A barcode consists of a series of parallel black and white bar with spaces of varying width, which is a representative of data in a visual, machine-readable form. Today, barcodes are mostly used in closed distribution chains, for the administration of logistics processes.
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The first barcode was invented by Norman J Woodland in year . He was inspired by the dots and dashes of Morse code and came up with a similar method to simplify inventory management and customer check-outs. Later, Norman J Woodland filed a patent for this solution with his partner, Bernard Silver in the year of .
Types of Barcodes
1. 1D Barcode
1D barcodes, better known as linear codes, are commonly used on consumer goods to store product information using variable-width lines and spaces to encode data. 1D barcodes can be scanned by camera-based imaging scanners or laser scanners.
2. 2D Barcode
2D barcodes are the next phase in barcode technology. It uses patterns of squares, dots and shapes to encrypt information. As these datas can be encoded vertically and horizontally, 2D barcodes are able to store more information than 1D barcodes, like images, product descriptions and website addresses. 2D barcodes can be scanned by camera-based imaging scanners.
The Benefits of Using Barcode
1. Improve Accuracy
Barcodes eliminate human errors and provides more accurate and reliable data.
2. Reduce Employee Training Time
Barcode systems are easy to use and only need minutes to gain familiarity with hand-held scanners for barcode reading.
3. Inventory Control
Barcode reader makes it easier to control the overall inventory status. Since the information is scanned directly into a computer, fast and reliable data can be calculated through stock inventory instantly.
4. Better Data
Barcodes can be customized when needed and that helps to make more informed decisions with the provided information.
What is a Barcode Reader?
A barcode reader is a device that captures and decodes information contained by a barcode before transmitting the data to a computer, which in turn, shows instant output of accurate information to help streamline any operations.
There are two types of barcode readers: laser scanner and camera-based imaging scanner.
1. Laser Scanner
Laser scanner sweeps a laser back and forth across a barcode to capture and decode the information. It can perform up to 1,000 scans per second and eliminates the possibility of human errors. Besides this, laser scanner also can read a barcode from 15 cm to 60 cm away.
2. Camera-based Imaging Scanner
Camera-based imaging scanner uses a camera to capture an image of a barcode, then uses the image processing technique to decode the barcodes. Camera-based imaging scanners can read 2D codes, and capture images of codes for data analysis and barcode quality check.
Today
Barcodes are not only the universal symbol for purchasable products, but are also used to track and trace logistics, identify patients in hospitals, validate prescriptions for patients, exchange contact information, automate manufacturing processes and much more.
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Barcodes are simplistic, thus, using them is the best and most effective way for businesses to store data and receive fast and accurate item verifications or full traceability of inventory status. With the right barcode inventory system, your business and work will most definitely stay efficient, organized and error-free.
A Short History of Barcode Scanners
The history of barcode scanners and their development owe their existence to the grocery business.
As the corner grocery store grew and started stocking more and more products to keep its customer's happy, the ability to understand just what was on the shelf and to re-order items sold became more and more critical to the financial success of the all grocery businesses. Before the development of the barcode scanner, the only way to get an accurate inventory of stock on the shelves and in the back room was to do a manual count of each and every item in the store. Time consuming and expensive to complete, instead of manual inventories, most store managers based their ordering decisions on crude estimates and arbitrary feelings. Most inventories were done infrequently, on average of once per month.
Supermarket management personnel realized they were in a competitive marketplace, and that shopper's patronage relied on having the products they desired on-hand ' all the time. Some owners considered using the punch-card technology that was developed in the late 19th century to complete the US Census. The vision was that the customer would punch the cards to mark their selections, the cards would be put in a reader at check-out, and a sales tally by product would be kept for the re-ordering process. But the consumer market was moving towards more convenience and time savings, and the proposal wasn't even prototyped.
The Modern Barcode
We can trace the idea of the modern barcode to around , when a graduate student at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia heard a conversation between one of the faculty and an executive of a food store chain. The executive was trying to convince the faculty member to have the school develop a system to quickly and accurately capture product data at the check-out counter. The student, Bernie Silver related the conversation to Norman 'Joe' Woodland, a teacher at the institute. The problem intrigued Woodland, and for the next 2 years he would experiment with a variety of data collection techniques to find the one that worked.
Woodland 'invented' the first barcode, basically by using Morse code ' a series of dots and dashes used in telegraph and radio communications. Woodland wrote out the dots and dash representation of the product number and extended the lines of each vertically creating the first linear barcode. To read the barcode, Woodland adapted the DeForest movie sound system from 20 years earlier that used a sensitive tube to detect the projector light shining through the side of the film. In the movie industry, the light detected would be converted into sound. In Woodland and Silver's adaptation, the reflected light would be converted to numbers.
In order to make the code readable from any direction, Woodland converted the lines into a circle ' appearing like an archery target. Today, this type of code is known as the 'bulls-eye' code. Convinced of the viability of their ideas, Silver and Woodland applied to patent the idea in late . Taking a job at IBM, Woodland built a prototype reader in his house using the technology of the day which included a high wattage incandescent bulb. As big as a large trunk, it demonstrated that the technology could work. The problem was converting the output into something meaningful for a store's manager or customers. Woodland approached his bosses at IBM to develop the technology, who offered to buy the patent that was granted in , but Woodland and Silver held out to get a price that more closely reflected the potential of the technology. In the early 's they sold the patent to Philco, who eventually sold it to RCA.
Collecting Product Data
Meanwhile, various inventors proposed other methods of collecting product data during the late 's and through the 's. Of note is a railway car tracking system developed by David Collins of the Sylvania Corporation. The system used a series of colored stripes made of reflective materials that represented a 10-digit number. A Sylvania computer interpreted and displayed the data to the operators. As the car entered the yard, colored lights would shine on the label, with a light sensor 'decoding' the results. The system was first tested in , and was available for purchase in the early 's, but the equipment was costly and cumbersome. Strapped for cash with the proliferation of the automobile, the industry underwent a shake-up in the recession of 74-76, and the system died when the interstate truck replaced the supremacy of the train as the major freight mover in the country. Reading the writing on the wall, Collins left Sylvania and founded Computer Identics.
Collins continued his work with Automatic Identification technology at Compunetics. Switching to a black and white barcode, the real innovation of his system was the use of a laser beam as a light source. The laser light was smaller, cooler and could be moved back and forth rapidly over the code, giving rise to the terms 'barcode scanner' (because the laser would pass over the code many times per second) and 'laser line' (the optical illusion of the laser scanning over the barcode). In the late 's, Computer Identics installed two of these systems ' one in a General Motors plant and the other in the General Trading Company's distribution center in New Jersey. The barcodes held only 2 digits of data ' but that was enough to allow pertinent information to be gathered.
With the technological progress of the late 60's to early 70's, transistors and laser components were getting less expensive, and computer processors continued to shrink in size. Remember the Silver-Woodland patent purchased eventually by RCA? By attending a industry conference in , executives at that company became convinced that using barcode scanners at check-out was an emerging and lucrative market. They developed a bullseye symbol and a scanner that was installed and operating in a Cincinnati Kroger store beginning in . Although the system generated valuable Return-on-Investment data, printing problems with the bulls-eye barcodes and scanning problems limited its usefulness.
Back in the grocery business, a consortium of food chains tasked Logicon, Inc to make recommendations for the proposal for an industry-wide barcode system and symbology. By the Ad Hoc Committee on a Uniform Grocery Product Code was formed, chaired by the President of H.J. Heinz Company, and including members from General Foods, Kroger, A & P, Proctor & Gamble, among others. The Ad Hoc Committee refined competing proposals from technology companies bidding on developing the technology. These companies included RCA, IBM, Singer, Litton and Pitney-Bowes.
IBM won the proposal in , using a barcode developed by George Laurer. The code was (and is) split into halves of six digits each. The first digit is always zero, the next 5 digits represent the manufacturer of the product, digits 7 through 11 is the product number or SKU, and the last digit is a check digit for validation that the code was read correctly. The code can be scanned in either direction, and didn't have the problems with printing that the RCA bulls-eye code had. The vertical orientation of the code allowed printers to void the excess ink at the bottom of the code, making the top of the code perfectly readable. Joe Woodland, the originator of the patent more than 20 years earlier would play an important role with the IBM team developing the technology that won the bid. He was presented with the National Medal of Technology for his work by President George Bush.
On June 26th, , and a 10-pack of Wrigley's chewing gum was the first product logged in a grocery store by a barcoding system using the modern UPC code. Later that year, the Uniform Grocery Product Code Council became the UPCC (Uniform Product Code), which regulates the issue and use of all Universal Product Codes.
At the same time, companies pursued the use of barcodes in industrial and other applications. In the Plessey Company developed a barcode scanner and tracking system for library book checkout. The Codabar barcode was developed by Monarch Marking Systems around the same time for blood collection and book tracking applications. Intermec developed Code 3 of 9, a barcode that could store alpha-numeric information. All other codes prior to this could only represent numeric digits.
Throughout the 's barcode scanning systems became more affordable and practical with the continued price reduction and miniaturization of microprocessors and lasers. Many companies developed their own barcode scanner equipment and barcode symbology, and there were no commonly recongnized standards for barcodes outside the grocery industry. The UPC system pointed to the ability to standarize labor savings and data accuracy on a massive scale, if standards for barcoding were followed. In that decade, a series of Department of Defense MilSpec's and ANSI standards unified the coding conventions for Code 3 of 9, I2of5 and Codabar.
Because the ROI of barcode scanner systems were so profound, a new and standarized insustry was born. Barcode standarization is one of the most profound events in the history of logistics. With a barcode and a reliable barcode scanner, data entry errors are virtually eliminated. Storing and referencing the collected data with the use of a computerized database have revolutionized the way we think about gathering and reporting data.
We've come a long way from the days of the manual inventory, the price sticker that the cashier would ring up, and making ordering decisions based on hunches.
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