barcode one word or two
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Barcode
A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings 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 matrix codes or 2D barcodes, although they do not use bars as such.
2D barcodes can be read using purpose-built 2D optical scanners, which exist in a few different forms. 2D barcodes 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 2D barcode. A mobile device with an inbuilt camera, such as smartphone, can function as the latter type of 2D barcode reader using specialized application software (The same sort of mobile device could also read 1D barcodes, depending on the application software).
1960
The barcode was invented by Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver and patented in the US in 1951 . 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 but the system was abandoned when privatisation of the railways took place. An early use of one type of barcode in an industrial context 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 affixed to the sides of railroad rolling stock. Two plates used per car, one on each side, with the arrangement of the colored stripes encoding information such as ownership, type of equipment, and identification number. The plates 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.
AIDC
Barcodes became commercially successful when they used to automate supermarket checkout systems, 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 scanning of the now-ubiquitous Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode was on a pack of Wrigley Company chewing gum in June 1974 at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, using scanner produced by Photographic Sciences Corporation. QR codes, a specific type of 2D barcode, have recently become very popular due to the growth in smartphone ownership.
bar code (or barcode)
A bar code (often seen as a single word, barcode) the small image of lines (bars) and spaces that affixed to retail store items, identification cards, and postal mail to identify a particular product number, person, or location. The code uses a sequence of vertical bars and spaces to represent numbers and other symbols. A bar code symbol typically consists of five parts: a quiet zone, a start character, data characters (including an optional check character), a stop character, and another quiet zone.
A barcode reader used to read the code. The reader uses a laser beam that is sensitive to the reflections from the line and space thickness and variation. The reader translates the reflected light into digital data that transferred to a computer for immediate action or storage. Bar codes and readers most often seen in supermarkets and retail stores, but a large number of different uses have found for them.
1973
They also used to take inventory in retail stores; to check out books from a library; to track manufacturing and shipping movement; and to sign in on a job; to identify hospital patients; and to tabulate the results of direct mail marketing returns. Very small bar codes have used to tag honey bees used in research. Readers may attached to a computer (as they often are in retail store settings) or separate and portable, in which case they store the data they read until it can be fed into a computer.
There is no one standard bar code; instead, there several different bar code standards called symbologies that serve different uses, industries, or geographic needs. Since 1973, the Uniform Product Code (UPC), regulated by the Uniform Code Council, an industry organization, has provided a standard bar code used by most retail stores. The European Article Numbering system (EAN), developed by Joe Woodland, the inventor of the first bar code system, allows for an extra pair of digits and is becoming widely used. POSTNET the standard bar code used in the United States for ZIP codes in bulk mailing. The following table summarizes the most common bar code standards.
Working on the assumption that the Oxford Dictionary clearly a better guide to English than Merriam-Webster (give me a break here, I am a British guy!), I feel that my “barcode” stance totally vindicated – especially since the definitive source of all knowledge agrees!Having said that; M-W has by far the better definition – someone really needs to update the Oxford one.
Oh, as a barcode geek test, can you identify all the barcode symbologies I’ve used in my little graphic?
Final thought (and totally off topic) – how on earth can Google index my posts in four minutes? Amazing!
Is bar code one word or two?
The term “bar code” in reference to the series of bars marked on packages for machines to read, is a rapidly changing term. Although most dictionaries mandate that the term is two words, the English-speaking society is in the process of changing it to one. Just as “Electronic mail” quickly changed to “E-mail,” then to “e-mail” and finally to just “email,” bar code is in the process of becoming barcode.
If you are using the term in a formal document, make it two words. If you are writing it in an informal document, the choice is yours.
The chief advantage of barcode systems that they allow users to process detailed information at the moment the barcode scanned, rather than simply storing information for later processing. For example, ski resorts can affix the codes to skiers and scan the bars when skiers enter ski lifts, thereby allowing the resort to monitor patterns of slope use. Various barcode systems now used to track a vast range of products as they manufactured, distributed, stored, sold, and serviced. These products range from processed foods and dry goods to drugs and medical supplies, automotive parts, computer parts, and even library books.
Glossary of Barcode Terms
Accuracy
A bar code verification term. The determination of whether any element width, or intercharacter gap width, differs from its nominal width by more than the printing tolerance.
ASCII
The character set described in the American National Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII used for information interchange between data processing systems, communications systems, and associated equipment.
Aspect Ratio
A bar code verification term. In a bar code symbol, the ratio of bar code symbol height to symbol length.
Asynchronous Communication
Also referred to as start/stop transmission. Every character transmitted has special bits attached, telling the receiving device when the data begins and ends. Data transmitted independently with no associated clock. See also Synchronous communication.
Autodiscrimination
The ability of bar code scanning and decoding equipment to recognize more than one symbology.
Average Background Reflectance
A bar code verification term. Expressed as a percent. See Reflectance.
Background
The white spaces and quiet zones surrounding a printed bar code.
Bar Code
A technology that uses white spaces and black bars to represent encoded information. This encoded information can then read with an optical device that converts the bars and spaces into an electrical signal, which then decoded into the original characters.
Bar Code Character
A single group of bars and spaces that represents a specific individual number, letter, punctuation mark, or other symbol. This is the smallest subset of a bar code symbol that contains data.
Bar Code Reader
A device (light pen, laser gun, fixed scanner, etc.) used to read a bar code field.
Bar
The darker element of a printed bar code field.
Bar Width
The thickness of an individual bar measured from edge to edge of the same bar.
Bi-directional
A bar code symbol capable of being read successfully if scanned in either direction.
BISYNC
Binary Synchronous Communication. Protocol supported by the AS/400 for communicating with other AS/400, IBM mainframe, System/36, and System/38 systems.
1D vs 2D Barcodes
There are two types of barcodes: linear – or 1D, and 2D. The most visually recognizable, the UPC (Universal Product Code) a linear 1D barcode made up of two parts: the barcode and the 12-digit UPC number. The first six numbers of the barcode is the manufacturer’s identification number. The next five digits represent the item’s number. The last number called a check digit which enables the scanner to determine if the barcode scanned correctly.
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