Japanese barcodes

The original barcode was invented in America. But the technology was improved in Japan.

For example…do they use the “Quick Response (QR) Barcode” in your country?

QR Code for "Wikipedia Japan" website's URL

The QR Barcode was invented in Japan and it can be read by cell-phones in Japan.
If you use your (Japanese) cell-phone to scan the code, you can access the website without typing the URL manually.

Can cell-phones in your country do this? Or is this used in Japan only? (The only cell-phones I’ve ever used were my phones here in Japan).

And also the “regular” barcode that is found on all sorts of consumer products has been improved by a Japanese company.

They proved that the barcode doesn’t have to be limited to the simple straight lines and numerals design that we’re all used to.

Here are a few examples of their work: