Two-Layer QR Codes

IEEE Trans Image Process. 2019 Sep;28(9):4413-4428. doi: 10.1109/TIP.2019.2908490. Epub 2019 May 8.

Abstract

A quick-response code (QR code) is a two-dimensional code akin to a barcode that encodes a message of limited length. In this paper, we present a variant of QR code, a two-layer QR code. Its two-layer structure can display two alternative messages when scanned from two different directions. We propose a method to generate such two-layer QR codes encoding two given messages in a few seconds. We also demonstrate the robustness of our method on both synthetic and fabricated examples. All source code will be made publicly available (https://github.com/yuantailing/two-layer-qrcode).