Barcode Scanners

Gone are the days of manually entering details of a particular product into the computer at a retail store and waiting patiently for the output. Not only did it consume a lot of time, it tested your patience. You can imagine how tough and impractical it would be in today’s times to have this method followed. Nobody in their right mind would venture into malls and other retail outlets and spend the time and money that is so much taken for granted today. Barcode scanners are an electronic device for reading printed barcodes on goods and products. Just like a flatbed scanner, it consists of a light source, a lens, a light sensor translating optical impulses into electrical ones in a handheld shape. All most every barcode readers consist of decoder circuitry analyzing the barcode’s image data provided by the sensor and sending the barcode’s content to the scanner’s output port for result.

If modern malls and other places of public interface are seeing the kind of footfalls that is sustaining their presence, it is the barcode scanners that needs to be recognised as the main reason. Through this technology, the barcode scanners are able to read the price labels on each product and that makes the inputting of details into the computer a very convenient process.

So what is a barcode scanner and how does it work?

It is a device that is used for reading printed codes and contains a light source, a sensor that is optically enhanced and a lens. It also has circuitry that can analyse and decipher the images captured by the barcode so that it can provide the relevant output.

Though most barcode scanners follow the same barcode symbology, there are differences that characterise one from the other such as:

• The character sets used by each barcode scanner type. It could be digits only, characters only or one that recognises both digits and letters.

• The density or the number of characters that can be accommodated in an inch of a barcode sets one apart from the other. Though this is a function of the kind of symbology used, it is still a good differentiating factor.

• Unidimensional barcodes or the linear ones that are characterised by vertical bars in black with white gaps have an empty space at the beginning as well as at the end to indicate such to the scanner. Many of the barcodes also have a modulus check facility to ensure that the reading is authentic.

• Bidimensional barcodes have the ability to store the scanned data in an array that is bidimensional and here the entire label needs to be scanned. They are able to store many more characters and can also store data in colour.

Barcode scanners are thus an invaluable resource in today’s times and are indeed a great technological creation. Almost, all the barcode scanners in the market today are capable of reading and decoding all the major barcode standards. Barcode scanners can also be used on a consumer level to track the purchasing habits of one own product. Consumer barcode scanners are usually of handheld varieties, which can be easily swept over all purchases. They store the data locally on a memory, which can be uploaded to a computer at the user’s convenience