A new color QR code forward compatible with the standard QR code decoder

This paper proposes a new color QR code which is forward compatible with standard QR code decoders for increasing the conveyable capacity of encoded information. The proposed method allocates three standard bicolor QR code to color channels of YC_bC_r color space so that one QR code in the Y channel can be decoded by a standard QR decoder. In addition, a proprietary decoder further decodes two more QR codes in C_b and C_r channels. The proposed method is based on the standard bicolor QR code in its encoding and decoding processes, whereas conventional methods increasing the conveyable capacity require complex proprietary codecs or different technology. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.