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Saturday 15 September 2012

An Introduction Into Barcode Scanners

By Bjorn O'connor


Barcode scanners decode picture representations of specific product information. The kind of information represented is not limited. Such information could describe the quantity or quality of specific products. When one looks at it as it is, these pictorial representations may not seem to make sense.

These devices may seem useless at first sight. One can appreciate their importance by considering their contributions to trade. If they were not available, each product would have to be manually inspected. Such a process would be difficult and would consume a lot of time.

The importance of such devices has led to the development of industry standards that better govern the issuance of barcode labels. This is to address the issue of clashing. If manufacturers independently issued barcodes to their products, there would be no uniformity. This could also mean the use of different devices for different products which would otherwise be uneconomical.

With such a system, any chance for confusion is eliminated. Barcodes avail comprehensive product information. Details about the manufacturer of a given product can be easily obtained. This eases the computation of taxes. These codes also avail information such as the grade of a particular product which is specific to that product.

This system has also gradually facilitated online purchases of products. With such codes one can precisely describe the product he or she wishes to buy. This ensures there is no confusion since every product has a unique code. The movement of the product can therefore be tracked all the way from the producer to the final consumer.

This is advantageous for governments. It is much easier to tell who owns a given good. It is also easier to account for taxes when many products are involved. This reduces the revenue due to authorities that is sometimes lost.

Vast volumes of information can be represented by minute patterns displayed on product casings. This strikes out the need to increase data storage capacity since such information requires only a small amount of space to store. Lower data volumes result in lower data storage costs. It is also easier to manipulate such data whenever it is deemed necessary.

The electronics industry has greatly benefited from this technology. Electronic devices are nowadays assigned device specific codes. In the event that such products are stolen, they can get tracked more easily. This arises from the fact that each device is assigned a unique number that sufficiently identifies the device.

Barcode scanners are nowadays used in a number of retail outlets. They are used to decode product details and facilitate the addition of the costs of any goods purchased. Theft in such outlets has tremendously decreased. This arises from the fact that these gadgets can be interfaced with other systems. Whenever any product is irregularly removed from such stores, an alarm is triggered. This alerts those in charge of security that something has been stolen.

All this underscores the importance of barcode scanners. Tracking product movement has now been made easier. Nevertheless, these gadgets should be appropriately used for optimal benefits.




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