How do Barcodes work ?

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If you run a busy store, you need to keep track of all the things you sell so you can make sure the ones your customers want to buy are always in stock. The simplest way of doing that is to walk around the shelves looking for empty spaces and simply refilling where you need to. Alternatively, you could write down what people buy at the checkout, compile a list of all the purchases, and then simply use that to reorder your stock.

Using barcode technology in stores can help to solve all these problems. It lets you keep a centralized record on a computer system that tracks products, prices, and stock levels.

A barcode-based stock system like this has three main parts. First, there's a central computer running a database (record system) that keeps a tally of all the products you're selling, who makes it, what each one costs, and how many you have in stock. Second, there are the barcodes printed on all the products. Finally, there's one or more checkout scanners that can read the barcodes.

A barcode is a really simple idea: give every item that you want to classify its own, unique number and then simply print the number on the item so an electronic scanning device can read it.

It would be no good having barcodes if we didn't have the technology to read them. Barcode scanners have to be able to read the black-and-white zebra lines on products extremely quickly and feed that information to a computer or checkout terminal

the sake of this simple example, let's assume that barcodes are simple on-off, binary patterns with each black line corresponding to a one and each white line a zero.

Scanning head shines LED or laser light onto barcode.

Light reflects back off barcode into a light-detecting electronic component called a photoelectric cell. White areas of the barcode reflect most light; black areas reflect least.

Barcodes, on the other hand, significantly reduce the possibility of human error to the point of nearly eliminating it.

As the scanner moves past the barcode, the cell generates a pattern of on-off pulses that correspond to the black and white stripes.

Barcode scans are fast, reliable, and less time-consuming than manual data entry. When barcodes are read by scanners, their graphics are quickly and accurately translated to a display in a software application on a computer or a handheld device without the errors often associated with manual data entry.

Employees using barcode systems also work much more quickly than employees who rely on manual data entry. When considering human error, an average worker’s real production of good numbers in one hour is 432

Different types of barcode scanners are available for all kinds of applications. In small, convenience stores, you'll typically find a basic wand scanner. The simplest ones look like electronic pens or giant, oversized razors.

Conversely, the average time to locate and scan a barcode is approximately two seconds, or 1800 per hour. Furthermore, studies show that using barcodes results in an eight to ten-fold increase in productivity.

2D barcodes do require a specific type of scanner called a 2D Imager. The common laser barcode scanner reads codes by reflecting light from the black and white lines of a barcode and since the laser is a single line it only reads horizontally across the barcode.

A computer then analyzes the photograph, picking out only the barcode part of it and converting the pattern of black and white bars into a number.

For example, in the case of health care centers, switching from manual data entry to barcode software and equipment helps eliminate preventable errors that are a leading cause of inpatient death. When implemented correctly, barcode scanning systems help reduce medication errors in a variety of health care centers.

Barcode scanning technology has been around since the early 1970s but only really caught on in the 1980s and 1990s after stores started to invest in sophisticated, computerized electronic point-of-sale (EPOS) checkout terminals.

One way that barcode systems conserve resources is in training new employees. Rather than needing to become familiar with an entire inventory or pricing procedure, employees using hand-held scanners for reading barcodes need only a few minutes to master the scanner’s functions.

When speaking in terms of inventory, barcodes help businesses of all sizes increase efficiency and save money. Businesses especially find it easier to cut costs when they use barcodes to inventory products, raw materials, office supplies, and everything in-between.

Barcodes, on the other hand, significantly reduce the possibility of human error to the point of nearly eliminating it.

THE first barcode ever scanned was on a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum at Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio, this week in June 1974. The gum is now in the Smithsonian museum.

Companies that struggle to reduce inventory carrying costs also benefit from implementing barcode systems. Barcodes empower companies to update inventory in real time with immediate, accurate updates that deliver true inventory counts

IN 1949, Norman Joseph Woodland got the idea for barcodes when he made a handprint in sand and realised that bars could be a visual equivalent of Morse code.3AT first, the barcode proved so unpopular that in 1976 US magazine Business Week ran the headline, "The supermarket scanner that failed". It had been predicted that 1,000 stores would be using scanners at that point, but only 50 had installed the costly equipment.