Why are some excavators wearing what appear to be giant quick-response codes? The QR codes are not the latest e-commerce trend on construction sites but part of a research project at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, aimed at making machine controls more accurate in urban settings.
"It's weird," admits Suyang Dong, a researcher at the school's Laboratory for Interactive Visualization in Engineering, speaking of the strange signs. "But we call it a very disruptive technology."