4SQR-Code: A 4-state QR code generation model for increasing data storing capacity in the Digital Twin framework

Introduction: The usage of Quick Response (QR) Codes has become widely popular in recent years, primarily for immense electronic transactions and industry uses. The structural flexibility of QR Code architecture opens many more possibilities for researchers in the domain of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). However, the limited storage capacity of the traditional QR Codes still fails to stretch the data capacity limits. The researchers of this domain have already introduced different kinds of techniques, including data hiding, multiplexing, data compression, color QR Codes, and so on. However, the research on increasing the data storage capacity of the QR Codes is very limited and still operational. Objectives: The main objective of this work is to increase the data storage capacity of QR Codes in the IIoT domain. Methods: In the first part, we have introduced a 4-State-Pattern-based encoding technique to generate the proposed 4-State QR (4SQR) Code where actual data are encoded into a 4SQR Code image which increases the data storage capacity more than the traditional 2-State QR Code. The proposed 4SQR Code consists of four types of patterns, including Black Square Box (BSB), White Square Box (WSB), Triangle, and Circle, whereas the traditional 2-State QR Codes consist of BSB and WSB. In the second part, the 4SQR Code decoding module has been introduced using the adaptive YOLO V5 algorithm where the proposed 4SQR Code image is decoded into the actual data. Results: The proposed model is tested in a Digital Twin (DT) framework using randomly generated 3000 testing samples for the encoding module that converts into 4SQR Code images successfully and similarly for the decoding module that decodes the 4SQR Code images into the actual data. Conclusion: Experimental results show that this proposed technique offers increased data storage capacity two times than traditional 2-State QR Codes. (c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Cairo University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).