Contactless

Contactless is a general term for technologies / methods that exchange information or perform operations without physical contact. It includes NFC payment (tap-to-pay), QR code payment, automatic doors, voice control, gesture control, and so on. Triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for contactless technology surged out of concern for hygiene.

QR codes are inherently a contactless technology. Because they are read optically with a smartphone camera, there is no need to touch the surface of the QR code. NFC is also contactless, but the device must be brought within a few centimeters, a distance close to "almost touching". Because QR codes can be read from a distance of several tens of centimeters to several meters, they make the interaction more fully contactless.

The fields where QR codes spread rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as digital menus at restaurants, QR code tickets for events, visitor management at offices, and medical questionnaires at hospitals, all met the need to "avoid touching shared objects". QR codes eliminated contact points such as multiple customers touching a paper menu, staff taking paper tickets, and visitors filling in visitor cards with a pen.

Even after the pandemic, the need for contactless solutions has taken root. Users who have once experienced the convenience of QR codes do not want to go back to paper even after hygiene concerns have disappeared. Contactless is not a temporary boom in the spread of QR codes but an irreversible trend.