I think I’m becoming allergic to QR codes…
我觉得我对二维码过敏了……
I had a dream. It was full of vertical black and white lines. Some of the lines then morphed into an odd haze of dots; some square, some circular. Some even, it appeared, were trying to dance.
我做了一个梦。 它充满了垂直的黑白线。 然后，一些线条变成了奇怪的圆点；有些是方形的，有些是圆形的。 似乎有些人甚至在尝试跳舞。
Payment codes, health codes, travel codes, place codes, mini programs; depending on where you are reading this, even this silly article.
付款代码、健康代码、旅行代码、地点代码、迷你程序；取决于你在哪里阅读这篇文章，甚至是这篇愚蠢的文章。
I’m gone to start telling people that if I scan a QR code my skin comes out in a rash and I start vomiting. It’s ugly.
我开始告诉人们，如果我扫描二维码，我的皮肤就会出现皮疹，我就会开始呕吐。 很难看。
In a classic case of “what would aliens think?”, they would deduce from our QR obsession that we are as a species barking mad.
在「外星人會怎麼想？」的典型案例中，他們會從我們對QR的痴迷中推斷出，我們是一個瘋狂吠叫的物種。
But before our cynicism runs away with us, we would remember the part we have had to play in all of this. By “we”, well, that would be Nanjing.
但在我们的愤世嫉俗消失之前，我们会记住我们在这一切中必须扮演的角色。 用“我们”，嗯，那就是南京。
The Chinese for QR code differs from the English in so far as it translates as “two-dimensional code”. That’s perhaps in recognition of the role played in the one-dimensional code by a Nanjinger.
中文二维码与英文不同，因为它被翻译为“二维代码”。 这也许是对南京人在一维代码中发挥的作用的认识。
King-Sun Fu (傅京孫) was the Chinese-American computing engineer who we should either thank or curse multiple times a day, his work having laid the foundations for today’s ubiquitous black and white miniature chessboards. While Triona Ryan discusses this in more detail elsewhere in this issue, we’re concerning ourselves here with the barcode.
King-Sun Fu（傅京孫）是一位中美計算工程師，我們應該每天多次感謝或詛咒他，他的工作為今天無處不在的黑白微型棋盤奠定了基礎。 虽然Triona Ryan在本期的其他地方更详细地讨论了这个问题，但我们在这里关注条形码。
Fu gainied a Bachelor of Science in 1953 from the National Taiwan University, a Master of Arts from the University of Toronto and lastly, a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The US News rankings places that institution at number 33 in the USA for 2025.
Fu于1953年在国立台湾大学获得理学学士学位，在多伦多大学获得文学硕士学位，最后在伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校获得博士学位。 《美国新闻》排名将该机构列为2025年美国第33位。
When we point our phone at a QR code, the device scans it to recognise and interpret the pattern, directing it to a place on the internet, be it a website, point on a map, Facebook page, etc. It may also just turn the QR code into a stream of text; an email address, SMS or phone number, for example.
当我们将手机指向二维码时，设备会扫描它以识别和解释模式，将其指向互联网上的一个地方，包括网站、地图、Facebook页面等。 它还可能只是将二维码变成文本流；例如电子邮件地址、短信或电话号码。
Such pattern recognition fascinated Fu, to the degree that it would make him one of the key founders of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR), for which he served as its first president.
这种模式识别让Fu着迷，以至于它将使他成为国际模式识别协会（IAPR）的关键创始人之一，他担任该协会的第一任主席。
In his honour of the memory of Professor Fu and beginning in 1988, the IAPR awards on a biennial basis the King-Sun Fu Prize in Fu’s memory and in recognition of an outstanding technical contribution in the field of pattern recognition.
为了纪念傅教授，从1988年开始，IAPR每两年颁发一次金孙福奖，以纪念傅教授，以表彰在模式识别领域的杰出技术贡献。
In 1978, Fu also served as the first Editor-in-Chief of the flagship journal in the field of artificial intelligence that is Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (TPAMI). As an author, from the late 1960s right up until just a few years before his death, Fu wrote a number of academic publications on the subject of pattern recognition.
1978年，Fu还担任人工智能领域旗舰期刊《模式分析和机器智能交易》（TPAMI）的第一任主编。 作为一名作家，从20世纪60年代末直到他去世前几年，Fu就模式识别主题撰写了许多学术出版物。
Bar codes, such as those on almost any product you buy, were one of the innovations brought about by the field of Computer Image Analysis, the quantitive characterisation of 2 or 3D images.
条形码，如您购买的几乎所有产品上的条形码，是计算机图像分析领域带来的创新之一，即2D或3D图像的定量表征。
Those barcodes led to the QR codes that dominate every facet of life in today’s China, and increasingly, the rest of the world. Think of Fu the next time you scan. He passed away on 29 April, 1985, aged just 54.
这些条形码导致了QR码，这些二维码主导了当今中国生活的各个方面，并且越来越多地主导了世界其他地区。 下次扫描时想想Fu。 他于1985年4月29日去世，年仅54岁。
But now, almost 40 years later, a new innovation has ridden into town. And despite its best intentions to weans us off our QR addictions, it’s one which asks us to treat it as we would drive a dodgem or use a messaging app to address someone known for irresponsiveness.
但现在，近40年后，一项新的创新已经进入了城市。 尽管它的最佳意图是让我们戒掉QR成瘾，但它要求我们像开车躲避一样对待它，或者使用消息应用程序向以不响应著稱的人讲话。
Alipay’s new device resembles a scanner from Star Trek. Yes, that’s right; some 70 years of technological progress has given us this, the rear of which, when you pick it up, looks like something with which you would de-ice your car.
支付宝的新设备类似于《星际迷航》中的扫描仪。 是的，没错；大约70年的技术进步给了我们这个，当你拿起它时，它的后部看起来像是你用它来除冰的东西。
And it’s a dodgem because it asks us “to bump” it. Or at least that’s the Chinese for the verb; “Peng” (碰). By bump, it means place one’s phone against the device for payment to be made; no password code or face required. This is Apple Pay, Chinese style.
它是一个躲避，因为它要求我们「撞到」它。 或者至少这就是动词的中文；“碰”。 颠簸是指将手机靠在设备上付款；不需要密码或脸。 这是苹果支付，中国风格。
But Alipay likely had little other alternative since use of the verb “to scan” (“sao”; 扫) had reached saturation point about a decade ago. It was also further revelation as to the inadequacy of Chinese vocabulary, renown for its lack of specificity.
但支付宝可能几乎没有其他选择，因为動詞「sao”（“sao”；掃）的使用在大约十年前就達到了飽和點。 這也進一步揭示了漢語詞彙的不足，以缺乏具體性而聞名。
For while we may scan a code, the same Chinese verb is used to mop the floor. And while we may bump the new gizmo to complete a payment, we might also employ the same vocab to not-so-subtly hint to a friend that someone is admiring them from afar.
因为当我们可能扫描代码时，同样的中文动词被用来擦地板。 虽然我们可能会使用新小玩意来完成付款，但我们也可能使用相同的词汇来不那么微妙地暗示朋友有人在远方欣赏他们。
Wipe, mop, brush; and now bump, touch, nudge.
擦拭、拖把、刷；现在碰撞、触摸、推。
And when you’re done, the scanner kindly reminds, “Bump payment successful”. My allergy may have been successfully addressed thanks to near-field communications, but what would those aliens think?
完成后，扫描仪会善意地提醒您，“Bump付款成功”。 多亏了近场通信，我的过敏症可能已经成功解决了，但那些外星人会怎么想呢？
And the kicker is… Alipay’s Star Trek device also accepts using WeChat. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Tencent.
关键是……支付宝的《星际迷航》设备也接受使用微信。 把它放进你的烟斗里，然后抽它，腾讯。
