Masahiro Hara

Masahiro Hara led QR code development as an engineer at Denso (now Denso Wave). In 1994, a team of just two people completed the fundamental QR code design. The development goal was a two-dimensional code readable at about 10 times barcode speed.

He is known for conceiving the two-dimensional grid idea while playing Go during lunch break. In 2014, he received the European Inventor Award's Popular Prize, gaining international recognition as the QR code inventor.