgers on HNWhat problem does this solve that MICR couldn't do better?
mark-r on HN
OCR-A and OCR-B fonts
From 2 comments
This reminds me of the E-13B font [1] seen on checks since the early 1960s, but in a square format. The goals are similar, produce machine readable and human readable text. There…
badgers on HNThat's probably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCR-B - developed in the 1960s. (OCR-A might be more common but I'd say less human readable).
mfkp on HN