Barcode
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the taxonomic method, see DNA barcoding.
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A
UPC-A barcode symbol
A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data relating to the
object to which it is attached. Originally barcodes systematically represented
data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred
to as linear or one-dimensional (1D). Later they evolved into rectangles, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns in two
dimensions (2D). Although 2D systems use a variety of symbols, they are
generally referred to as barcodes as well. Barcodes originally were scanned by
special optical scanners called barcode readers.
Later, scanners and interpretive software became available on devices including desktop printers and smartphones.
The first use of barcodes was to label
railroad cars, but they were not commercially successful until they were used
to automate supermarket checkout systems, a task for which they have
become almost universal. Their use has spread to many other tasks that are
generically referred to as automatic identification and data
capture (AIDC). The
very first scanning of the now ubiquitous Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode was on a pack of Wrigley Company chewing gum in June 1974.[1]
Other systems have made inroads in the AIDC
market, but the simplicity, universality and low cost of barcodes has limited
the role of these other systems until the 2000s (decade), over 40 years after
the introduction of the commercial barcode, with the introduction of
technologies such as radio frequency identification, or RFID.
Contents
[hide] o
1.2 Computer Identics Corporation ·
3 Use ·
5 Scanners (barcode readers) ·
6 Quality control and verification |
[edit]History
In 1948 Bernard Silver,
a graduate student at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, USA overheard the president of the local food chain, Food Fair,
asking one of the deans to research a system to automatically read product
information during checkout.[2] Silver told his friend Norman Joseph Woodland about the request, and they started
working on a variety of systems. Their first working system used ultraviolet ink, but the ink faded too easily and
was fairly expensive.[3]
Convinced that the system was workable with
further development, Woodland left Drexel, moved into his father's apartment in
Florida, and continued working on the system. His next inspiration came from Morse code,
and he formed his first barcode from sand on the beach. "I just extended
the dots and dashes downwards and made narrow lines and wide lines out of them."[3] To read them, he adapted technology
from optical soundtracks in movies, using a 500-watt light bulb shining through the paper onto an RCA935 photomultiplier tube (from a movie projector)
on the far side. He later decided that the system would work better if it were
printed as a circle instead of a line, allowing it to be scanned in any
direction.
On 20 October 1949 Woodland and Silver filed
a patent application for "Classifying Apparatus and
Method", in which they described both the linear and bullseye printing patterns, as well as the
mechanical and electronic systems needed to read the code. The patent was
issued on 7 October 1952 as US Patent 2,612,994. In 1951, Woodland moved to IBM and continually tried to interest IBM
in developing the system. The company eventually commissioned a report on the
idea, which concluded that it was both feasible and interesting, but that
processing the resulting information would require equipment that was some time
off in the future.
IBM offered to buy the patent, but its offer
was not high enough. Philco purchased their patent in 1962 and
then sold it to RCA sometime later.[3]
[edit]Collins
at Sylvania
During his time as an undergraduate, David Collins worked at the Pennsylvania Railroad and became aware of the need to
automatically identify railroad cars.
Immediately after receiving his master's degree from MIT in
1959, he started work at GTE Sylvania and began addressing the problem. He developed
a system calledKarTrak using
blue and yellow reflective stripes attached to the side of the cars, encoding a
six-digit company identifier and a four-digit car number.[3] Light reflected off the stripes was
fed into one of two photomultipliers, filtered for blue or yellow.[citation
needed]
The Boston and Maine Railroad tested the KarTrak system on their gravel cars in 1961. The tests continued until
1967, when the Association of American Railroads(AAR)
selected it as a standard, Automatic Car Identification, across the
entire North American fleet. The installations began on October 10, 1967.
However, theeconomic
downturn and rash of bankruptcies in the industry in the early 1970s
greatly slowed the rollout, and it was not until 1974 that 95% of the fleet was
labeled. To add to its woes, the system was found to be easily fooled by dirt
in certain applications, which greatly affected accuracy. The AAR abandoned the
system in the late 1970s, and it was not until the mid-1980s that they
introduced a similar system, this time based on radio tags.[4]
The railway project had failed, but a toll bridge in New Jersey requested a similar system so that it
could quickly scan for cars that had purchased a monthly pass. Then the U.S. Post Office requested a system to track trucks
entering and leaving their facilities. These applications required special retroreflector labels. Finally, Kal Kan asked the Sylvania team for a simpler
(and cheaper) version which they could put on cases of pet food for inventory
control.
[edit]Computer
Identics Corporation
In 1967, with the railway system maturing,
Collins went to management looking for funding for a project to develop a
black-and-white version of the code for other industries. They declined, saying
that the railway project was large enough and they saw no need to branch out so
quickly.
Collins then quit Sylvania and formed
Computer Identics Corporation.[3] Computer Identics started working with helium-neon
lasers in place of
light bulbs, scanning with a mirror to locate the barcode anywhere up to
several feet in front of the scanner. This made the entire process much simpler
and more reliable, as well as allowing it to deal with damaged labels by
reading the intact portions.
Computer Identics Corporation installed one
of its first two scanning systems in the spring of 1969 at a General Motors (Buick) factory in Flint, Michigan.[3] The system was used to identify a
dozen types of transmissions moving on an overhead conveyor from production to
shipping. The other scanning system was installed at General Trading Company's
distribution center in Carlstadt, New Jersey to direct shipments to the proper
loading bay.
[edit]Universal
Product Code
Main article: Universal
Product Code
In 1966 the National
Association of Food Chains (NAFC)
held a meeting where they discussed the idea of automated checkout systems. RCA had purchased rights to the original
Woodland patent, attended the meeting and initiated an internal project to
develop a system based on the bullseye code. The Kroger grocery chain volunteered to test it.
In mid-1970, the NAFC established the U.S.
Supermarket Ad Hoc Committee on a Uniform Grocery Product Code, which set
guidelines for barcode development and created a symbol selection subcommittee
to help standardize the approach. In cooperation with consulting firm McKinsey
& Co., they developed a standardized 11-digit code to identify any product.
The committee then sent out a contract tender to develop a barcode system to print and read the code. The
request went to Singer,National Cash Register (NCR), Litton
Industries, RCA, Pitney-Bowes,
IBM and many others.[5] A wide variety of barcode approaches
were studied, including linear codes, RCA's bullseye concentric circle code, starburst patterns and others.
In the spring of 1971 RCA demonstrated their
bullseye code at another industry meeting. IBM executives at the meeting
noticed the crowds at the RCA booth and immediately developed their own system.
IBM marketing specialist Alec Jablonover remembered that the company still
employed Woodland, and he established a new facility in North Carolina to lead
development.
In July 1972 RCA began an eighteen-month test
in a Kroger store in Cincinnati. Barcodes were printed on small pieces of
adhesive paper, and attached by hand by store employees when they were adding
price tags. The code proved to have a serious problem. During printing, presses
sometimes smear ink in the direction the paper is running, rendering the code
unreadable in most orientations. A linear code, like the one being developed by
Woodland at IBM, however, was printed in the direction of the stripes, so extra
ink simply makes the code "taller" while remaining readable, and on
April 3, 1973 the IBM UPC was selected by NAFC as their standard. IBM had
designed five versions of the UPC symbology for future industry requirements:
UPC A, B, C, D, and E.[6]
NCR installed a testbed system at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio,
near the factory that was producing the equipment. On June 26, 1974, Clyde
Dawson pulled a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum out of his basket and it was
scanned by Sharon Buchanan at 8:01 am. The pack of gum and the receipt are now
on display in theSmithsonian Institution. It was the first
commercial appearance of the UPC.[7]
In 1971 IBM had assembled a team for an
intensive planning session, day after day, 12 to 18 hours a day, to thrash out
how the whole system might operate and to schedule a roll-out plan. By 1973
they were meeting with grocery manufacturers to introduce the symbol that would
need to be printed on the packaging or labels of all of their products. There were
no cost savings for a grocery to use it unless at least 70% of the grocery's
products had the barcode printed on the product by the manufacturer. IBM was
projecting that 75% would be needed in 1975. Even though that was achieved,
there were still scanning machines in fewer than 200 grocery stores by 1977.[8]
Economic studies conducted for the grocery
industry committee projected over $40 million in savings to the industry from scanning
by the mid-1970s. Those numbers were not achieved in that time-frame and some
predicted the demise of barcode scanning.[who?] The usefulness of the barcode required
the adoption of expensive scanners by a critical mass of retailers while
manufacturers simultaneously adopted barcode labels. Neither wanted to move
first and results were not promising for the first couple of years, with Business Week proclaiming "The Supermarket
Scanner That Failed."[7]
Experience with barcode scanning in those
stores revealed additional benefits. The detailed sales information acquired by
the new systems allowed greater responsiveness to customer needs. This was
reflected in the fact that about 5 weeks after installing barcode scanners,
sales in grocery stores typically started climbing and eventually leveled off
at a 10-12% increase in sales that never dropped off. There also was a 12%
decrease in operating cost for the stores that enabled them to lower prices to
increase market share. It was shown in the field that the return on investment
for a barcode scanner was 41.5%. By 1980, 8,000 stores per year were converting.[8]
The global public launch of the barcode was
greeted with minor skepticism from conspiracy
theorists, who considered barcodes to be an intrusive surveillancetechnology,
and from some Christians who thought the codes hid the number
666, representing the number of the beast.[9] Television host Phil Donahue described barcodes as a
"corporate plot against consumers".[10]
[edit]Industrial adoption
In 1981, the United States Department of Defense adopted the use of Code 39 for marking all products sold to the
United States military. This system, Logistics Applications of Automated
Marking and Reading Symbols (LOGMARS), is still used by DoD and is widely
viewed as the catalyst for widespread adoption of barcoding in industrial uses.[11]
[edit]Use
Barcodes such as the UPC have
become a ubiquitous element of modern civilization, as evidenced by their
enthusiastic adoption by stores around the world; almost every item other than
fresh produce from a grocery store, department store,
and mass merchandiser has a UPC barcode on it.[citation
needed] This
helps track items and also reduces instances of shoplifting involving price tag swapping, although
shoplifters can now print their own barcodes.[12] In addition, retail chain membership
cards (issued mostly by grocery stores and specialty "big box" retail
stores such as sporting equipment, office supply, or pet stores) use bar codes
to uniquely identify consumers, allowing for customized marketing and greater
understanding of individual consumer shopping patterns. At the point of sale,
shoppers can get product discounts or special marketing offers through the
address or e-mail address provided at registration.
Example
of barcode on a patient identification wristband
Barcodes can allow for the organization of
large amounts of data. They are widely used in the healthcare and hospital settings,
ranging from patient identification (to access patient data, including medical
history, drug allergies, etc.) to creatingSOAP Notes[13] with barcodes to medication
management. They are also used to facilitate the separation and indexing of
documents that have been imaged in batch scanning applications, track the
organization of species in biology,[14] and integrate with in-motion checkweighers to identify the item being weighed in
a conveyor line for data collection.
They can also be used to keep track of
objects and people; they are used to keep track of rental cars, airline
luggage, nuclear waste, registered mail, express mail and parcels. Barcoded tickets allow
the holder to enter sports arenas, cinemas, theatres, fairgrounds, and
transportation, and are used to record the arrival and departure of vehicles
from rental facilities etc. This can allow proprietors to identify duplicate or
fraudulent tickets more easily. Barcodes are widely used in shop floor control
applications software where employees can scan work orders and track the time
spent on a job.
Barcoded
parcel
Barcodes are also used in some kinds of
non-contact 1D and 2D position sensors.
A series of barcodes are used in some kinds of absolute 1D linear encoder.
The barcodes are packed close enough together that the reader always has one or
two barcodes in its field of view. The relative position of the barcode in the
field of view of the reader gives incremental precise positioning, in some
cases with sub-pixel resolution. The data decoded
from the barcode gives the absolute coarse position. An "address
carpet", such as Howell's binary pattern and the Anoto dot pattern, is a 2D barcode designed
so that a reader, even though only a tiny portion of the complete carpet is in
the field of view of the reader, can find its absolute X,Y position and
rotation in the carpet.[15][16]
Some 2D barcodes embed a hyperlink to a web page. A capable cellphone might be used to read the pattern and
browse the linked website, which can help a shopper find the best price for an
item in the vicinity. Since 2005, airlines use an IATA-standard 2D barcode on
boarding passes (BCBP), and since 2008 2D barcodes sent to
mobile phones enable electronic boarding passes.[17]
Some applications for barcodes have fallen
out of use; In the 1970s and 1980s, software source code was occasionally
encoded in a barcode and printed on paper(Cauzin Softstrip and Paperbyte[18] are barcode symbologies specifically
designed for this application.), and the 1991 Barcode Battler computer game system used any standard
barcode to generate combat statistics.
In the 21st century, many artists have
started using barcodes in art, such as Scott Blake's
Barcode Jesus, as part of the post-modernism movement.
[edit]Symbologies
The mapping between messages and barcodes is
called a symbology. The
specification of a symbology includes the encoding of the single
digits/characters of the message as well as the start and stop markers into
bars and space, the size of the quiet zone required to be before and after the
barcode as well as the computation of a checksum.
Linear symbologies can be classified mainly
by two properties:
·
Continuous vs. discrete: Characters
in continuous symbologies usually abut, with one character ending with a space
and the next beginning with a bar, or vice versa. Characters in discrete
symbologies begin and end with bars; the intercharacter space is ignored, as
long as it is not wide enough to look like the code ends.
·
Two-width vs. many-width: Bars
and spaces in two-width symbologies are wide or narrow; the exact width of a
wide bar has no significance as long as the symbology requirements for wide
bars are adhered to (usually two to three times wider than a narrow bar). Bars
and spaces in many-width symbologies are all multiples of a basic width called
the module; most such
codes use four widths of 1, 2, 3 and 4 modules.
Some symbologies use interleaving.
The first character is encoded using black bars of varying width. The second
character is then encoded, by varying the width of the white spaces between
these bars. Thus characters are encoded in pairs over the same section of the
barcode. Interleaved 2 of 5 is an example of this.
Stacked symbologies repeat a given linear
symbology vertically.
The most common among the many 2D symbologies
are matrix codes, which feature square or dot-shaped modules arranged on a grid
pattern. 2-D symbologies also come in circular and other patterns and may
employ steganography,
hiding modules within an image (for example, DataGlyphs).
Linear symbologies are optimized for laser
scanners, which sweep a light beam across the barcode in a straight line,
reading a slice of the barcode light-dark patterns.
Stacked symbologies are also optimized for laser scanning, with the laser
making multiple passes across the barcode.
In the 1990s development of charge coupled device (CCD) imagers to read barcodes was
pioneered by Welch Allyn. Imaging does not require moving parts, as a laser
scanner does. In 2007, linear imaging had begun to supplant laser scanning as
the preferred scan engine for its performance and durability.
2-D symbologies cannot be read by a laser as
there is typically no sweep pattern that can encompass the entire symbol. They
must be scanned by an image-based scanner employing a CCD or other digital
camera sensor technology.
[edit]Scanners (barcode readers)
Main
article: Barcode reader
The earliest, and still the cheapest, barcode
scanners are built from a fixed light and a single photosensor that is manually "scrubbed"
across the barcode.
Barcode scanners can be classified into three
categories based on their connection to the computer. The older type is the RS-232
barcode scanner. This type requires special programming for transferring the
input data to the application program.
"Keyboard interface scanners"
connect to a computer using a PS/2 or AT keyboardcompatible adaptor cable (a
"keyboard wedge"). The barcode's data is sent to the computer as if
it had been typed on the keyboard.
Like the keyboard interface scanner, USB scanners are easy to install and do
not need custom code for transferring input data to the application program. On
PCs running windows the HID interface emulates the data merging action of a
hardware "keyboard wedge", and the scanner automatically behaves like
an additional keyboard.
Barcode scanners can be used in Google's
mobile Android operating
system via both their own Google Goggles application or 3rd party barcode
scanners like Scan.[19]Nokia's Symbian operating system features a barcode
scanner,[20] while mbarcode[21] is a QR code reader for the Maemo operating system. In the Apple iOS, a barcode reader is
not natively included but more than fifty paid and free apps are available with
both scanning capabilities and hard-linking to URI. With BlackBerrydevices,
the App World application can natively scan barcodes and load any recognized
Web URLs on the device's Web browser. Windows Phone
7.5 is able to scan
barcodes through the Bing search app.
[edit]Quality control and verification
Barcode verification examines scanability and the quality
of the barcode in comparison to industry standards and specifications. Barcode
verifiers are primarily used by businesses that print and use barcodes. Any
trading partner in the supply chain can test barcode quality. It is important
to verify a barcode to ensure that any reader in the supply chain can
successfully interpret a bar code with a low error rate. Retailers levy large
penalties for non-compliant barcodes. These chargebacks can reduce a
manufacturer's revenue by 2% to 10%.[22]
A barcode verifier works the way a reader
does, but instead of simply decoding a barcode, a verifier performs a series of
tests. For linear barcodes these tests are:
·
Edge Determination
·
Minimum Reflectance
·
Symbol Contrast
·
Minimum Edge Contrast
·
Modulation
·
Defects
·
Decode
·
Decodability
2D matrix symbols look at the parameters:
·
Symbol Contrast
·
Modulation
·
Decode
·
Unused Error Correction
·
Fixed (finder) Pattern Damage
·
Grid Non-uniformity
·
Axial Non-uniformity[23]
Depending on the parameter, each ANSI test is graded from 0.0 to 4.0 (F to
A), or given a pass or fail mark. Each grade is determined by analyzing the scan reflectance profile (SRP), an analog graph of a single
scan line across the entire symbol. The lowest of the 8 grades is the scan
grade and the overall ISO symbol grade is the average of the individual scan
grades. For most applications a 2.5 (C) is the minimum acceptable symbol grade.[24]
Compared with a reader, a verifier measures a
barcode's optical characteristics to international and industry standards. The
measurement must be repeatable and consistent. Doing so requires constant
conditions such as distance, illumination angle, sensor angle and verifier aperture. Based on the
verification results, the production process can be adjusted to print higher
quality barcodes that will scan down the supply chain.
[edit]Barcode
verifier standards
·
Barcode verifiers should comply with
the ISO/IEC 15416 (linear)] or ISO/IEC 15426-2 (2D).
This standard defines the measuring accuracy
of a bar code verifier.
·
The current international barcode
quality specification is ISO/IEC 15416 (linear) and ISO/IEC 15415 (2D). The European
Standard EN 1635 has
been withdrawn and replaced by ISO/IEC 15416. The original U.S. barcode quality
specification was ANSI X3.182. (UPCs used in the US
ANSI/UCC5).
This standard defines the quality
requirements for barcodes and Matrix Codes (also called Optical Codes).
·
As of 2011 the ISO workgroup JTC1 SC31
was developing a Direct Part Marking (DPM) quality standard : ISO/IEC TR
29158.[25]
International standards are available from
the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).[26]
These standards are also available from
local/national standardization organizations, such as ANSI, BSI, DIN, NEN and others.
[edit]Benefits
In point-of-sale management, barcode systems
can provide detailed up-to-date information on the business, accelerating
decisions and with more confidence. For example:
·
Fast-selling items can be identified
quickly and automatically reordered.
·
Slow-selling items can be identified,
preventing inventory build-up.
·
The effects of merchandising changes
can be monitored, allowing fast-moving, more profitable items to occupy the
best space.
·
Historical data can be used to predict
seasonal fluctuations very accurately.
·
Items may be repriced on the shelf to
reflect both sale prices and price increases.
·
This technology also enables the
profiling of individual consumers, typically through a voluntary registration
of discount cards. While pitched as a benefit to the consumer, this practice is
considered to be potentially dangerous by privacy advocates.
Besides sales and inventory tracking,
barcodes are very useful in logistics.
·
When a manufacturer packs a box for
shipment, a Unique Identifying Number (UID) can be assigned to the box.
·
A database can link the UID to relevant
information about the box; such as order number, items packed, qty packed,
destination, etc.
·
The information can be transmitted
through a communication system such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) so the retailer has the
information about a shipment before it arrives.
·
Shipments that are sent to a
Distribution Center (DC) are tracked before forwarding. When the shipment
reaches its final destination, the UID gets scanned, so the store knows the
shipment's source, contents, and cost.
Barcode scanners are relatively low cost and
extremely accurate compared to key-entry, with only about 1 substitution error
in 15,000 to 36 trillion characters entered.[27][unreliable
source?] The
exact error rate depends on the type of barcode.
[edit]Types
of barcodes
[edit]Linear barcodes
A first generation, "one
dimensional" barcode that is made up of lines and spaces of various widths
that create specific patterns.
|
Symbology |
Continuous |
Bar widths |
Uses |
|
Continuous |
Many |
Worldwide
retail, GS1-approved
International Standard ISO/IEC 15420 |
|
|
Discrete |
Two |
Old format
used in libraries and blood banks and on airbills (out of date) |
|
|
Continuous |
Two |
Industrial |
|
|
Continuous |
Two |
Wholesale,
libraries International standard ISO/IEC 16390 |
|
|
Discrete |
Two |
Various
international standard ISO/IEC 16388 |
|
|
Continuous |
Many |
Various |
|
|
Continuous |
Many |
Various
International Standard ISO/IEC 15417 |
|
|
Continuous |
Many |
Various
only a CODE 128 character set, not an own symbology |
|
|
Continuous |
Many |
Various
only a CODE 128 character set, not an own symbology |
|
|
Continuous |
Many |
Various
only a CODE 128 character set, not an own symbology |
|
|
Discrete |
Two |
Telephones
(out of date) |
|
|
Discrete |
Two |
|
|
|
Continuous |
Many |
Various |
|
|
Continuous |
Many |
Addon code
(magazines), GS1-approved not an
own symbology to be used only with an EAN/UPC according to ISO/IEC 15420 |
|
|
Continuous |
Many |
Addon code
(books), GS1-approved not an
own symbology to be used only with an EAN/UPC according to ISO/IEC 15420 |
|
|
Continuous |
Many |
Worldwide
retail, GS1-approved
International Standard ISO/IEC 15420 |
|
|
Continuous |
One |
USPS
business reply mail |
|
|
GS1-128 (formerly named UCC/EAN-128),
incorrectly referenced as EAN 128 and UCC 128 |
Continuous |
Many |
various, GS1-approved -is just an
application of the Code 128 (ISO/IEC 15417) using the ANS MH10.8.2 AI
Datastructures. Its not an own symbology. |
|
GS1 DataBar,
formerly Reduced Space Symbology (RSS) |
Continuous |
Many |
Various, GS1-approved |
|
HIBC (HIBCC Health Industry Bar Code) |
Discrete |
Two |
Healthcare[28] is a datastructure to be used with
Code 128, Code 39 or Data Matrix |
|
Continuous |
Two |
Non-retail
packaging levels, GS1-approved is just
an Interleaved 2/5 Code (ISO/IEC 16390) with a few additional specifications,
according to the GS1 General Specifications |
|
|
Neither |
Tall/short |
||
|
Neither |
Two |
Pharmaceutical
packaging (no international standard available) |
|
|
Continuous |
Two |
Catalogs,
store shelves, inventory (no international standard available) |
|
|
Continuous |
Tall/short |
United
States Postal Service (no international standard available) |
|
|
Continuous |
Tall/short |
United
States Postal Service (no international standard available) |
|
|
Continuous |
Tall/short |
United
States Postal Service, replaces both POSTNET and PLANET symbols (formerly
named OneCode) |
|
|
Continuous |
Two |
Used for
warehouse shelves and inventory |
|
|
Discrete |
Many |
Canadian
Post office |
|
|
RM4SCC / KIX |
Continuous |
Tall/short |
Royal Mail
/ Royal TPG Post |
|
Continuous |
Many |
Used in
Japan, similar and compatible with EAN-13 (ISO/IEC 15420) |
|
|
Continuous |
Two |
Libraries
(UK) |
[edit]Matrix (2D) barcodes
A matrix
code, also termed a 2D
barcode or simply a 2D code, is a two-dimensional
way to represent information. It is similar to a linear (1-dimensional)
barcode, but can represent more data per unit area.
|
Symbology |
Notes |
|
Developed
by Lynn Ltd. |
|
|
ArrayTag |
From
ArrayTech Systems. |
|
Designed
by Andrew Longacre at Welch Allyn (now Honeywell Scanning and Mobility).
Public domain. International Standard ISO/IEC 24778 |
|
|
Space-saving
version of Aztec code. |
|
|
Codablock |
Stacked 1D
barcodes. |
|
Code 1 |
Public
domain. Code 1 is currently used in the health care industry for medicine
labels and the recycling industry to encode container content for sorting.[29] |
|
Code 16K |
Based on
1D Code 128. |
|
Code 49 |
Stacked 1D
barcodes from Intermec Corp. |
|
ColorCode |
ColorZip[30] developed colour barcodes that can
be read by camera phones from TV screens; mainly used in Korea.[31] |
|
Color
Construct Code |
Color Construct Code is one of the few barcode
symbologies designed to take advantage of multiple colors.[32][33] |
|
From
Syscan Group, Inc. |
|
|
From CP
Tron, Inc. |
|
|
From Sony. |
|
|
d-touch |
readable
when printed on deformable gloves and stretched and distorted[34] |
|
From Palo
Alto Research Center (also termed Xerox PARC).[35] Patented.[36] DataGlyphs can be embedded into a
half-tone image or background shading pattern in a way that is almost
perceptually invisible, similar to steganography.[37][38] |
|
|
From Microscan Systems, formerly RVSI Acuity
CiMatrix/Siemens. Public domain. Increasingly used throughout the United
States. Single segment Data Matrix is also termed Semacode Standard: ISO/IEC 16022. |
|
|
From Datastrip,
Inc. |
|
|
patterned paper
used in conjunction with a digital pen to create handwritten digital
documents. The printed dot pattern uniquely identifies the position
coordinates on the paper. |
|
|
Designed for
the unique identification of items. |
|
|
Designed for
decoding by cameraphones.[39] |
|
|
From Syscan
Group, Inc. |
|
|
Developed by Complete
Inspection Systems, Inc. |
|
|
From Robot
Design Associates. Uses greyscale or colour.[40] |
|
|
From INTACTA
Technologies, Inc. |
|
|
From Iconlab, Inc. The standard 2D barcode in
South Korea. All 3 South Korean mobile carriers put the scanner program of
this code into their handsets to access mobile internet, as a default
embedded program. |
|
|
From JAGTAG,
Inc. Optimized for use with mobile device cameras. |
|
|
Used by United Parcel Service. Now Public Domain |
|
|
Developed by
Nextcode Corporation specifically for camera phone scanning applications.
Designed to enable advanced cell mobile applications with standard camera
phones. |
|
|
MiniCode |
From
Omniplanar, Inc. |
|
MicroPDF417 |
Facilitates
codes too small to be used in PDF417. |
|
Designed to
disseminate high capacity mobile phone content via existing colour print and
electronic media, without the need for network connectivity |
|
|
Developed by Olympus Corporation to store songs, images, and
mini-games for Game Boy
Advance on Pokιmon
trading cards. |
|
|
Developed by Twibright Labs and published as free software. Aims
at maximum data storage density, for storing data on paper. 200 kB per A4
page with laser printer. |
|
|
High density
code, used both for data heavy applications (10 K 1 MB) and camera
phones (50+ bits). Developed and patented by Cobblestone Software.[41] |
|
|
Originated by Symbol Technologies. Public Domain. |
|
|
Developed by Ardaco. |
|
|
Initially
developed, patented and owned by Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave for car parts
management; who have chosen not to exercise their patent rights. Can encode
Japanese Kanji and Kana characters, music, images, URLs, emails. De facto standard for Japanese cell phones.
Also used withBlackBerry Messenger
to pickup contacts rather than using a PIN code. These codes are also the
most frequently used type to scan with smartphones. International
Standard : ISO/IEC 18004 |
|
|
From SimpleAct
Inc.[42] |
|
|
Used in
signature blocks of checks from the United States Treasury. |
|
|
SmartCode |
From
InfoImaging Technologies. |
|
From Marconi
Data Systems, Inc. |
|
|
Circular
barcodes for camera phones.
Originally from High Energy Magic Ltd in name Spotcode. Before that probably
termed TRIPCode. |
|
|
QR Code
encoding standard from MSKYNET, Inc. |
|
|
Public domain. |
|
|
From Lark
Computers. Designed to work with mobile device's camera or webcam PC. Can
encode a variety of "actions". |
|
|
Black-and-white
& colour versions. Public domain. Invented by Jeffrey Kaufman and Clive
Hohberger. |
|
|
also called
"Beijing U Code"; a colour 2D barcode developed by Chinese company
UNIS |
|
|
From Veritec,
Inc. |
|
|
High-density 2D
Barcode(440 Bytes/cm2) From MarkAny Inc. |
[edit]Example images
·
First, Second and Third
Generation Barcodes
·
GTIN-12 number
encoded in UPC-A barcode symbol. First and last digit are always placed outside
the symbol to indicate Quiet Zones that are necessary for barcode scanners to
work properly
·
EAN-13 (GTIN-13)
number encoded in EAN-13 barcode symbol. First digit is always placed outside
the symbol, additionally right quiet zone indicator (>) is used to indicate
Quiet Zones that are necessary for barcode scanners to work properly
·
"Wikipedia"
encoded inCode 93
·
"*WIKI39*"
encoded inCode 39
·
'Wikipedia"
encoded inCode 128
·
An example of a stacked barcode. Specifically a
"Codablock" barcode.
·
PDF417 sample
·
Lorem ipsum boilerplate text as four segment Data Matrix 2D
·
"This is an
example Aztec symbol for Wikipedia" encoded in Aztec Code
·
Text 'EZcode'
·
High Capacity Color
Barcode of the URL for Wikipedia's article on High Capacity Color Barcode
·
"Wikipedia, The
Free Encyclopedia" in several languages encoded inDataGlyphs
·
Two different 2D
barcodes used in film: Dolby Digitalbetween
the sprocket holes with the "Double-D" logo in the middle, andSony Dynamic Digital Sound in the blue area to the left of the
sprocket holes
·
The QR Code for the Wikipedia URL. "Quick
Response", the most popular 2D barcode in Japan, is promoted by Google. It
is open in that the specification is disclosed and the patentis not exercised.[43]
·
MaxiCode example. This encodes the string
"Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia"
·
ShotCode sample
·
detail of Twibright Optarscan from laser printed
paper, carrying 32 kbit/s Ogg Vorbis digital music (48 seconds per A4 page)
[edit]In
popular culture
In architecture, a building in Lingang New City by German architects Gerkan, Marg and Partners incorporates a barcode design,[44] as does a shopping mall calledShtrikh-kod (the Russian for barcode) in Narodnaya ulitsa
("People's Street") in the Nevskiy district of St. Petersburg,
Russia.[45]
In media, the National Film Board of Canada and ARTE France launched a web documentary entitled Barcode.tv, which allows users
to view films about everyday objects by scanning the product's barcode with
their iPhone camera.[46][47]
In professional wrestling, the WWE stable D-Generation X incorporated a barcode into their
entrance video, as well as on a t-shirt.[48][49]
[edit]See also
·
Automated identification and data
capture (AIDC)
·
Bar Coded Boarding Pass (BCBP)
·
European Article Numbering-Uniform
Code Council
·
ISBN
·
Semacode
[edit]References
[edit]Notes
1.
^ Fox, Margalit (June 15, 2011), "Alan Haberman, Who Ushered In the Bar Code, Dies at
81", The New York Times
2.
^ Fishman,
Charles (August 1, 2001). "The Killer App Bar None". American Way. Retrieved 2010-04-19.
3.
^ a b c d e f Seideman, Tony, "Barcodes
Sweep the World", Wonders of Modern Technology
4.
^ Graham-White,
Sean (1999-08). "Do You Know Where Your Boxcar Is?". Trains(Kalmbach Publishing) 59 (8): 4853.
5.
^ George Laurer, "Development
of the U.P.C. Symbol", bellsouthpwp.net
6.
^ Nelson,
Benjamin (1997). From Punched Cards To Bar Codes.
7.
^ a b Varchaver,
Nicholas (2004-05-31). "Scanning the Globe". Fortune.Archived from the original on 14 November 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-27.
8.
^ a b Selmeier,
Bill (2008). Spreading the Barcode. pp. 26, 214, 236, 238, 244, 245, 236,
238, 244, 245. ISBN 978-0-578-02417-2.
9.
^ "What about
barcodes and 666: The Mark of the Beast?". Av1611.org. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
10.
^ Bishop,
Tricia (July 5, 2004). "UPC bar code has been in use 30 years".
SFgate.com.
Retrieved 22 December 2009.
11.
^ "Adams1.com".
Adams1.com.
Retrieved 2011-11-28.
12.
^ "Retrieved
November 17, 2011". Iwatchsystems.com. 2011-05-02. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
13.
^ Oberfield,
Craig. "QNotes Barcode System". US Patented #5296688. Quick Notes Inc. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
14.
^ National Geographic, May 2010, page 30
15.
^ David L. Hecht. "Printed
Embedded Data Graphical User Interfaces". Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center. IEEE Computer March 2001.
16.
^ Jon Howell and Keith Kotay. "Landmarks
for absolute localization". Dartmouth Computer Science
Technical Report TR2000-364, March 2000.
17.
^ "IATA.org".
IATA.org. 2011-11-21. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
18.
^ "Paperbyte
Bar Codes for Waduzitdo" Byte magazine, 1978 September p. 172
20.
^ "Nokia Europe Nokia N80 Support".
21.
^ "package
overview for mbarcode". Maemo.org. Archived from the original on 14 August 2010. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
22.
^ Zieger,
Anne (October 2003). "Retailer chargebacks: is there an upside? Retailer
compliance initiatives can lead to efficiency". Frontline Solutions. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
23.
^ "GS1 DataMatrix: An introduction and technical
overview of the most advanced GS1 Application Identifiers compliant
symbology". Global
Standards 1 1.17: 3436. May 2010. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
24.
^ "GS1 Bar Code Verification for Linear Symbols". Global Standards 1 (4.3): 2332. May 2009. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
25.
^ "Technical committees - JTC 1/SC 31 - Automatic
identification and data capture techniques". ISO. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
26.
^ "ISO web site".
Iso.org.
Retrieved 2011-11-28.
27.
^ Harmon and Adams(1989). Reading Between The Lines, p.13. Helmers Publishing, Inc,
Peterborough, New Hampshire, USA. ISBN
0-911261-00-1.
28.
^ FDA.gov, Health Industry Bar Code (HIBC) supplier labeling standard
29.
^ Russ
Adams (2009-06-15). "2-Dimensional
Bar Code Page". Archivedfrom the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
30.
^ "Colorzip.com".
Colorzip.com.
Retrieved 2011-11-28.
31.
^ "Barcodes for TV Commercials".
Adverlab.blogspot.com. 2006-01-31. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
32.
^ "Colour
Code Technologies Co., Ltd". Colourcodetech.com. Retrieved 2012-11-04.
33.
^ "Frequently
Asked Questions". ColorCCode.net. Retrieved 2012-11-04.
34.
^ d-touch topological fiducial recognition; "d-touch markers are applied to deformable
gloves", media.mit.edu
35.
^ See Xerox.com for details.
36.
^ "DataGlyphs:
Embedding Digital Data"
37.
^ ""DataGlyph"
Embedded Digital Data"
38.
^ "DataGlyphs"
39.
^ "Scanbuy.com".
Scanbuy.com.
Retrieved 2011-11-28.
40.
^ "BarCode-1
2-Dimensional Bar Code Page". Adams1.com. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
41.
^ "PaperDisk.com".
PaperDisk.com.
Retrieved 2011-11-28.
42.
^ "Quickmark.com".
Quickmark.com.
Retrieved 2011-11-28.
43.
^ (株)デンソーウェーブ,
denso-wave.com (Japanese) Copyright
44.
^ Barcode Halls - gmp[dead link]
45.
^ "image".
Peterburg2.ru.
Retrieved 2011-11-28.
46.
^ Lavigne,
Anne-Marie. "Introducing
Barcode.tv, a new interactive doc about the objects that surround us". NFB Blog. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
47.
^ Anderson,
Kelly (6 October 2011). "NFB, ARTE France launch Bar Code".Reelscreen. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
48.
^ http://www.attitudetees.com/items/dxbarcode.html
49.
^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkvplmOtmX4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
[edit]Bibliography
·
Automating Management
Information Systems: Barcode Engineering and Implementation
Harry E. Burke, Thomson Learning, ISBN
0-442-20712-3
·
Automating Management
Information Systems: Principles of Barcode Applications
Harry E. Burke, Thomson Learning, ISBN
0-442-20667-4
·
The Bar Code Book
Roger C. Palmer, Helmers Publishing, ISBN
0-911261-09-5, 386 pages
·
The Bar Code Manual
Eugene F. Brighan, Thompson Learning, ISBN
0-03-016173-8
·
Handbook of Bar Coding
Systems Harry E. Burke, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, ISBN
978-0-442-21430-2, 219 pages
·
Information Technology for
Retail:Automatic Identification & Data Capture Systems
Girdhar Joshi, Oxford University Press, ISBN
0-19-569796-0, 416 pages
·
Lines of Communication
Craig K. Harmon, Helmers Publishing, ISBN
0-911261-07-9, 425 pages
·
Punched Cards to Bar Codes
Benjamin Nelson, Helmers Publishing, ISBN
0-911261-12-5, 434 pages
·
Revolution at the Checkout
Counter: The Explosion of the Bar Code
Stephen A. Brown, Harvard University Press, ISBN
0-674-76720-9
·
Reading Between The Lines
Craig K. Harmon and Russ Adams, Helmers Publishing, ISBN
0-911261-00-1, 297 pages
·
The Black and White
Solution: Bar Code and the IBM PC Russ Adams and Joyce Lane, Helmers Publishing, ISBN
0-911261-01-X, 169 pages
·
Sourcebook of Automatic
Identification and Data Collection Russ Adams, Van Nostrand Reinhold, ISBN
0-442-31850-2, 298 pages