QR code inventors win European Patent Office prize

NAGOYA, Japan - Masahiro Hara (R) of Denso Wave Inc. and Takayuki Nagaya of Toyota Central R&D Labs. Inc. show their Popular Prize awarded by the European Patent Office for their invention of the square "Quick Response Code," or QR code, in a photo taken in Agui, Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, on July 8, 2014. Released in 1994, the code is popular globally as a Matrix code, or a two-dimensional barcode, due to the proliferation of cell phones with built-in cameras.