Barcode Scanners

The Origin of Barcode System

The idea for modern Barcode system originated back in 1948 in the mind of a graduate student Bernard Silver from Drexel Institute of Technology, Philadelphia. When the question 'how to automatically read product information?' arisen Silver, along with his friends, experimented with various potential solutions. The initial invention included the use of Morse Code, thus, giving rise to 'Linear barcode system.' Later, the linear system was replaced by circular rings and was known as 'Bulls-eye system.' Technological advances brought innovations in barcode scanners and, in 1973, barcode developed by George Laurer was widely accepted for its simplicity and power to hold more information.

How Do Barcode Scanners Work?

Barcode is of two types - Linear and 2D. Most of the products have a linear barcode and is easy to recognize visually. It consists of two parts - the vertical black and white stripes (barcode) and a 12 digit UPC number. The twelve digits are further divided as the first six numbers - identification number of the manufacturer, next five digits - the item's number, last digit - check number, which is to verify if the barcode is scanned correctly. A 2D barcode can hold more information like image, price, quantity, web link, etc. unlike Linear which holds only text information.

Benefits of Barcode Scanners

The introduction of barcode scanners has effectively loosened the burden on business handlers. There are numerous invaluable advantages of barcode scanners. They have replaced the traditional pen-paper, spreadsheets and database systems and have saved countless human hours and work-load. The error-rate has also fallen down to an infinitesimally small factor.

The major question people have is 'can a 2D barcode scanner scan 1D barcodes?' and the answer is, Yes. The 2D scanners' features include scanning new 2D barcodes and 1D barcodes. This makes your business ready for future and keeps updated with the coming-of-age technology. Apart from this, the price of 2D barcode scanner is budget friendly and won't burn a hole in your pocket. The 2D scanners include an additional feature which allows you to customize the settings so that you get only that data which you want and nothing more. The Wi-Fi barcode scanner takes away the wire handling burden. The data is transmitted wirelessly to your system thus saving from data loss due to breakage in the cable. Additionally, these portable barcode readers are omnidirectional and you can scan the barcode from any angle. The barcode readers are proving to be a boon to the small and large businesses thus allowing them more free hours to invest somewhere else.