Barcode Scanners Touch Us Each And Every Day

These days just about every item you see is touched at some point by barcode technology

. From the manufacturing line where products are assembled to the shelf at your favorite store, individual products pass through dozens of check points where they are scanned. When an item is shipped it is scanned, when it is rung up at a cash register, if it is returned to the merchant it is scanned. All along the supply chain some type of barcode scanner feeds information to a computer database that keeps track of the product. As important as this barcode scanner technology is you would think that we would know more about it. Most of us, however, give it very little thought. It is such a part of our everyday life now that we hardly even notice it.

The job of the barcode scanner is to read the codes that are imprinted on the black and white UPC (Universal Product Code) symbols that you see on just about every package and item that your purchase. They do this job quickly, accurately, and efficiently. Once the code is read it is fed electronically to a computer which matches up the number to an item number in a product database. In doing so a merchant can keep track of inventory, ring up a customer purchase, or count the number of items left in a warehouse. Bar codes are used on everything from mail to medicines.

Barcode readers use light technology to communicate and interpret the product code. Using the light, an optical signal is transmitted then converted into an electronic signal. It is the electronic signal that is sent to the computer. In the simplest barcode scanners the light is LED. More sophisticated systems use laser light to communicate the signal. Laser technology is the type used in the high speed grocery store barcode scanners and a good majority of the scanners we see in larger stores and warehouses. Scanners may be wired to a register or other device or wireless. In wireless systems the signal is communicated to a base station and transmitted to the computer.

Believe it or not barcode scanner technology has actually been around for quite some time. The first scanners began to show up in the 1970s. It was not until about 10 years later that the technology really caught on. This is when scanners began to be used for point of sale check out systems. In these days scanners were extremely expensive and not all items were coded. The technology was not always reliable and many merchants just couldnt make the capital investment necessary to transition away from manual checkout.

During the 1980s the cost of barcode scanners began to go down and the accuracy improved. Today you would be hard pressed to find a store that doesnt use some type of barcode scanning technology. Even the smallest Mom and Pop shop has at least a basic wand system. If you walk through a modern day warehouse you will find that the entire logistics system depends on the scanning system. These are typically wireless and hand held units allow the team to have complete mobility.

There is no question that barcode technology touches each and every one of us daily. Take a look around and you will see either a barcode or a scanner just about everywhere you go. Thanks to this technology we have more products, cheaper products, and we can buy them more easily than every before.

by: Malcolm Nguyen

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