: saved at 6,000 x 6,000 :

QR Code is a two-dimensional bar code created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The “QR” is stands for “Quick Response,” and it operates very similar to traditional bar codes, but allows for more customization. QR Codes are common in Japan where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional code. In recent weeks I’ve read about some very interesting uses of the code and decided to make something with it.

Continuing on the topic of censorship, I went through my digital archives and found the official USGS aerial photography of the area around the Washington Monument. I’ve known since mid-2007 that the area around the Washington Monument, White House, and U.S. Capitol were censored by pixilation prior to release. Since the QR Code has a pixilated appearance I felt that they could play well off of each other.

But what to say?
Why not the truth: The 2005 USGS aerial photography of the Washington Monument is censored

Kawya has a nice QR Code encoder/decoder for URLs, text, phone numbers, and SMS. I typed in the phrased and hit generate. Then I saved my new QR Code image and opened up my photo imaging application. Since the source aerial photograph was about 6,300 x 7,600, I decided to scale up the QR Code to 6,000 x 6,000 in size. Once this was done, I removed all of the negative space (black coloring) from the original QR Code and placed the censored aerial photograph below the code.

: detail of a censored Washington Monument :

I wonder if the code still works? Will the shadows truncate the content? Should I have removed the positive space (white color) instead? I don’t know, but I hope to find out. Or more importantly, I hope to get a reader installed on my phone. I spent 3 hours trying to get it to work but with no luck!!

In summary, Geovisual QR Code is more of a visual hacking experiment. Its not as meta as turning a corn field into semacode (a similar 2-D barcode), and it’s probably already been done by someone else at a different time. My null hypothesis is that it does not work, and I look forward to finding out the result.

Next up will be a t-shirt with this website’s URL QR Code on it. This way if someone take a picture of me, they’ll know how to find me.

#UPDATE – 10pm-ish

: Null Hypothesis was correct: the Geovisual QR Code v.01 did not work

I am going to try adding a stroke outline of black. Might work—–

#UPDATE APRIL 13 – 1pm#
The stroke did not work either. I tried both internal and external. Miami Quilt was chosen at random to be a test background.

Final summary: You can’t change the negative space on a QR-Code and expect the code to be valid.

#UPDATE January 21st, 2009#
Mark Jeronimus sent me this:

Related QR Code Entries:

• Teki Latex dans un QR Code tee-shirt
• My Artomatic 2009 Opening Night Exhibit Dissected on Flickr
• A dual purpose QR-Code added to the splash page
• QR Code on display at the Ralph Lauren store in Georgetown
• My Artomatic 2008 Opening Night Exhibit Dissected on Flickr
• The Base Map Installation @ Artomatic
• QR Code Tessellation
• another QR Code mistake
• Geovisual QR Code

Related Censorship Entries:

• Mentioned Today On The Huffington Post Concerning Facebook's Censorship of Advertisements Related To Cannabis
• Washington Monument Quilt #2
• Dear WashingtonPost.com: Either You Are Censoring Bloggers Or Your 3rd Party Widget Isn't Working Properly
• Where did Google's video rankings go?
• Google FINALLY updates the imagery of Washington, DC and now you can kinda see the message on my rooftop
• An Odd DC Indymedia Edit
• Google Street View of Washington, DC suffers from out-dated imagery
• View of a House Party Censored By Colored Dots
• Interviews with Alex Jones at the DNC in Denver and other videos
• One year later and Google Maps has still not updated DC
• First Amendment Violation in Lafayette Park yesterday; ACLU contacted
• Experimenting with Facebook's advertisement system [part 4 - Fvck Censorship]
• What the Artomatic 2008 venue looked like in March of 2005
• Geovisual QR Code
• The first Artomatic prints have arrived
• White House Peace
• Indirectly referenced in the Sydney Morning News?
• MyGoogleMaps : Google's Censorship Perimeter
• 3D Buildings at the expense of newer imagery?
• Google's View of D.C. Melds New and Sharp, Old and Fuzzy - Washington Post
• A new change in Washington, DC's imagery on Google's servers
• Comparative Meta-Data of the USGS Orthoimagery of Washington, DC - 2002 / 2005
• The White House is Off-Limits to the Public: An Exploration of Censorship's Perimeter
• The U.S. Capitol is Off-Limits to the Public: An Exploration of Censorship's Perimeter
• Censored today in theMail...
• Baghdad Imagery change in Google Earth
• I'm off google
• Redacted Flag
• Censorship on the 4th of July
• U.S. Naval Observatory Lenz #2
• U.S. Naval Observatory Lenz
• The Inaugural Map & January 6th