The use of barcode technology has revolutionized the process of inventory control. Barcodes are used virtually everywhere to keep track of product information and inventory levels. These days barcodes are even used to add products to gift registries. No one gives a second thought any more to the use of barcode technology.



They're so common that barcodes and scanners rarely get a second thought as to how or why they work. It's rare that one thinks about how dragging items across the checkout scanner suddenly makes it register a price and a name which are identical to the label. We simply take barcode scanners and barcode readers for granted.

So how exactly does a barcode scanner operate? To grasp how barcode technology works one first has to understand how bar codes themselves are generated and how they work to identify products. The barcode contains information about the item that has been "barcoded". This information is coded using a special type of barcode language. The barcode scanner then translates the language of bar codes into information that humans can understand and decipher.

The barcode language is actually quite simple. All barcodes contain specific symbols which equal a series of bars. These bars are made up of short and long bars, along with varying spacing between the bars. Every part of the series denotes a number of characters, depending upon the date originally entered into the barcode software.

In other words, barcode software is the beginning point for all barcodes and barcode scanning systems. It is what makes the system work. Programmer are able to use barcode software to inventory their products by inputting the product's name and assigning it a barcode generated by the computer. This is all accomplished by using a sophisticated database system, where data from each product is stored. This makes keeping track of the inventory easy and it also helps to speed up the updating of pricing. New information about products is entered into the database. Then whenever the barcode scanner reads a barcode that identifies a specific product it is connected directly to the database where it finds the most current information about the product.

The barcode scanner itself uses technology that "reads" the barcode label. It does this with photo sensors located within the barcode scanner that have the ability to read and decipher each barcode as it is scanned. All of these photo sensors work together to recognize spacing, length, and alignment of different bars, then match them with corresponding product information found in the database. This ingenious technology is really quite simple when you understand how it works.

Barcode scanning technology has made a huge difference in offices, factories, warehouses, hospitals, restaurants, government facilities - anywhere where it is necessary to keep track of inventoried items. Of course the most visible place where this technology has made a big difference is at the checkout line of your friendly neighborhood variety or grocery store. The next time you are there in one of those lines, think about how barcode technology gets you out of the door just that much faster.