Beyond the QR Code: How IRCODE Aims to Make the Visual World Scannable
A conversation with Matty Beckerman, CEO of IRCODE at Cannes Lions
Imagine pointing your phone at a television screen, a fashion spread, or a Renaissance painting and unlocking a layer of rich, contextual digital content without needing a QR code or visible prompt. This is the ambition of IRCODE a visual recognition platform developed from drone navigation technology and now led by CEO and founder Matty Beckerman.
The Media Stack met Matty Beckerman aboard the IRCODE yacht at the Cannes Lions Festival to discuss the origins of the company, its go-to-market strategy, and how a “scannable” world may change the relationship between media, technology and commerce.
From Military Drones to Interactive Media
The foundation of IRCODE lies in research originally designed for autonomous navigation. CTO Philip Holtschneider developed visual positioning systems that allowed drones to map and orient themselves using only visual input, without relying on GPS. The technology was precise enough to guide unmanned vehicles through complex environments using image recognition alone.
That same principle now underpins IRCODE commercial offering. At its core is a visual recognition engine that allows any static or dynamic image to serve as an interactive gateway. Unlike QR codes, which require placement and design modification, IRCODE makes the image itself the scannable asset.
This approach has clear implications for fields where design integrity matters print publishing, art, live video, and luxury retail. As Beckerman notes: “No one wants to put a QR code on the Mona Lisa.”
“The image itself is the code.”
Matty Beckerman, CEO, IRCODE
Bridging the Physical and Digital Worlds
IRCODE enables what Beckerman calls a “second screen experience” but unlike traditional second screen models that require coordinated apps or companion content, IRCODE works passively in the background. Any image, live or archived, can be scanned for engagement, attribution or commerce.
This opens up new commercial models. For instance, a consumer watching a travel programme can scan the scene to find the location, book a stay, or view behind-the-scenes interviews. A fashion magazine can turn every image into a clickable shopping journey without redesign. Museums can make every artwork a portal to deeper context, metadata, or conservation history.
Live+ and Real-Time Recognition
A flagship innovation is LIVE+, which enables users to scan live broadcast content without needing to pause or take screenshots. Piloted during the LPGA Jam Eagle Championship in Los Angeles, the feature allowed viewers to scan their screens mid-broadcast and access information about players, equipment, or sponsors in real time.
Unlike shoppable TV formats that rely on QR overlays or custom content encoding, IRCODE LIVE+ uses “exact match” recognition to track what’s on screen and deliver relevant digital content instantly.
Expanding the Use Case Universe
Although e-commerce is a natural application, IRCODE value extends into publishing, tourism, education, cultural institutions, and even industrial supply chains. In a demonstration at the Cannes Lions Festival Beckerman showed how an entire magazine PDF could be uploaded into the system, with each page or product image linked to a specific URL or asset. The process took seconds.
“You can scan a screen, a magazine, or a painting and instantly access metadata, commerce, or content.”
Matty Beckerman, CEO, IRCODE
In the museum sector, the company has partnered with the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., ingesting tens of thousands of works into its system. Visitors can now scan any artwork with their phone and receive verified provenance, curatorial notes, or linked media without adding visual clutter to heritage pieces.
In enterprise settings, the platform is being explored for use cases such as scanning physical parts for technical documentation or linking equipment to live manuals—suggesting future opportunities in manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics.
Delivering Attribution and Analytics
Perhaps most significant for media and advertising executives is IRCODE potential to solve the long-standing attribution gap in television and out-of-home media. Traditional measurement tools struggle to prove engagement, especially in shared environments. IRCODE changes that.
Because scans are triggered by user intent, they offer clear, verifiable signals of interest. Whether a user scans a poster, a product, or a programme, the data is time-stamped, location-specific, and device-linked providing a new standard of accountability for media spend. As Beckerman commented “The future of attribution lies in intent not just impressions.”
“We’re solving problems that publishers, brands and broadcasters didn’t know could be solved.”
Matty Beckerman, CEO, IRCODE
Technology, AI, and IP Architecture
Underpinning IRCODE is a custom-built neural network trained to deliver high-precision visual matches. Unlike broader image classifiers, which return approximate results, IRCODE is designed for exact match recognition a critical distinction when a wine label, fashion accessory, or artwork must be identified uniquely.
The platform uses vector-based database structures and category-specific training sets to optimise performance across domains. Beckerman notes that the company can ingest datasets with millions of images and return match results within milliseconds.
The company is also integrating AI into its internal development workflow, from UI design to backend optimisation further increasing operational speed and product deployment agility.
Funding, Scale, and Strategic Outlook
IRCODE is privately funded, with initial backing from Beckerman’s family office. The company is now midway through a multi-million Dollar Series A funding round, designed to fuel marketing, R&D, and technical hiring. Early discussions are underway with OS-level providers including Android and Apple for potential camera-native integration which would be a game changer in how consumers access IRCODE
Although Beckerman expresses a desire to remain independent, he acknowledges that strategic partnerships or even acquisitions may arise if they serve the mission of scaling IRCODE’s impact. “We’re focused on building the best product possible,” he says, “but the right partner could help accelerate everything.”
Pivotal Moments and Operator Insight
Beckerman’s decision to acquire the IP from Holtschneider’s previous firm was a defining moment. But what followed was arguably more important: a two-week technical immersion in which Holtschneider trained him on a whiteboard in his Texas home on the underlying architecture of computer vision, neural matching and database indexing.
That process, Beckerman says, changed how he viewed the company not as an executive, but as a technologist.
IRCODE represents a new layer of ambient computing one where visual surfaces carry digital affordances without requiring explicit prompts. Whether it is deployed through mobile apps, white-label platforms, or embedded operating systems, the underlying proposition remains the same: to make the visual world scannable.
“We’re enabling new forms of engagement—not just with brands, but with culture, history and context.”
Matty Beckerman, CEO, IRCODE
For marketers, publishers and technologists, IRCODE offers more than an upgrade on QR codes. It represents a shift in how images behave in digital ecosystems. Where once we designed content to be clicked or tapped, we may soon expect it to be seen, scanned, and engaged with nothing added and nothing altered.
