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Biography

A barcode is an optical machine-readable medium|machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes 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 rectangle s, dot s, hexagon s 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 scanner s called barcode reader s; later, scanners and interpretive software became available on devices including desktop printer s and smartphone s.

The first use of barcodes was to label railroad cars, but they were not commercially successful until they were used to automate supermarket point of sale|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.

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 first decade of the 21st century, over 40 years after the introduction of the commercial barcode, with the introduction of technologies such as radio frequency identification, or RFID .

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. 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 this proved too easy to fade and was fairly 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 soundtrack s in movies, using a 500- watt incandescent light bulb|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 (target)|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 . 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.

Collins at Sylvania

During his time as an undergraduate, David Collins (Sylvania)|David Collins worked at the Pennsylvania Railroad and became aware of the need to automatically identify railroad car s. Immediately after receiving his master's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT in 1959, he started work at Sylvania Electric Products|GTE Sylvania and began addressing the problem. He developed a system called KarTrak 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. Light reflected off the stripes was fed into one of two photomultipliers, filtered for blue or yellow.
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, the 1970s#Economy|economic downturn and rash of bankruptcy|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, and 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 in New Jersey requested a similar system so that it could quickly scan for cars that had purchased a monthly pass. Then the United States Postal Service|U.S. Post Office requested a system to track trucks entering and leaving their facilities. These applications required special retroreflector labels. Finally, Whiskas|Kal Kan asked the Sylvania team for a simpler (and cheaper) version which they could put on cases of pet food for inventory control. This, in turn, interested the grocery industry.

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. Computer Identics started working with helium-neon laser s 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. 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 Carlsbad, New Jersey to direct shipments to the proper loading bay.

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 Corporation|Singer , National Cash Register (NCR), Litton Industries , RCA, Pitney-Bowes , IBM and many others.George Laurer, , bellsouthpwp.net 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.

NCR installed a testbed system at Marsh Supermarkets|Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio , USA 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 the Smithsonian Institution . It was the first commercial appearance of the UPC.

In 1971 IBM had assembled a team for an intensive planning session, day after day, 12 to 18 hours a day, to hash out how the whole system might operate and to schedule a rollout plan. By 1973 they were meeting with grocery manufacturers to introduce the symbol that would need to be printed on 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 still were 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 timeframe 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."

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 1–2% 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.

The global public launch of the barcode was greeted with minor skepticism from conspiracy theory|conspiracy theorists , who considered barcodes to be an intrusive surveillance technology, and from some Christian s who thought the codes hid the number 666, representing the number of the beast . Television host Phil Donahue described barcodes as a "corporate plot against consumers".

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.

Use

Barcodes such as the Universal Product Code|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 merchandise r has a UPC barcode on it. This helps track items and also reduces instances of shoplifting involving price tag swapping, although shoplifters can now print their own barcodes. 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.

Barcodes can allow for the organization of large amounts of data. Barcode technology in healthcare|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 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,National Geographic, May 2010, page 30 and integrate with in-motion checkweigher s to identify the item being weighed in a conveyor line for data collection .

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 ( 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 Byte magazine, 1978 September p. 172 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.

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.

Scanners (barcode readers)

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 keyboard–compatible adaptor cable. 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.

Barcode scanners can be used in Google's mobile Android (operating system)|Android operating system via both their own Google Goggles application or 3rd party barcode scanners like Scan. Nokia's Symbian operating system features a barcode scanner, while mbarcode 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 BlackBerry 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 is able to scan barcodes through the Bing search app.

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%.

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

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.

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.

Barcode verifier standards

Barcode verifiers should comply with the ISO/IEC 15426-1 (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|Direct Part Marking (DPM) quality standard : ISO/IEC TR 29158.

International standards are available from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

These standards are also available from local/national standardization organizations, such as ANSI, British Standards Institute|BSI , DIN , NEN and others.

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.Harmon and Adams(1989). Reading Between The Lines , p.13. Helmers Publishing, Inc, Peterborough, New Hampshire, USA. ISBN 0-911261-00-1. The exact error rate depends on the type of barcode.

Types of barcodes

Linear barcodes

Symbology !! Continuous or discrete !! Bar widths !! Uses
U.P.C.
Codabar
Code 25 – Non-interleaved 2 of 5
Code 25 – Interleaved 2 of 5
Code 39
Code 93
Code 128
Code 128A
Code 128B
Code 128C
Code 11
CPC Binary
DUN 14
EAN 2
EAN 5
EAN-8 , EAN-13
Facing Identification Mark
GS1-128 (formerly named UCC/ EAN-128), incorrectly referenced as EAN 128 and UCC 128
GS1 DataBar , formerly Reduced Space Symbology (RSS)
HIBCC Health Industry Bar Code)
ITF-14
Latent image barcode
Pharmacode
Plessey
PLANET
POSTNET
Intelligent Mail barcode
MSI
PostBar
RM4SCC / KIX
JAN
Telepen

anchor|2D barcodes 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
3-DI
ArrayTag
Aztec Code
Small Aztec Code
Codablock
Code 1
Code 16K
Code 49
ColorCode
Color Construct Code http://www.colorccode.net/? q=faq
Compact Matrix Code
CP Code
CyberCode
d-touch
DataGlyphs Patented.DataGlyphs can be embedded into a half-tone image or background shading pattern in a way that is almost perceptually invisible, similar to steganography .
Data Matrix
Datastrip Code
Dot Code A
EZcode
Grid Matrix Code
High Capacity Color Barcode
HueCode
INTACTA.CODE
InterCode
JAGTAG
MaxiCode
mCode
MiniCode
MicroPDF417
MMCC
Nintendo e-Reader#Dot code
Optar
PaperDisk
PDF417
PDMark
QR Code
QuickMark Code
Secure Seal
SmartCode
Snowflake Code
ShotCode
SPARQCode
SuperCode
Trillcode
UltraCode
UnisCode
VeriCode , VSCode
WaterCode

Example images

In popular culture

In architecture, a building in Lingang New City by German architects Gerkan, Marg and Partners incorporates a barcode design, as does a shopping mall called (the Russian for barcode ) in Narodnaya ulitsa ("People's Street") in the Administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg#Nevskiy District|Nevskiy district of St. Petersburg , Russia.

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.

Copyright Citations

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