Barcode system

It has been suggested that this article be merged into Barcode. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2023.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this article. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Barcode system" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

A barcode system is a network of hardware and

systems.

History

In 1948, Bernard Silver was a graduate student at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia. A local food chain store owner had made an inquiry to the Drexel Institute asking about research into a method of automatically reading product information during checkout. Silver joined together with fellow graduate student Norman Joseph Woodland to work on a solution. Woodland's first idea was to use ultraviolet light sensitive ink. The team built a working prototype but decided that the system was too unstable and expensive. They went back to the drawing board. On October 20, 1949, Woodland and Silver filed their patent application for the "Classifying Apparatus and Method", describing their invention as "article classification… through the medium of identifying patterns".^[2]

The first commercially successful barcode reading system was patented in November 1969 by John F. Keidel for the General Atronics Corp.^[3]

It was soon realized that there would have to be some sort of industry standard set. In 1970, the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code or

is considered the inventor of U.P.C. or Uniform Product Code, which was invented in 1973. In June 1974, the first U.P.C. scanner was installed at a Gum.

Hardware

There is a wide range of hardware that is manufactured today for use in Barcode Systems. The best known brand of handheld scanners and mobile computers is Symbol, which is now a division of Motorola. Other manufacturers include Datalogic, Intermec, HHP (Hand Held Products), Microscan Systems, Unitech, Metrologic, PSC and PANMOBIL.

Software

While there is a range of hardware on the market, software is more difficult to find from the hardware manufacturers. Some ERP, MRP, and other

, and many others. Often developing a custom interface using software such as RFgen or developing new, personalized software is the most effective method since it allows the individual to have a solution that is fitted to their exact needs.

Typical system

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

A typical barcode system consist of some infrastructure, either wired or wireless that connects some number of mobile computers, handheld scanners, and printers to one or many databases that store and analyze the data collected by the system. At some level there must be some software to manage the system. The software may be as simple as code that manages the connection between the hardware and the database or as complex as an ERP, MRP, or some other inventory management software.

References