QRmap: executable QR codes for Navigation in Industrial Environments and Beyond

TL;DR

The paper tackles offline navigation in large industrial environments where internet connectivity or security policies hinder online solutions. It proposes QRmap, a dialect for executable QR codes (sQRy) that encodes geographic maps as graphs and employs a decision-tree–based interaction to guide users to destinations via shorted-path criteria. The authors outline generation and execution chains, define a compact intermediate representation, and demonstrate a concrete floor-plan example where the resulting QRmap program occupies a small fraction of QR capacity (e.g., $3241$ bits, about $13.7\%$). The work enables robust, offline navigation for workers and visitors, with potential applicability beyond industrial settings.

Abstract

QR codes are nowadays customarily used for embedding static data such as web hyperlinks or plain text. The sQRy technology (executable QR codes) permits to embed executable programs in QR codes, enabling people to interact with them even without an internet connection. In this work we present QRmap, a specific dialect that permits the inclusion of geographic maps in sQRy and supports interaction with the user to provide indications to reach the destination of interest. The QRmap technology facilitates navigation in large industrial plants where internet connectivity is absent, due to either environmental limitations or company policies. The proposed technology can have interesting applications in non-industrial contexts as well.

Figures (4)

• Figure 1: sQRy generation and execution chains.
• Figure 2: Example of a floor plan in which to use QRmap dialect.
• Figure 3: Graph representation of the floor plan reported in Fig. \ref{['fig:layout']}, which can be coded through QRmap.
• Figure 4: Intermediate representation of the QRmap code included in the sQRy.