QR Code or Quick Response code is all around us, especially since the pandemic took over. Many restaurants are not serving menu cards; instead, scan the QR code to find out what you can order on your phone. Of course, the technology can be used across business categories. Samsung has launched an innovative Scan QR feature to make hassle-free payments in India.

The feature allows users to make QR code payments by opening the camera or selecting the Scan QR code option from the Quick Panel on their phones. This is in line with Samsung’s idea of cashless and Digital India, the feature is currently live on Samsung Pay compatible devices, which are there in plenty All you need to have is the latest software to experience the option.

The South Korean company’s R&D team came up with the feature specifically for India since the scan-and-pay movement here is very strong. With camera and Scan QR integration, payments can be initiated with minimal clicks. The Scan QR feature also reduces the time invested in searching for Scan QR within the app before users can scan QR and make payments.

Here’s how it works. Ensure your phone has the latest software update installed. Then open camera and scan the UPI QR; select the option to pay with Samsung Pay or Samsung Pay Mini and finally complete the payment by entering the amount and UPI PIN.

Behind the QR code technology is Masahiro Hara, an engineer at Japan’s Denso Wave Corp, who came up with it in 1994. As an employee of the automotive components firm, he had received several requests to come up with an easy way of managing inventories and workers wanted a less labour-intensive way to store more information, including kana and kanji characters, but the barcodes then in use could hold only 20 or so alphanumeric characters of information each. The game of Go helped Hara to conceive the technology and the development of smartphone cameras has made the QR code ubiquitous.