Methods and apparatus to identify usage of quick response codes
View Patent ↗Methods and apparatus are disclosed to identify usage of quick response codes. An example method includes inspecting a received request to identify a QR code associated with the request, the request being received from a device in response to an instruction included in the QR code. The example method further includes storing a record indicating access to the identified QR code. The example method further includes determining a redirect universal resource locator (URL) associated with the identified QR code. The example method further includes transmitting a redirect message to the device, the redirect message to instruct the device to navigate to the redirect URL.
1. A tangible machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a device to at least:
identify that an image has been captured by a camera of the device;
determine that the image contains a quick response (QR) code;
decode information encoded by the QR code;
store a record of the decoded information in a memory of the device;
send a request to a universal resource locator (URL) specified by the QR code;
in response to sending the request to the URL, receive a response including a tagging instruction to instruct the device to send the record to a monitoring server; and
respond to the tagging instruction by sending the record to the monitoring server to log access to the QR code.
2. The machine-readable medium as defined in claim 1 , further including instructions which, when executed, cause the device to at least:
determine a location of the device; and
store the location in association with the record.
3. The machine-readable medium as defined in claim 2 , wherein the location is determined using a positioning system.
4. The machine-readable medium as defined in claim 1 , further including instructions which, when executed, cause the device to store a panelist identifier in association with the record, the panelist identifier identifying a user of the device.
5. The machine-readable medium as defined in claim 1 , further including instructions which, when executed, cause the device to send the request by:
instructing a browser of the device to navigate to the URL.
6. The machine-readable medium as defined in claim 1 , further including instructions which, when executed, cause the device to transmit the record to a monitoring data collection site.
7. The machine-readable medium as defined in claim 1 , further including instructions which, when executed, cause the device to store a timestamp in association with the record.
8. The machine-readable medium as defined in claim 7 , wherein the timestamp represents a time at which the image was captured by the camera.
9. A method to identify usage of quick response (QR) codes, the method comprising:
receiving, with a monitoring request handler, a first request from a requestor in response to scanning of a QR code;
generating, with the monitoring request handler, a JavaScript instruction to, when executed, cause a device associated with the request to transmit a dummy request to a universal resource locator (URL) of a monitoring entity;
providing, with the monitoring request handler, the JavaScript instruction and a webpage to the device of the requestor;
generating the URL of the monitoring entity, with a URL generator, based on a unique identifier associated with a carrier-advertisement pair associated with the QR code;
receiving, at an Internet request handler of the monitoring entity, the dummy request from the device of the requestor at the URL of the monitoring entity, the monitoring entity not providing content to the device in response to the dummy request, the Internet request handler to identify the carrier-advertisement pair based on the URL of the monitoring entity; and
storing a record of the dummy request in a data store with a data storer of the monitoring entity, the record identifying the carrier-advertisement pair associated with the dummy request.
10. The method as defined in claim 9 , wherein the record identifies a type of the carrier.
11. The method as defined in claim 9 , wherein the JavaScript instruction is a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) redirect message.
12. The method as defined in claim 9 , wherein the device includes an on-device meter data receiver to receive records of QR codes identified by an on-device meter.
13. The method as defined in claim 12 , wherein the records identify a panelist associated with the on-device meter.
14. The method as defined in claim 12 , wherein the records identify geographic locations at which the on-device meter identified the respective QR codes.
15. The method as defined in claim 9 , further including generating a report based on the record using a reporter.
16. A tangible machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
inspect a received request to identify a quick response (QR) code associated with the request, the request being received from a device in response to a first instruction included in the QR code;
determine, in response to the received request, a universal resource locator (URL) associated with the identified QR code, the URL identifying an address of a monitoring server; and
transmit a second instruction to the device, the second instruction to instruct the device to transmit a dummy message to the monitoring server identified by the URL, wherein the monitoring server stores a record indicating access to the identified QR code but does not provide content to the device in response to the transmitted dummy message, wherein the QR code is identified by inspecting a request URL at which the received request was received.
17. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as defined in claim 16 , wherein the QR code is identified based on a portion of the request URL.
18. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as defined in claim 17 , wherein the portion of the request URL is a unique identifier.
19. A method to identify usage of quick response (QR) codes, the method comprising:
inspecting, by executing an instruction with a processor, a received request to identify a QR code associated with the request, the request being received from a device in response to an instruction included in the QR code; and
in response to receiving the request from the device, transmitting, by executing an instruction with the processor a webpage to the device, the webpage including a tagging instruction to instruct the device to send a response to a monitoring server of the usage of the QR code.
20. The method as defined in claim 19 , wherein the tagging instruction is implemented using a JavaScript instruction.
21. The method as defined in claim 19 , wherein the tagging instruction is determined based on a request uniform resource locator (URL) at which the received request was received.
22. The method as defined in claim 21 , wherein the tagging instruction is determined based on a portion of the request URL.
23. The method as defined in claim 22 , wherein the portion of the request URL is a unique identifier.
24. The method as defined in claim 19 , further including storing a time stamp in association with the record of the identified QR code.
25. A method to identify usage of quick response (QR) codes, the method comprising:
generating a carrier-advertisement pair that identifies a combination of an advertisement and a carrier that is to be used to display the advertisement, the advertisement to include a QR code;
generating a universal resource locator (URL) including an identifier of the carrier-advertisement pair, the URL identifying an address hosted by a content provider;
generating the QR code, the QR code encoding an instruction which, when executed, causes a device to transmit a query to the universal resource locator; and
instructing the content provider to respond to requests received at the URL with a tagging instruction, the tagging instruction to instruct the device to send a response to a monitoring server of the usage of the QR code.
26. The method as defined in claim 25 , further including instructing the content provider to publish the QR code in association with the carrier-advertisement pair.
27. The method as defined in claim 25 , further including storing the identifier of the carrier-advertisement pair in a database.
28. A method to identify use of quick response (QR) codes, the method comprising:
identifying, by executing an instruction with a processor, that an image has been captured by a camera of a device;
determining, by executing an instruction with the processor, that the image contains a QR code;
decoding, by executing an instruction with the processor, information encoded by the QR code, the information encoded by the QR code including a universal resource locator (URL);
sending, by executing an instruction with the processor, a request to the URL; and
executing, by executing an instruction with the processor, a tagging instruction received as part of a webpage in response to the request, the tagging instruction to send a response to a monitoring server of the usage of the QR code.