![UPC-A-036000291452](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/UPC-A-036000291452.svg)
A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual,
machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or one-dimensional (1D), can be scanned by special
optical scanners, called
barcode reader
A barcode reader is an optical scanner that can read printed barcodes, decode the data contained in the barcode to a computer. Like a flatbed scanner, it consists of a light source, a lens and a light sensor for translating optical impulses into ...
s, of which there are several types. Later, two-dimensional (2D) variants were developed, using rectangles, dots,
hexagon
In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°.
Regular hexagon
A '' regular hexagon'' has ...
s and other patterns, called ''matrix codes'' or ''2D barcodes'', although they do not use bars as such. 2D barcodes can be read using purpose-built 2D optical scanners, which exist in a few different forms. 2D barcodes can also be read by a digital camera connected to a microcomputer running software that takes a photographic image of the barcode and analyzes the image to deconstruct and decode the 2D barcode. A
mobile device
A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physica ...
with an inbuilt camera, such as
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
, can function as the latter type of 2D barcode reader using specialized
application software
Application may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks
** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...
(The same sort of mobile device could also read 1D barcodes, depending on the application software).
The barcode was invented by
Norman Joseph Woodland and
Bernard Silver and patented in the US in 1952.
The invention was based on
Morse code that was extended to thin and thick bars. However, it took over twenty years before this invention became commercially successful. UK magazine ''
Modern Railways
''Modern Railways'' is a British monthly magazine covering the rail transport industry which was published by Ian Allan until March 2012, and Key Publishing since then. It has been published since 1962. The magazine was originally based in She ...
'' December 1962 pages 387–389 record how
British Railways had already perfected a barcode-reading system capable of correctly reading rolling stock travelling at with no mistakes. An early use of one type of barcode in an industrial context was sponsored by the
Association of American Railroads
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) is an industry trade group representing primarily the major freight Rail transport, railroads of North America (Canada, Mexico and the United States). Amtrak and some regional Commuter rail in North Am ...
in the late 1960s. Developed by
General Telephone and Electronics
GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing furt ...
(GTE) and called
KarTrak ACI (Automatic Car Identification), this scheme involved placing colored stripes in various combinations on steel plates which were affixed to the sides of railroad rolling stock. Two plates were used per car, one on each side, with the arrangement of the colored stripes encoding information such as ownership, type of equipment, and identification number.
The plates were read by a trackside scanner located, for instance, at the entrance to a classification yard, while the car was moving past.
The project was abandoned after about ten years because the system proved unreliable after long-term use.
Barcodes became commercially successful when they were used to automate supermarket
checkout Checkout may refer to:
* a point of sale terminal
* Google Checkout, Google's online payment services
* Check-Out (The Price Is Right), a segment game from ''The Price Is Right''
* in information management, it means blocking a file for editing; ...
systems, a task for which they have become almost universal. The Uniform Grocery Product Code Council had chosen, in 1973, the barcode design developed by
George Laurer
George Joseph Laurer III (September 23, 1925 – December 5, 2019) was an American engineer for IBM at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. He published 20 bulletins, held 28 patents and developed the Universal Product Code (UPC) in the ear ...
. Laurer's barcode, with vertical bars, printed better than the circular barcode developed by Woodland and Silver.
Their use has spread to many other tasks that are generically referred to as
automatic identification and data capture
Automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) refers to the methods of automatically identifying objects, collecting data about them, and entering them directly into computer systems, without human involvement. Technologies typically considered ...
(AIDC). The first scanning of the now-ubiquitous
Universal Product Code
The Universal Product Code (UPC or UPC code) is a barcode symbology that is widely used worldwide for tracking trade items in stores.
UPC (technically refers to UPC-A) consists of 12 digits that are uniquely assigned to each trade item. Along wi ...
(UPC) barcode was on a pack of
Wrigley's
The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, known as the Wrigley Company, is an American multinational chewing gum (Wrigley's gum) company, based in the Global Innovation Center (GIC) in Goose Island, Chicago, Illinois.
Wrigley's is wholly owned by Mars, In ...
chewing gum in June 1974 at a
Marsh supermarket in
Troy, Ohio
Troy is a city in and the county seat of Miami County, Ohio, United States, located north of Dayton. The population was 26,305 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in Miami County and the 55th largest city in Ohio; it is part of the Da ...
, using a scanner made by
Photographic Sciences Corporation.
QR code
A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...
s, a specific type of 2D barcode, have recently become very popular due to the growth in smartphone ownership.
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, particularly before technologies such as
radio-frequency identification (RFID) became available after 1995.
History
In 1948
Bernard Silver, a graduate student at
Drexel Institute of Technology
Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, Sc ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
, Pennsylvania, US overheard the president of the local food chain,
Food Fair
Food Fair, also known by its successor name Pantry Pride, was a large supermarket chain in the United States. It was founded by Samuel N. Friedland, who opened the first store (as Reading Giant Quality Price Cutter) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in ...
, asking one of the deans to research a system to automatically read product information during checkout. 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
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation ...
ink, but the ink faded too easily and was expensive.
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."
[ To read them, he adapted technology from optical soundtracks in movies, using a 500-watt incandescent light bulb shining through the paper onto an RCA935 ]photomultiplier A photomultiplier is a device that converts incident photons into an electrical signal.
Kinds of photomultiplier include:
* Photomultiplier tube, a vacuum tube converting incident photons into an electric signal. Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs for sh ...
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 bull's eye 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 the offer was not accepted. Philco
Philco (an acronym for Philadelphia Battery Company) is an American electronics industry, electronics manufacturer headquartered in Philadelphia. Philco was a pioneer in battery, radio, and television production. In 1961, the company was purchased ...
purchased the patent in 1962 and then sold it to RCA
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
sometime later.
Collins at Sylvania
During his time as an undergraduate, David Jarrett 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
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
in 1959, he started work at GTE Sylvania and began addressing the problem. He developed a system called ''KarTrak'' using blue and red reflective stripes attached to the side of the cars, encoding a six-digit company identifier and a four-digit car number. Light reflected off the colored stripes was read by photomultiplier A photomultiplier is a device that converts incident photons into an electrical signal.
Kinds of photomultiplier include:
* Photomultiplier tube, a vacuum tube converting incident photons into an electric signal. Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs for sh ...
vacuum tubes.
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
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) is an industry trade group representing primarily the major freight Rail transport, railroads of North America (Canada, Mexico and the United States). Amtrak and some regional Commuter rail in North Am ...
(AAR) selected it as a standard, Automatic Car Identification, across the entire North American fleet. The installations began on 10 October 1967. However, the economic 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.
The railway project had failed, but a toll bridge
A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...
in New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
requested a similar system so that it could quickly scan for cars that had purchased a monthly pass. Then the U.S. Post Office
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the Federal government of the Uni ...
requested a system to track trucks entering and leaving their facilities. These applications required special retroreflector
A retroreflector (sometimes called a retroflector or cataphote) is a device or surface that reflection (physics), reflects radiation (usually light) back to its source with minimum scattering. This works at a wide range of angle of incidence (opt ...
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.
Computer Identics Corporation
In 1967, with the railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
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 the Computer Identics Corporation. As its first innovations, Computer Identics moved from using incandescent light bulbs in its systems, replacing them with helium–neon laser
A helium–neon laser or He-Ne laser, is a type of gas laser whose high energetic medium gain medium consists of a mixture of 10:1 ratio of helium and neon at a total pressure of about 1 torr inside of a small electrical discharge. The bes ...
s, and incorporated a mirror as well, making it capable of locating a barcode up to several feet in front of the scanner. This made the entire process much simpler and more reliable, and typically enabled these devices to deal with damaged labels, as well, by recognizing and 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. 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.
Universal Product Code
In 1966, the National Association of Food Chains
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ...
(NAFC) held a meeting on the idea of automated checkout systems. RCA
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
, who had purchased the 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
The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.
Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinci ...
grocery chain volunteered to test it.
In the mid-1970s, the NAFC established the Ad-Hoc Committee for U.S. Supermarkets on a Uniform Grocery-Product Code to set guidelines for barcode development. In addition, it created a symbol-selection subcommittee to help standardize the approach. In cooperation with consulting firm, McKinsey & Co., they developed a standardized 11-digit code for identifying products. The committee then sent out a contract tender to develop a barcode system
DX (Digital indeX) encoding is an ANSI and I3A standard, originally introduced by Kodak in March 1983, for marking 135 and APS photographic film and film cartridges. It consists of several parts, a latent image DX film edge barcode on the film be ...
to print and read the code. The request went to Singer
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...
, National Cash Register
NCR Corporation, previously known as National Cash Register, is an American software, consulting and technology company providing several professional services and electronic products. It manufactures self-service kiosks, point-of-sale termin ...
(NCR), Litton Industries
Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States named after inventor Charles Litton Sr.
During the 1960s, the company began acquiring many unrelated firms and became one of the largest conglomerates in the United States. A ...
, RCA, Pitney-Bowes
Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American technology company most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment and services, and with expansions into e-commerce, software, and other technologies. The company was founded by Arthur Pitney, who i ...
, IBM and many others. A wide variety of barcode approaches was 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 Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle Park to lead development.
In July 1972, RCA began an 18-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; the printers would sometimes smear ink, rendering the code unreadable in most orientations. However, a linear code, like the one being developed by Woodland at IBM, was printed in the direction of the stripes, so extra ink would simply make the code "taller" while remaining readable. So on 3 April 1973, the IBM UPC was selected as the NAFC standard. IBM had designed five versions of UPC symbology for future industry requirements: UPC A, B, C, D, and E.
NCR installed a testbed system at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio
Troy is a city in and the county seat of Miami County, Ohio, United States, located north of Dayton. The population was 26,305 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in Miami County and the 55th largest city in Ohio; it is part of the Da ...
, near the factory that was producing the equipment. On 26 June 1974, Clyde Dawson pulled a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit
Juicy Fruit is an American brand of chewing gum made by the Wrigley Company, a U.S. company that since 2008 has been a subsidiary of the privately held Mars, Incorporated. It was introduced in 1893, and in the 21st century the brand name is rec ...
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 the Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
. It was the first commercial appearance of the UPC.
In 1971, an IBM team was assembled for an intensive planning session, threshing out, 12 to 18 hours a day, how the technology would be deployed and operate cohesively across the system, and scheduling a roll-out plan. By 1973, the team 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 projected that 75% would be needed in 1975. Yet, although this was achieved, there were still scanning machines in fewer than 200 grocery stores by 1977.
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. 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" in a 1976 article.
On the other hand, experience with barcode scanning in those stores revealed additional benefits. The detailed sales information acquired by the new systems allowed greater responsiveness to customer habits, needs and preferences. 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 was also a 1–2% decrease in operating cost for those stores, and this enabled them to lower prices and thereby to increase market share. It was shown in the field that the return on investment
Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is a ratio between net income (over a period) and investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources at a point in time). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favourably ...
for a barcode scanner was 41.5%. By 1980, 8,000 stores per year were converting.
Sims Supermarkets were the first location in Australia to use barcodes, starting in 1979.
Industrial adoption
In 1981, the United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...
adopted the use of Code 39
Code 39 (also known as Alpha39, Code 3 of 9, Code 3/9, Type 39, USS Code 39, or USD-3) is a variable length, discrete barcode symbology.
The Code 39 specification defines 43 characters, consisting of uppercase letters (A through Z), numeric digi ...
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.
Use
Barcodes are widely used around the world in many contexts. In stores, UPC barcodes are pre-printed on most items other than fresh produce from a grocery store
A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...
. This speeds up processing at check-outs and helps track items and also reduces instances of shoplifting
Shoplifting is the theft of goods from an open retail establishment, typically by concealing a store item on one's person, in pockets, under clothes or in a bag, and leaving the store without paying. With clothing, shoplifters may put on items ...
involving price tag swapping, although shoplifters can now print their own barcodes. Barcodes that encode a book's ISBN
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.
An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition an ...
are also widely pre-printed on books, journals and other printed materials. In addition, retail chain membership cards use barcodes to identify customers, 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.
Barcodes are widely used in the healthcare and hospital settings, ranging from patient identification (to access patient data, including medical history, drug allergies, etc.) to creating SOAP Notes 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, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
in biology, and integrate with in-motion checkweigher
A checkweigher is an automatic or manual machine for checking the weight of packaged commodities.
It is normally found at the offgoing end of a production process and is used to ensure that the weight of a pack of the commodity is within specif ...
s to identify the item being weighed in a conveyor
A conveyor system is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. Conveyors are especially useful in applications involving the transport of heavy or bulky materials. Conveyor systems allow ...
line for data collection.
They can also be used to keep track of objects and people; they are used to keep track of rental car
Renting, also known as hiring or letting, is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for a ...
s, airline luggage, nuclear waste
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons ...
, registered mail
Registered mail is a mail service offered by postal services in many countries which allows the sender proof of mailing via a mailing receipt and, upon request, electronic verification that an article was delivered or that a delivery attempt was ...
, express mail
Express mail is an expedited mail delivery service for which the customer pays a premium for faster delivery. Express mail is a service for domestic and international mail, and is in most nations governed by the country's own postal administration ...
and parcels. Barcoded tickets (which may be printed by the customer on their home printer, or stored on their mobile device) 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.
Barcodes are also used in some kinds of non-contact 1D and 2D position sensor A position sensor is a sensor that detects an object's position. A position sensor may indicate the absolute position of the object (its location) or its relative position (displacement) in terms of linear travel, rotational angle or three-dimensio ...
s. A series of barcodes are used in some kinds of absolute 1D linear encoder
A linear encoder is a sensor, transducer or readhead paired with a scale that encodes position. The sensor reads the scale in order to convert the encoded position into an analog or digital signal, which can then be decoded into position by a di ...
. The barcodes are packed close enough together that the reader always has one or two barcodes in its field of view. As a kind of fiducial marker
A fiducial marker or fiducial is an object placed in the field of view of an imaging system that appears in the image produced, for use as a point of reference or a measure. It may be either something placed into or on the imaging subject, or a m ...
, 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
In digital image processing, sub-pixel resolution can be obtained in images constructed from sources with information exceeding the nominal pixel resolution of said images.
Aliasing
When an object with a certain resolution is represented o ...
. The data decoded from the barcode gives the absolute coarse position. An "address carpet", such as Howell's binary pattern and the Anoto
Anoto Group AB (formerly C Technologies) is a Swedish cloud based software provider (SaaS). It primarily dispenses patented dot pattern technology which provides a methodology for accumulating digital big data from analogue inputs.
With around ...
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.
2D barcodes can embed a hyperlink to a web page. A mobile device with an inbuilt camera 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 ( Bar Coded Boarding Pass (BCBP)), and since 2008 2D barcodes sent to mobile phones enable electronic boarding passes.
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 are barcode symbologies specifically designed for this application), and the 1991 ''Barcode Battler
The is a handheld game console released by Epoch Co. in March 1991.
The console at retail was supplied with a number of cards, each of which had a barcode. Upon starting the game, the player must swipe a barcode representing a player. The gam ...
'' computer game system used any standard barcode to generate combat statistics.
Artists have used barcodes in art, such as Scott Blake's Barcode Jesus, as part of the post-modernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...
movement.
Symbologies
The mapping between messages and barcodes is called a '' symbology''. The specification of a symbology includes the encoding of the message into bars and spaces, any required start and stop markers, the size of the quiet zone required to be before and after the barcode, and the computation of a checksum
A checksum is a small-sized block of data derived from another block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. By themselves, checksums are often used to verify data ...
.
Linear symbologies can be classified mainly by two properties:
; Continuous vs. discrete
* Characters in discrete symbologies are composed of ''n'' bars and ''n'' − 1 spaces. There is an additional space between characters, but it does not convey information, and may have any width as long as it is not confused with the end of the code.
* Characters in continuous symbologies are composed of ''n'' bars and ''n'' spaces, and usually abut, with one character ending with a space and the next beginning with a bar, or vice versa. A special end pattern that has bars on both ends is required to end the code.
;Two-width vs. many-width
* A two-width, also called a binary bar code, contains bars and spaces of two widths, "wide" and "narrow". The precise width of the wide bars and spaces is not critical; typically, it is permitted to be anywhere between 2 and 3 times the width of the narrow equivalents.
* Some other symbologies use bars of two different heights (POSTNET
POSTNET (Postal Numeric Encoding Technique) is a barcode symbology used by the United States Postal Service to assist in directing mail. The ZIP Code or ZIP+4 code is encoded in half- and full-height bars. Most often, the delivery point is add ...
), or the presence or absence of bars ( CPC Binary Barcode). These are normally also considered binary bar codes.
* 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
Interleaved 2 of 5 (ITF) is a continuous two-width barcode symbology encoding digits. It is used commercially on 135 film, for ITF-14 barcodes, and on cartons of some products, while the products inside are labeled with UPC or EAN.
ITF enco ...
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. 2D symbologies also come in circular and other patterns and may employ steganography
Steganography ( ) is the practice of representing information within another message or physical object, in such a manner that the presence of the information is not evident to human inspection. In computing/electronic contexts, a computer file, ...
, 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. Scanning at an angle makes the modules appear wider, but does not change the width ratios. 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
A charge-coupled device (CCD) is an integrated circuit containing an array of linked, or coupled, capacitors. Under the control of an external circuit, each capacitor can transfer its electric charge to a neighboring capacitor. CCD sensors are a ...
(CCD) imagers to read barcodes was pioneered by Welch Allyn
Welch Allyn, Inc. is an American manufacturer of medical devices and patient monitoring systems. Headquartered in Skaneateles Falls, New York, it was family-owned until it was acquired in 2015 by Hillrom. Hillrom was purchased by Baxter Interna ...
. 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.
2D 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.
Barcode readers
The earliest, and still the cheapest, barcode scanners are built from a fixed light and a single photosensor
Photodetectors, also called photosensors, are sensors of light or other electromagnetic radiation. There is a wide variety of photodetectors which may be classified by mechanism of detection, such as photoelectric or photochemical effects, or by ...
that is manually moved 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
In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such ...
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 keyboard
The Model F was a series of computer keyboards produced mainly from 1981–1985 and in reduced volume until 1994 by IBM and later Lexmark. Its mechanical-key design consisted of a buckling spring over a capacitive PCB, similar to the later Model ...
–compatible 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
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...
scanners do not need custom code for transferring input data to the application program. On PCs running Windows the human interface device
A human interface device or HID is a type of computer device usually used by humans that takes input from humans and gives output to humans.
The term "HID" most commonly refers to the USB-HID specification. The term was coined by Mike Van Fl ...
emulates the data merging action of a hardware "keyboard wedge", and the scanner automatically behaves like an additional keyboard.
Most modern smartphones are able to decode barcode using their built-in camera. Google's mobile Android operating system can use their own Google Lens
Google Lens is an image recognition technology developed by Google, designed to bring up relevant information related to objects it identifies using visual analysis based on a neural network. First announced during Google I/O 2017, it was firs ...
application to scan QR codes, or third-party apps like Barcode Scanner
A barcode reader is an optical scanner that can read printed barcodes, decode the data contained in the barcode to a computer. Like a flatbed scanner, it consists of a light source, a lens and a light sensor for translating optical impulses int ...
to read both one-dimensional barcodes and QR codes. Nokia's Symbian operating system featured a barcode scanner, while mbarcode is a QR code
A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...
reader for the Maemo
Maemo is a software platform originally developed by Nokia, now developed by the community, for smartphones and Internet tablets. The platform comprises both the Maemo operating system and SDK. Maemo played a key role in Nokia's strategy to c ...
operating system. In Apple iOS 11, the native camera app can decode QR codes and can link to URLs, join wireless networks, or perform other operations depending on the QR Code contents. Other paid and free apps are available with scanning capabilities for other symbologies or for earlier iOS versions. With BlackBerry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...
devices, the App World application can natively scan barcodes and load any recognized Web URLs on the device's Web browser. Windows Phone 7.5
This page provides details for the version history of the Microsoft's Windows Phone branded mobile operating systems, from the release of Windows Phone 7 in October 2010, which was preceded by Windows Mobile version 6.x.
Windows Phone 7
Win ...
is able to scan barcodes through the Bing
Bing most often refers to:
* Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer
* Microsoft Bing, a web search engine
Bing may also refer to:
Food and drink
* Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread
* Bing (soft drink), a UK brand
* Bing cherry, a varie ...
search app. However, these devices are not designed specifically for the capturing of barcodes. As a result, they do not decode nearly as quickly or accurately as a dedicated barcode scanner or portable data terminal
A portable data terminal, or shortly PDT, is an electronic device that is used to enter or retrieve data via wireless transmission (WLAN or WWAN). They have also been called enterprise digital assistants (EDA), data capture mobile devices, batch ...
.
Quality control and verification
It is common for producers and users of bar codes to have a quality management system which includes verification and validation
Verification and validation (also abbreviated as V&V) are independent procedures that are used together for checking that a product, service, or system meets requirements and specifications and that it fulfills its intended purpose. These are ...
of bar codes. 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 barcode 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%.
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 contrast (EC)
**The difference between the space reflectance (Rs) and adjoining bar reflectance (Rb). EC=Rs-Rb
* Minimum bar reflectance (Rb)
**The smallest reflectance value in a bar.
* Minimum space reflectance (Rs)
**The smallest reflectance value in a space.
*Symbol contrast (SC)
**Symbol Contrast is the difference in reflectance values of the lightest space (including the quiet zone) and the darkest bar of the symbol. The greater the difference, the higher the grade. The parameter is graded as either A, B, C, D, or F. SC=Rmax-Rmin
* Minimum edge contrast (ECmin)
**The difference between the space reflectance (Rs) and adjoining bar reflectance (Rb). EC=Rs-Rb
* Modulation (MOD)
**The parameter is graded either A, B, C, D, or F. This grade is based on the relationship between minimum edge contrast (ECmin) and symbol contrast (SC). MOD=ECmin/SC The greater the difference between minimum edge contrast and symbol contrast, the lower the grade. Scanners and verifiers perceive the narrower bars and spaces to have less intensity than wider bars and spaces; the comparison of the lesser intensity of narrow elements to the wide elements is called modulation. This condition is affected by aperture size.
*Inter-character gap
**In discrete barcodes, the space that disconnects the two contiguous characters. When present, inter-character gaps are considered spaces (elements) for purposes of edge determination and reflectance parameter grades.
* Defects
* Decode
**Extracting the information which has been encoded in a bar code symbol.
* Decodability
**Can be graded as A, B, C, D, or F. The Decodability grade indicates the amount of error in the width of the most deviant element in the symbol. The less deviation in the symbology, the higher the grade. Decodability is a measure of print accuracy using the symbology reference decode algorithm.
2D matrix symbols look at the parameters:
* Symbol contrast
* Modulation
* Decode
* Unused error correction
* Fixed (finder) pattern damage
* Grid non-uniformity
* Axial non-uniformity
Depending on the parameter, each ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...
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 minimal acceptable symbol grade.
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
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.
An ...
. Based on the verification results, the production process can be adjusted to print higher quality barcodes that will scan down the supply chain.
Bar code validation may include evaluations after use (and abuse) testing such as sunlight, abrasion, impact, moisture, etc.
Barcode verifier standards
Barcode verifier standards are defined by the International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Art ...
(ISO), in ISO/IEC 15426-1 (linear) or ISO/IEC 15426-2 (2D). The current international barcode quality specification is ISO/IEC 15416 (linear) and ISO/IEC 15415 (2D). The European Standard
European Standards (abbreviated EN, from the German name ("European Norm")) are technical standards which have been ratified by one of the three European standards organizations: European Committee for Standardization (CEN), European Committee ...
EN 1635 has been withdrawn and replaced by ISO/IEC 15416. The original U.S. barcode quality specification was ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...
X3.182. (UPCs used in the US – ANSI/UCC5). As of 2011 the ISO workgroup JTC1 SC31 was developing a Direct Part Marking (DPM) quality standard: ISO/IEC TR 29158.
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 and supply chain management.
* 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, quantity 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. The exact error rate depends on the type of barcode.
Types of barcodes
Linear barcodes
A first generation, "one dimensional" barcode that is made up of lines and spaces of various widths or sizes that create specific patterns.
Matrix (2D) barcodes
A ''matrix code'', also termed a ''2D barcode'' (although not using bars as such) 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.
Example images
File:UPC-A-036000291452.png, 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
File:EAN-13-5901234123457.svg, 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
File:Code93.png, "Wikipedia" encoded in Code 93
Code 93 is a barcode symbology designed in 1982 by Intermec to provide a higher density and data security enhancement to Code 39. It is an alphanumeric, variable length symbology. Code 93 is used primarily by Canada Post to encode supplementary de ...
File:Code39.png, "*WIKI39*" encoded in Code 39
Code 39 (also known as Alpha39, Code 3 of 9, Code 3/9, Type 39, USS Code 39, or USD-3) is a variable length, discrete barcode symbology.
The Code 39 specification defines 43 characters, consisting of uppercase letters (A through Z), numeric digi ...
File:Wikipedia barcode 128.svg, 'Wikipedia" encoded in Code 128
Code 128 is a high-density linear barcode symbology defined in ISO/IEC 15417:2007. It is used for alphanumeric or numeric-only barcodes. It can encode all 128 characters of ASCII and, by use of an extension symbol (FNC4), the Latin-1 characters ...
File:Codablock-F Example.png, An example of a ''stacked barcode''. Specifically a "Codablock" barcode.
File:Better Sample PDF417.png, PDF417
PDF417 is a stacked linear barcode format used in a variety of applications such as transport, identification cards, and inventory management. "PDF" stands for Portable Data File. The "417" signifies that each pattern in the code consists of 4 ...
sample
File:Lorem Ipsum.png, Lorem ipsum
In publishing and graphic design, ''Lorem ipsum'' is a placeholder text commonly used to demonstrate the visual form of a document or a typeface without relying on meaningful content. ''Lorem ipsum'' may be used as a placeholder before final ...
boilerplate text
Boilerplate text, or simply boilerplate, is any written text (copy) that can be reused in new contexts or applications without significant changes to the original. The term is used about statements, contracts, and computer code, and is used in the ...
as four segment Data Matrix
A Data Matrix is a two-dimensional code consisting of black and white "cells" or dots arranged in either a square or rectangular pattern, also known as a matrix. The information to be encoded can be text or numeric data. Usual data size is fro ...
2D
File:Azteccodeexample.svg, "This is an example Aztec symbol for Wikipedia" encoded in Aztec Code
The Aztec Code is a matrix code invented by Andrew Longacre, Jr. and Robert Hussey in 1995.* The code was published by AIM, Inc. in 1997. Although the Aztec Code was patented, that patent was officially made public domain. Click "images" then ...
File:EZcode.png, Text 'EZcode'
File:High Capacity Color Barcode.png, High Capacity Color Barcode of the URL for Wikipedia's article on High Capacity Color Barcode
High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB) is a technology developed by Microsoft for encoding data in a 2D "barcode" using clusters of colored triangles instead of the square pixels conventionally associated with 2D barcodes or QR codes. Data density is ...
File:Dataglyph511140.png, "Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia" in several languages encoded in DataGlyphs
File:35mm film audio macro.jpg, Two different 2D barcodes used in film: Dolby Digital between the sprocket holes with the "Double-D" logo in the middle, and Sony Dynamic Digital Sound
is a cinema sound system developed by Sony, in which compressed digital sound information is recorded on both outer edges of the 35 mm film release print. The system supports up to eight independent channels of sound: five front channe ...
in the blue area to the left of the sprocket holes
File:WikiQRCode.png, The QR Code
A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...
for the Wikipedia URL. "Quick Response", the most popular 2D barcode. It is open in that the specification is disclosed and the patent is not exercised.
File:MaxiCode.svg, MaxiCode
MaxiCode is a public domain, machine-readable symbol system originally created and used by United Parcel Service. Suitable for tracking and managing the shipment of packages, it resembles an Aztec Code or QR code, but uses dots arranged in a h ...
example. This encodes the string "Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia"
File:Shotcode.png, ShotCode
ShotCode is a circular barcode created by High Energy Magic of Cambridge University. It uses a dartboard-like circle, with a bullseye in the centre and ''datacircles'' surrounding it. The technology reads databits from these datacircles by measuri ...
sample
File:Twibright Optar Detail Scanned.png, detail of Twibright Optar scan from laser printed paper, carrying 32 kbit/s Ogg Vorbis digital music (48 seconds per A4 page)
File:KarTrak code.jpg, A KarTrak
KarTrak, sometimes KarTrak ACI (''Automatic Car Identification'') is a colored barcode system designed to automatically identify railcars and other rolling stock. KarTrak was made a requirement in North America, but technical problems led to the ...
railroad Automatic Equipment Identification
Automatic equipment identification (AEI) is an electronic recognition system in use with the North American railroad industry. Consisting of passive tags mounted on each side of rolling stock and active trackside readers, AEI uses RF technology t ...
label on a caboose in Florida
In popular culture
In architecture, a building in Lingang New City by German architects Gerkan, Marg and Partners
Gerkan, Marg & Partners (gmp) is an international architectural company based in Hamburg, Germany. The company was founded in 1965 by Meinhard von Gerkan and , and now has more than 300 employees in 13 offices. In the same year the archit ...
incorporates a barcode design, as does a shopping mall calle
''Shtrikh-kod''
(Russian for ''barcode'') in Narodnaya ulitsa ("People's Street") in the Nevskiy district of St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Russia.
In media, in 2011, the National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...
and ARTE France
Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture.
It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...
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.
In professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...
, the WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...
stable D-Generation X
D-Generation X (DX) is an American professional wrestling stable, and later a tag team, who consisted of Triple H and Shawn Michaels.
The group originated in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) in the midst of the "Attitud ...
incorporated a barcode into their entrance video, as well as on a T-shirt.
In the TV series '' Dark Angel'', the protagonist and the other transgenics
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...
in the Manticore X-series have barcodes on the back of their necks.
In video games, the protagonist of the ''Hitman'' video game series has a barcode tattoo on the back of his head; QR codes can also be scanned in a side mission in ''Watch Dogs
''Watch Dogs'' (stylized as ''WATCH_DOGS'') is an action-adventure video game franchise published by Ubisoft, and developed primarily by its Montreal and Toronto studios using the Disrupt game engine. The series' eponymous first title was rel ...
''.
The 2018 videogame ''Judgment
Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle s ...
'' features QR Code
A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...
s that protagonist Takayuki Yagami can photograph with his phone camera. These are mostly to unlock parts for Yagami's Drone
Drone most commonly refers to:
* Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg
* Unmanned aerial vehicle
* Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft
* Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone
Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to:
...
.
In the films ''Back to the Future Part II
''Back to the Future Part II'' is a 1989 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by Bob Gale and a story by both. It is the sequel to the 1985 film '' Back to the Future'' and the second installment in the ...
'' and ''The Handmaid's Tale
''The Handmaid's Tale'' is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state known as the Republic of Gilead, which ...
'', cars in the future are depicted with barcode licence plate
A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate (Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identificatio ...
s.
In the ''Terminator'' films, Skynet burns barcodes onto the inside surface of the wrists of captive humans (in a similar location to the WW2 concentration camp tattoos) as a unique identifier.
In music, Dave Davies
David Russell Gordon Davies (born 3 February 1947) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the English rock band the Kinks, which also featured his elder brother Ray Davies. He was in ...
of The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhyt ...
released a solo album in 1980, '' AFL1-3603'', which featured a giant barcode on the front cover in place of the musician's head. The album's name was also the barcode number.
The April 1978 issue of ''Mad Magazine
Mad, mad, or MAD may refer to:
Geography
* Mad (village), a village in the Dunajská Streda District of Slovakia
* Mád, a village in Hungary
* Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, by IATA airport code
* Mad River (disambiguation), several ...
'' featured a giant barcode on the cover, with the blurb " adHopes this issue jams up every computer in the country...for forcing us to deface our covers with this yecchy UPC symbol from now on!"
Interactive Textbooks were first published by ''Harcourt College Publishers to Expand Education Technology with Interactive Textbooks.''
Designed barcodes
Some brands integrate custom designs into barcodes (while keeping them readable) on their consumer products.
File:Design Barcode Grasvodka IMG 5574.JPG
File:Barcode Tall Horse1.jpg
File:Hühner-Bouillon K Designbarcode 4337185009907 IMG 8716.jpg
File:Sardinendose K Barcode Art valid IMG11829.jpg
File:Barcode_peanut.jpg
Hoaxes about barcodes
There was minor skepticism from conspiracy theorists
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
, who considered barcodes to be an intrusive surveillance technology, and from some Christians, pioneered by a 1982 book ''The New Money System 666'' by Mary Stewart Relfe, who thought the codes hid the number 666
666 may refer to:
* 666 (number)
* 666 BC, a year
* AD 666, a year
* The number of the beast, a reference in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament
Places
* 666 Desdemona, a minor planet in the asteroid belt
* U.S. Route 666, an America ...
, representing the " Number of the Beast". Old Believers, a separation of the Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
, believe barcodes are the stamp of the Antichrist
In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form)1 John ; . 2 John . ...
. Television host Phil Donahue
Phillip John Donahue (born December 21, 1935) is an American media personality, writer, film producer and the creator and host of ''The Phil Donahue Show''. The television program, later known simply as ''Donahue'', was the first talk show forma ...
described barcodes as a "corporate plot against consumers".
See also
* Automated identification and data capture
Automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) refers to the methods of automatically identifying objects, collecting data about them, and entering them directly into computer systems, without human involvement. Technologies typically considered ...
(AIDC)
* Barcode printer
A barcode printer is a computer peripheral for printing barcode labels or tags that can be attached to, or printed directly on, physical objects. Barcode printers are commonly used to label cartons before shipment, or to label retail items with ...
* Campus card
A campus credential, more commonly known as a campus card or a campus ID card is an identification document certifying the status of students, faculty, staff or other constituents as members of the institutional community and eligible for access ...
* European Article Numbering-Uniform Code Council
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe a ...
* Global Trade Item Number
The Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is an identifier for trade items, developed by the international organization GS1. Such identifiers are used to look up product information in a database (often by entering the number through a barcode scanne ...
* Identifier
* Inventory control system
Inventory control or stock control can be broadly defined as "the activity of checking a shop's stock". It is the process of ensuring that the right amount of supply is available within a business. However, a more focused definition takes into acco ...
* Object hyperlinking Object hyperlinking is a term that refers to extending the Internet to objects and locations in the real world. Object hyperlinking aims to extend the Internet to the physical world by attaching tags with URLs to tangible objects or locations. Thes ...
* Semacode
Semacode is a software company based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is also this company's trade name for their machine-readable ISO/IEC 16022 Data Matrix barcodes, which are used to encode Internet URLs.
Semacodes are primarily aimed at being ...
* SMS barcode
Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
* SPARQCode
A SPARQCode is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) encoding standard that is based on the physical QR Code definition created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave.
Overview
The QR Code standard as defined by Denso-Wave in ISO/IEC 180 ...
(QR code)
* List of GS1 country codes
This is a list of country codes used by GS1.
SourceGS1 Company Prefix{, class="wikitable sortable" style="vertical-align:top;"
, -
!style="min-width:3em;", Code
! Country
, -
, 000–019 , , UPC-A compatible - and
, -
, 020–029 , , U ...
References
Further reading
* ''Automating Management Information Systems: Barcode Engineering and Implementation'' – Harry E. Burke, Thomson Learning,
* ''Automating Management Information Systems: Principles of Barcode Applications'' – Harry E. Burke, Thomson Learning,
* ''The Bar Code Book'' – Roger C. Palmer, Helmers Publishing, , 386 pages
* ''The Bar Code Manual'' – Eugene F. Brighan, Thompson Learning,
* ''Handbook of Bar Coding Systems'' – Harry E. Burke, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, , 219 pages
* ''Information Technology for Retail:Automatic Identification & Data Capture Systems'' – Girdhar Joshi, Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, , 416 pages
* ''Lines of Communication'' – Craig K. Harmon, Helmers Publishing, , 425 pages
* ''Punched Cards to Bar Codes'' – Benjamin Nelson, Helmers Publishing, , 434 pages
* ''Revolution at the Checkout Counter: The Explosion of the Bar Code'' – Stephen A. Brown, Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
,
* ''Reading Between The Lines'' – Craig K. Harmon and Russ Adams, Helmers Publishing, , 297 pages
* ''The Black and White Solution: Bar Code and the IBM PC'' – Russ Adams and Joyce Lane, Helmers Publishing, , 169 pages
* ''Sourcebook of Automatic Identification and Data Collection'' – Russ Adams, Van Nostrand Reinhold, , 298 pages
* ''Inside Out: The Wonders of Modern Technology'' – Carol J. Amato, Smithmark Pub, , 1993
External links
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{{Authority control
Encodings
Automatic identification and data capture
1952 introductions
American inventions
Records management technology