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75-443: There are several common types of keycards in use, including the mechanical holecard, barcode , magnetic stripe , Wiegand wire embedded cards, smart card (embedded with a read/write electronic microchip ), RFID , and NFC proximity cards. Keycards are frequently used in hotels as an alternative to mechanical keys. The first commercial use of key cards was to raise and lower the gate at automated parking lots where users paid

150-469: A lemma with various descriptions. A machine-readable dictionary may have additional capabilities and is therefore sometimes called a smart dictionary. An example of a smart dictionary is the Open Source Gellish English dictionary . The term dictionary is also used to refer to an electronic vocabulary or lexicon as used for example in spelling checkers . If dictionaries are arranged in

225-484: A 1976 article. Sims Supermarkets were the first location in Australia to use barcodes, starting in 1979. A barcode system is a network of hardware and software, consisting primarily of mobile computers , printers , handheld scanners , infrastructure, and supporting software. Barcode systems are used to automate data collection where hand recording is neither timely nor cost effective. Despite often being provided by

300-424: A 500-watt incandescent light bulb shining through the paper onto an RCA935 photomultiplier tube (from a movie projector) on the far side. He later decided that the system would work better if it were printed as a circle instead of a line, allowing it to be scanned in any direction. On 20 October 1949 Woodland and Silver filed a patent application for "Classifying Apparatus and Method", in which they described both

375-434: A combination of both. Translation software between multiple languages usually apply bidirectional dictionaries. An MRD may be a dictionary with a proprietary structure that is queried by dedicated software (for example online via internet) or it can be a dictionary that has an open structure and is available for loading in computer databases and thus can be used via various software applications. Conventional dictionaries contain

450-437: A few different forms. Matrix codes can also be read by a digital camera connected to a microcomputer running software that takes a photographic image of the barcode and analyzes the image to deconstruct and decode the code. A mobile device with a built-in camera, such as a smartphone , can function as the latter type of barcode reader using specialized application software and is suitable for both 1D and 2D codes. The barcode

525-409: A grid pattern. 2D symbologies also come in circular and other patterns and may employ steganography , hiding modules within an image (for example, DataGlyphs ). Linear symbologies are optimized for laser scanners, which sweep a light beam across the barcode in a straight line, reading a slice of the barcode light-dark patterns. Scanning at an angle makes the modules appear wider, but does not change

600-503: A grocery store. This speeds up processing at check-outs and helps track items and also reduces instances of shoplifting involving price tag swapping, although shoplifters can now print their own barcodes. Barcodes that encode a book's ISBN are also widely pre-printed on books, journals and other printed materials. In addition, retail chain membership cards use barcodes to identify customers, allowing for customized marketing and greater understanding of individual consumer shopping patterns. At

675-434: A laser, as there is typically no sweep pattern that can encompass the entire symbol. They must be scanned by an image-based scanner employing a CCD or other digital camera sensor technology. The earliest, and still the cheapest, barcode scanners are built from a fixed light and a single photosensor that is manually moved across the barcode. Barcode scanners can be classified into three categories based on their connection to

750-578: A linear code, like the one being developed by Woodland at IBM, was printed in the direction of the stripes, so extra ink would simply make the code "taller" while remaining readable. So on 3 April 1973 the IBM UPC was selected as the NAFC standard. IBM had designed five versions of UPC symbology for future industry requirements: UPC A, B, C, D, and E. NCR installed a testbed system at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio , near

825-508: A mirror as well, making it capable of locating a barcode up to a meter (3 feet) in front of the scanner. This made the entire process much simpler and more reliable, and typically enabled these devices to deal with damaged labels, as well, by recognizing and reading the intact portions. Computer Identics Corporation installed one of its first two scanning systems in the spring of 1969 at a General Motors (Buick) factory in Flint, Michigan. The system

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900-424: A monthly fee. Keycard systems operate by physically moving detainers in the locking mechanism with the insertion of the card, by shining LEDs through a pattern of holes in the card and detecting the result, by swiping or inserting a magnetic stripe card, or in the case of RFID or NFC cards, merely being brought into close proximity to a sensor. Keycards may also serve as ID cards , or as part of an NFC system, have

975-522: A monthly pass. Then the US Post Office requested a system to track trucks entering and leaving their facilities. These applications required special retroreflector labels. Finally, Kal Kan asked the Sylvania team for a simpler (and cheaper) version which they could put on cases of pet food for inventory control. In 1967, with the railway system maturing, Collins went to management looking for funding for

1050-530: A new facility in Research Triangle Park to lead development. In July 1972 RCA began an 18-month test in a Kroger store in Cincinnati. Barcodes were printed on small pieces of adhesive paper, and attached by hand by store employees when they were adding price tags. The code proved to have a serious problem; the printers would sometimes smear ink, rendering the code unreadable in most orientations. However,

1125-691: A passport. There is room for optional, often country-dependent, supplementary information. There are also two sizes of machine-readable visas similarly defined. Computers with a camera and suitable software can directly read the information on machine-readable passports. This enables faster processing of arriving passengers by immigration officials, and greater accuracy than manually-read passports, as well as faster data entry, more data to be read and better data matching against immigration databases and watchlists. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from Federal Standard 1037C . General Services Administration . Archived from

1200-502: A project to develop a black-and-white version of the code for other industries. They declined, saying that the railway project was large enough, and they saw no need to branch out so quickly. Collins then quit Sylvania and formed the Computer Identics Corporation . As its first innovations, Computer Identics moved from using incandescent light bulbs in its systems, replacing them with helium–neon lasers , and incorporated

1275-425: A small chip and induction loop which the transmitter on the keycard reader can access. The main advantages with RFID cards is that they do not need to be removed from the wallet or pass holder - as the keycard reader can usually read them from a few inches away. In the case of the hotel room lock, there is no central system; the keycard and the lock function in the same tradition as a standard key and lock. However, if

1350-411: A subtype-supertype hierarchy of concepts (or terms) then it is called a taxonomy . If it also contains other relations between the concepts, then it is called an ontology . Search engines may use either a vocabulary, a taxonomy or an ontology to optimise the search results. Specialised electronic dictionaries are morphological dictionaries or syntactic dictionaries. A machine-readable passport (MRP)

1425-448: A task for which they have become almost universal. The Uniform Grocery Product Code Council had chosen, in 1973, the barcode design developed by George Laurer . Laurer's barcode, with vertical bars, printed better than the circular barcode developed by Woodland and Silver. Their use has spread to many other tasks that are generically referred to as automatic identification and data capture (AIDC). The first successful system using barcodes

1500-442: A web page. A mobile device with a built-in camera might be used to read the pattern and browse the linked website, which can help a shopper find the best price for an item in the vicinity. Since 2005, airlines use an IATA-standard 2D barcode on boarding passes ( Bar Coded Boarding Pass (BCBP) ), and since 2008 2D barcodes sent to mobile phones enable electronic boarding passes. Some applications for barcodes have fallen out of use. In

1575-401: Is marked up so that it can also be read by machines (e.g. microformats , RDFa , HTML ), and data file formats intended principally for processing by machines ( CSV , RDF , XML , JSON ). These formats are only machine readable if the data contained within them is formally structured; exporting a CSV file from a badly structured spreadsheet does not meet the definition. Machine readable

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1650-430: Is a dictionary stored as machine-readable data instead of being printed on paper. It is an electronic dictionary and lexical database . A machine-readable dictionary is a dictionary in an electronic form that can be loaded in a database and can be queried via application software. It may be a single language explanatory dictionary or a multi-language dictionary to support translations between two or more languages or

1725-493: Is a machine-readable travel document (MRTD) with the data on the identity page encoded in optical character recognition format. Many countries began to issue machine-readable travel documents in the 1980s. Most travel passports worldwide are MRPs. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requires all ICAO member states to only issue MRPs as of April 1, 2010, and all non-MRP passports must expire by November 24, 2015. Machine-readable passports are standardized by

1800-612: Is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form . Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or one-dimensional (1D), can be scanned by special optical scanners , called barcode readers , of which there are several types. Later, two-dimensional (2D) variants were developed, using rectangles, dots, hexagons and other patterns, called 2D barcodes or matrix codes , although they do not use bars as such. Both can be read using purpose-built 2D optical scanners, which exist in

1875-923: Is a structural markup language, discreetly labeling parts of the document, computers are able to gather document components to assemble tables of contents, outlines, literature search bibliographies, etc. It is possible to make traditional word processing documents and other formats machine readable but the documents must include enhanced structural elements." Examples of machine-readable media include magnetic media such as magnetic disks , cards, tapes , and drums , punched cards and paper tapes , optical discs , barcodes and magnetic ink characters . Common machine-readable technologies include magnetic recording, processing waveforms , and barcodes . Optical character recognition (OCR) can be used to enable machines to read information available to humans. Any information retrievable by any form of energy can be machine-readable. Examples include: Machine-readable dictionary (MRD)

1950-425: Is common for producers and users of bar codes to have a quality management system which includes verification and validation of bar codes. Barcode verification examines scanability and the quality of the barcode in comparison to industry standards and specifications. Barcode verifiers are primarily used by businesses that print and use barcodes. Any trading partner in the supply chain can test barcode quality. It

2025-450: Is encoded using black bars of varying width. The second character is then encoded by varying the width of the white spaces between these bars. Thus, characters are encoded in pairs over the same section of the barcode. Interleaved 2 of 5 is an example of this. Stacked symbologies repeat a given linear symbology vertically. The most common among the many 2D symbologies are matrix codes, which feature square or dot-shaped modules arranged on

2100-462: Is important to verify a barcode to ensure that any reader in the supply chain can successfully interpret a barcode with a low error rate. Retailers levy large penalties for non-compliant barcodes. These chargebacks can reduce a manufacturer's revenue by 2% to 10%. A barcode verifier works the way a reader does, but instead of simply decoding a barcode, a verifier performs a series of tests. For linear barcodes these tests are: 2D matrix symbols look at

2175-422: Is not synonymous with digitally accessible . A digitally accessible document may be online, making it easier for humans to access via computers, but its content is much harder to extract, transform, and process via computer programming logic if it is not machine-readable. Extensible Markup Language (XML) is designed to be both human- and machine-readable, and Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT)

2250-530: Is used to improve the presentation of the data for human readability. For example, XSLT can be used to automatically render XML in Portable Document Format ( PDF ). Machine-readable data can be automatically transformed for human-readability but, generally speaking, the reverse is not true. For purposes of implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act,

2325-822: The ICAO Document 9303 (endorsed by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission as ISO/IEC 7501-1) and have a special machine-readable zone ( MRZ ), which is usually at the bottom of the identity page at the beginning of a passport. The ICAO 9303 describes three types of documents corresponding to the ISO/IEC 7810 sizes: The fixed format allows specification of document type, name, document number, nationality, date of birth, sex, and document expiration date. All these fields are required on

Keycard lock - Misplaced Pages Continue

2400-454: The Association of American Railroads (AAR) selected it as a standard, automatic car identification , across the entire North American fleet. The installations began on 10 October 1967. However, the economic downturn and rash of bankruptcies in the industry in the early 1970s greatly slowed the rollout, and it was not until 1974 that 95% of the fleet was labeled. To add to its woes, the system

2475-633: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines "machine readable format" as follows: "Format in a standard computer language (not English text) that can be read automatically by a web browser or computer system. (e.g.; xml). Traditional word processing documents and portable document format (PDF) files are easily read by humans but typically are difficult for machines to interpret. Other formats such as extensible markup language ( XML ), ( JSON ), or spreadsheets with header columns that can be exported as comma separated values (CSV) are machine readable formats. As HTML

2550-432: The key before the bolt will move. This was a mechanical type of lock operated by a plastic key card with a pattern of holes. There were 32 positions for possible hole locations, giving approximately 4.3 billion different keys. The key could easily be changed for each new guest by inserting a new key template in the lock that matched the new key. In the early 1980s, the key card lock was electrified with LEDs that detected

2625-461: The post-modernism movement. The mapping between messages and barcodes is called a symbology . The specification of a symbology includes the encoding of the message into bars and spaces, any required start and stop markers, the size of the quiet zone required to be before and after the barcode, and the computation of a checksum . Linear symbologies can be classified mainly by two properties: Some symbologies use interleaving. The first character

2700-422: The 1960s. At the same time that seminal developments in machine-reading and natural-language processing were releasing (like Weizenbaum's ELIZA ), people were anticipating the success of machine-readable functionality and attempting to create machine-readable documents. One such example was musicologist Nancy B. Reich 's creation of a machine-readable catalog of composer William Jay Sydeman 's works in 1966. In

2775-454: The 1970s and 1980s, software source code was occasionally encoded in a barcode and printed on paper ( Cauzin Softstrip and Paperbyte are barcode symbologies specifically designed for this application), and the 1991 Barcode Battler computer game system used any standard barcode to generate combat statistics. Artists have used barcodes in art, such as Scott Blake 's Barcode Jesus, as part of

2850-551: The 2000s due to the growth in smartphone ownership. Other systems have made inroads in the AIDC market, but the simplicity, universality and low cost of barcodes has limited the role of these other systems, particularly before technologies such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) became available after 2023. In 1948, Bernard Silver , a graduate student at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US overheard

2925-502: The App World application can natively scan barcodes and load any recognized Web URLs on the device's Web browser. Windows Phone 7.5 is able to scan barcodes through the Bing search app. However, these devices are not designed specifically for the capturing of barcodes. As a result, they do not decode nearly as quickly or accurately as a dedicated barcode scanner or portable data terminal . It

3000-594: The United States, the OPEN Government Data Act of 14 January 2019 defines machine-readable data as "data in a format that can be easily processed by a computer without human intervention while ensuring no semantic meaning is lost." The law directs U.S. federal agencies to publish public data in such a manner, ensuring that "any public data asset of the agency is machine-readable". Machine-readable data may be classified into two groups: human-readable data that

3075-549: The application program. On PCs running Windows the human interface device emulates the data merging action of a hardware "keyboard wedge", and the scanner automatically behaves like an additional keyboard. Most modern smartphones are able to decode barcode using their built-in camera. Google's mobile Android operating system can use their own Google Lens application to scan QR codes, or third-party apps like Barcode Scanner to read both one-dimensional barcodes and QR codes. Google's Pixel devices can natively read QR codes inside

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3150-409: The approach. In cooperation with consulting firm, McKinsey & Co. , they developed a standardized 11-digit code for identifying products. The committee then sent out a contract tender to develop a barcode system to print and read the code. The request went to Singer , National Cash Register (NCR), Litton Industries , RCA, Pitney-Bowes , IBM and many others. A wide variety of barcode approaches

3225-446: The barcode gives the absolute coarse position. An "address carpet", used in digital paper , such as Howell's binary pattern and the Anoto dot pattern, is a 2D barcode designed so that a reader, even though only a tiny portion of the complete carpet is in the field of view of the reader, can find its absolute X, Y position and rotation in the carpet. Matrix codes can embed a hyperlink to

3300-410: The best known brand of handheld scanners and mobile computers being produced by Symbol , a division of Motorola . Some ERP, MRP, and other inventory management software have built in support for barcode reading. Alternatively, custom interfaces can be created using a language such as C++ , C# , Java , Visual Basic.NET , and many others. In addition, software development kits are produced to aid

3375-912: The card readers communicate with a central system, it is the system that unlocks the door, not the card reader alone. This allows for more control over the locks; for example, a specific card may only work on certain days of the week or time of day. Which locks can be opened by a card can be changed at any time. Logs are often kept of which cards unlocked doors at what times. Computerized authentication systems, such as key cards, raise privacy concerns, since they enable computer surveillance of each entry. RFID cards and key fobs are becoming increasingly popular due to their ease of use. Many modern households have installed digital locks that make use of key cards, in combination with biometric fingerprint and keypad PIN options. Offices have also slowly installed digital locks that integrate with key cards and biometric technology. Barcode A barcode or bar code

3450-555: The code transmitted to a mobile phone to be placed into a digital wallet system such as Apple Pay or Google Pay , negating the need for a physical keycard. Many electronic access control locks use a Wiegand interface to connect the card swipe mechanism to the rest of the electronic entry system. Newer keycard systems use radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology such as the TLJ infinity. Mechanical keycard locks employ detainers which must be arranged in pre-selected positions by

3525-458: The colored stripes encoding information such as ownership, type of equipment, and identification number. The plates were read by a trackside scanner located, for instance, at the entrance to a classification yard, while the car was moving past. The project was abandoned after about ten years because the system proved unreliable after long-term use. Barcodes became commercially successful when they were used to automate supermarket checkout systems,

3600-532: The computer. The older type is the RS-232 barcode scanner. This type requires special programming for transferring the input data to the application program. Keyboard interface scanners connect to a computer using a PS/2 or AT keyboard –compatible adaptor cable (a " keyboard wedge "). The barcode's data is sent to the computer as if it had been typed on the keyboard. Like the keyboard interface scanner, USB scanners do not need custom code for transferring input data to

3675-451: The customer on their home printer, or stored on their mobile device) allow the holder to enter sports arenas, cinemas, theatres, fairgrounds, and transportation, and are used to record the arrival and departure of vehicles from rental facilities etc. This can allow proprietors to identify duplicate or fraudulent tickets more easily. Barcodes are widely used in shop floor control applications software where employees can scan work orders and track

3750-578: The default Pixel Camera app. Nokia's Symbian operating system featured a barcode scanner, while mbarcode is a QR code reader for the Maemo operating system. In Apple iOS 11 , the native camera app can decode QR codes and can link to URLs, join wireless networks, or perform other operations depending on the QR Code contents. Other paid and free apps are available with scanning capabilities for other symbologies or for earlier iOS versions. With BlackBerry devices,

3825-502: The factory that was producing the equipment. On 26 June 1974, a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum was scanned, registering the first commercial use of the UPC. In 1971 an IBM team was assembled for an intensive planning session, threshing out, 12 to 18 hours a day, how the technology would be deployed and operate cohesively across the system, and scheduling a roll-out plan. By 1973, the team were meeting with grocery manufacturers to introduce

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3900-433: The holes. Since the keycode is permanently set into the card at manufacture by the positions of magnetic wires, Wiegand cards cannot be erased by magnetic fields or reprogrammed as magnetic stripe cards can. Many electronic access control locks use a Wiegand interface to connect the card swipe mechanism to the rest of the electronic entry system. Magnetic stripe (sometimes "strip") based keycard locks function by running

3975-476: The industry from scanning by the mid-1970s. Those numbers were not achieved in that time-frame and some predicted the demise of barcode scanning. The usefulness of the barcode required the adoption of expensive scanners by a critical mass of retailers while manufacturers simultaneously adopted barcode labels. Neither wanted to move first and results were not promising for the first couple of years, with Business Week proclaiming "The Supermarket Scanner That Failed" in

4050-419: The linear and bull's eye printing patterns, as well as the mechanical and electronic systems needed to read the code. The patent was issued on 7 October 1952 as US Patent 2,612,994. In 1951, Woodland moved to IBM and continually tried to interest IBM in developing the system. The company eventually commissioned a report on the idea, which concluded that it was both feasible and interesting, but that processing

4125-471: The magnetic stripe over a sensor that reads the contents of the stripe. The stripe's contents are compared to those either stored locally in the lock or those of a central system. Some centralized systems operate using hardwired connections to central controllers while others use various frequencies of radio waves to communicate with the central controllers. Some have the feature of a mechanical (traditional key) bypass in case of loss of power. RFID cards contain

4200-569: The parameters: Machine-readable data In communications and computing , a machine-readable medium (or computer-readable medium ) is a medium capable of storing data in a format easily readable by a digital computer or a sensor . It contrasts with human-readable medium and data . The result is called machine-readable data or computer-readable data , and the data itself can be described as having machine-readability . Machine-readable data must be structured data . Attempts to create machine-readable data occurred as early as

4275-420: The point of sale, shoppers can get product discounts or special marketing offers through the address or e-mail address provided at registration. Barcodes are widely used in healthcare and hospital settings , ranging from patient identification (to access patient data, including medical history, drug allergies, etc.) to creating SOAP notes with barcodes to medication management. They are also used to facilitate

4350-401: The president of the local food chain, Food Fair , asking one of the deans to research a system to automatically read product information during checkout. Silver told his friend Norman Joseph Woodland about the request, and they started working on a variety of systems. Their first working system used ultraviolet ink, but the ink faded too easily and was expensive. Convinced that the system

4425-462: The problem. He developed a system called KarTrak using blue, white and red reflective stripes attached to the side of the cars, encoding a four-digit company identifier and a six-digit car number. Light reflected off the colored stripes was read by photomultiplier vacuum tubes. The Boston and Maine Railroad tested the KarTrak system on their gravel cars in 1961. The tests continued until 1967, when

4500-570: The process. In 1981 the United States Department of Defense adopted the use of Code 39 for marking all products sold to the United States military. This system, Logistics Applications of Automated Marking and Reading Symbols (LOGMARS), is still used by DoD and is widely viewed as the catalyst for widespread adoption of barcoding in industrial uses. Barcodes are widely used around the world in many contexts. In stores, UPC barcodes are pre-printed on most items other than fresh produce from

4575-590: The resulting information would require equipment that was some time off in the future. IBM offered to buy the patent, but the offer was not accepted. Philco purchased the patent in 1962 and then sold it to RCA sometime later. During his time as an undergraduate, David Jarrett Collins worked at the Pennsylvania Railroad and became aware of the need to automatically identify railroad cars. Immediately after receiving his master's degree from MIT in 1959, he started work at GTE Sylvania and began addressing

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4650-492: The rights to the original Woodland patent, attended the meeting and initiated an internal project to develop a system based on the bullseye code. The Kroger grocery chain volunteered to test it. In the mid-1970s the NAFC established the Ad-Hoc Committee for U.S. Supermarkets on a Uniform Grocery-Product Code to set guidelines for barcode development. In addition, it created a symbol-selection subcommittee to help standardize

4725-411: The same company, Barcoding systems are not radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems. Many companies use both technologies as part of larger resource management systems. 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

4800-467: The separation and indexing of documents that have been imaged in batch scanning applications, track the organization of species in biology, and integrate with in-motion checkweighers to identify the item being weighed in a conveyor line for data collection. They can also be used to keep track of objects and people; they are used to keep track of rental cars, airline luggage, nuclear waste, express mail, and parcels. Barcoded tickets (which may be printed by

4875-409: The symbol that would need to be printed on the packaging or labels of all of their products. There were no cost savings for a grocery to use it, unless at least 70% of the grocery's products had the barcode printed on the product by the manufacturer. IBM projected that 75% would be needed in 1975. Economic studies conducted for the grocery industry committee projected over $ 40 million in savings to

4950-468: 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. A wide range of hardware is manufactured for use in barcode systems by such manufacturers as Datalogic, Intermec, HHP (Hand Held Products), Microscan Systems , Unitech, Metrologic, PSC, and PANMOBIL, with

5025-508: The time spent on a job. Barcodes are also used in some kinds of non-contact 1D and 2D position sensors . A series of barcodes are used in some kinds of absolute 1D linear encoder . The barcodes are packed close enough together that the reader always has one or two barcodes in its field of view. As a kind of fiducial marker , the relative position of the barcode in the field of view of the reader gives incremental precise positioning, in some cases with sub-pixel resolution . The data decoded from

5100-476: The width ratios. Stacked symbologies are also optimized for laser scanning, with the laser making multiple passes across the barcode. In the 1990s development of charge-coupled device (CCD) imagers to read barcodes was pioneered by Welch Allyn . Imaging does not require moving parts, as a laser scanner does. In 2007, linear imaging had begun to supplant laser scanning as the preferred scan engine for its performance and durability. 2D symbologies cannot be read by

5175-453: Was found to be easily fooled by dirt in certain applications, which greatly affected accuracy. The AAR abandoned the system in the late 1970s, and it was not until the mid-1980s that they introduced a similar system, this time based on radio tags. The railway project had failed, but a toll bridge in New Jersey requested a similar system so that it could quickly scan for cars that had purchased

5250-514: Was in the UK supermarket group Sainsbury's in 1972 using shelf-mounted barcodes which were developed by Plessey . In June 1974, Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio used a scanner made by Photographic Sciences Corporation to scan the Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode on a pack of Wrigley's chewing gum. QR codes , a specific type of 2D barcode, rose in popularity in the second decade of

5325-613: Was invented by Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver and patented in the US in 1952. The invention was based on Morse code that was extended to thin and thick bars. However, it took over twenty years before this invention became commercially successful. UK magazine Modern Railways December 1962 pages 387–389 record how British Railways had already perfected a barcode-reading system capable of correctly reading rolling stock travelling at 100 mph (160 km/h) with no mistakes. An early use of one type of barcode in an industrial context

5400-403: Was sponsored by the Association of American Railroads in the late 1960s. Developed by General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) and called KarTrak ACI (Automatic Car Identification), this scheme involved placing colored stripes in various combinations on steel plates which were affixed to the sides of railroad rolling stock. Two plates were used per car, one on each side, with the arrangement of

5475-467: Was studied, including linear codes, RCA's bullseye concentric circle code, starburst patterns and others. In the spring of 1971 RCA demonstrated their bullseye code at another industry meeting. IBM executives at the meeting noticed the crowds at the RCA booth and immediately developed their own system. IBM marketing specialist Alec Jablonover remembered that the company still employed Woodland, and he established

5550-530: Was used to identify a dozen types of transmissions moving on an overhead conveyor from production to shipping. The other scanning system was installed at General Trading Company's distribution center in Carlstadt, New Jersey to direct shipments to the proper loading bay. In 1966 the National Association of Food Chains (NAFC) held a meeting on the idea of automated checkout systems. RCA , which had purchased

5625-469: Was workable with further development, Woodland left Drexel, moved into his father's apartment in Florida, and continued working on the system. His next inspiration came from Morse code, and he formed his first barcode from sand on the beach. "I just extended the dots and dashes downwards and made narrow lines and wide lines out of them." To read them, he adapted technology from optical soundtracks in movies, using

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