A barcode reader (or barcode scanner) is an electronic device for reading printed barcodes. Like a flatbed scanner, it consists of a light source, a lens and a light sensor translating optical impulses into electrical ones. Additionally, nearly all barcode readers contain decoder circuitry analyzing the barcode’s image data provided by the sensor and sending the barcode’s content to the scanner’s output port.
Types of barcode readers
Technology
Barcode readers can be differentiated by technologies as follows:
Pen-type readers
Pen-type readers consist of a light source and photodiode that are placed next to each other in the tip of a pen or wand. To read a bar code, the person holding the pen must move the tip of it across the bars at a relatively uniform speed. The photodiode measures the intensity of the light reflected back from the light source as the tip crosses each bar and space in the printed code. The photodiode generates a waveform that is used to measure the widths of the bars and spaces in the bar code. Dark bars in the bar code absorb light and white spaces reflect light so that the voltage waveform generated by the photo diode is a representation of the bar and space pattern in the bar code. This waveform is decoded by the scanner in a manner similar to the way Morse code dots and dashes are decoded.
Laser scanners
Laser scanners work the same way as pen type readers except that they use a laser beam as the light source and typically employ either a reciprocating mirror or a rotating prism to scan the laser beam back and forth across the bar code. As with the pen type reader, a photodiode is used to measure the intensity of the light reflected back from the bar code. In both pen readers and laser scanners, the light emitted by the reader is rapidly varied in brightness with a data pattern and the photodiode receive circuitry is designed to detect only signals with the same modulated pattern.
CCD readers
CCD readers use an array of hundreds of tiny light sensors lined up in a row in the head of the reader. Each sensor measures the intensity of the light immediately in front of it. Each individual light sensor in the CCD reader is extremely small and because there are hundreds of sensors lined up in a row, a voltage pattern identical to the pattern in a bar code is generated in the reader by sequentially measuring the voltages across each sensor in the row. The important difference between a CCD reader and a pen or laser scanner is that the CCD reader is measuring emitted ambient light from the bar code whereas pen or laser scanners are measuring reflected light of a specific frequency originating from the scanner itself.
Camera-based readers
Two-dimensional imaging scanners are the fourth and newest type of bar code reader. They use a camera and image processing techniques to decode the bar code.
Video camera readers use small video cameras with the same CCD technology as in a CCD bar code reader except that instead of having a single row of sensors, a video camera has hundreds of rows of sensors arranged in a two dimensional array so that they can generate an image.
Large field-of-view readers use high resolution industrial cameras to capture multiple bar codes simultaneously. All the bar codes appearing in the photo are decoded instantly (ImageID patents and code creation tools) or by use of plugins (e.g. the Barcodepedia uses a flash application and some web cam for querying a database), have been realized options for resolving the given tasks.
Omni-directional barcode scanners
Omni-directional scanning uses “series of straight or curved scanning lines of varying directions in the form of a starburst, a lissajous pattern, or other multiangle arrangement are projected at the symbol and one or more of them will be able to cross all of the symbol’s bars and spaces, no matter what the orientation.”[1]
Omni-directional scanners almost all use a laser. Unlike the simpler single-line laser scanners, they produce a pattern of beams in varying orientations allowing them to read barcodes presented to it at different angles. Most of them use a single rotating polygonal mirror and an arrangement of several fixed mirrors to generate their complex scan patterns.
Omni-directional scanners are most familiar through the horizontal scanners in supermarkets, where packages are slid over a glass or sapphire window. There are a range of different omni-directional units available which can be used for differing scanning applications, ranging from retail type applications with the barcodes read only a few centimetres away from the scanner to industrial conveyor scanning where the unit can be a couple of metres away or more from the code. Omni-directional scanners are also better at reading poorly printed, wrinkled, or even torn barcodes.
Cell phone cameras
While cell phone cameras without auto-focus are not ideal for reading some common barcode formats, there are 2D barcodes which are optimized for cell phones, as well as QR Codes and Data Matrix codes which can be read quickly and accurately with or without auto-focus. These open up a number of applications for consumers:
- Movies: DVD/VHS movie catalogs
- Music: CD catalogs, play MP3 when scanned
- Book catalogs and device.
- Groceries, nutrition information, making shopping lists when the last of an item is used, etc.
- Personal Property inventory (for insurance and other purposes)ode scanned into personal finance software when entering. Later, scanned receipt images can then be automatically associated with the appropriate entries. Later, the bar codes can be used to rapidly weed out paper copies not required to be retained for tax or asset inventory purposes.
- If retailers put barcodes on receipts that allowed downloading an electronic copy or encoded the entire receipt in a 2D barcode, consumers could easily import data into personal finance, property inventory, and grocery management software. Receipts scanned on a scanner could be automatically identified and associated with the appropriate entries in finance ad property inventory software.
- Consumer tracking from the retailer perspective (for example, loyalty card programs that track consumers purchases at the point of sale by having them scan a QR code).
A number of enterprise applications using cell phones are appearing:
- Access control (for example, ticket validation at venues), inventory reporting (for example, tracking deliveries), asset tracking (for example, anti-counterfeiting).[2]
Smartphones
- Smartphones can be used in Google’s mobile Android operating system via both their own Google Goggles application or 3rd party barcode scanners like Scan.[3] Nokia’s Symbian operating system features a barcode scanner which can scan barcodes,[4] while mbarcode[5] is a barcode reader for the Maemo operating system. In the Apple iOS, a barcode reader is not automatically included, but there are more than fifty free or paid apps available with both scanning capabilities and hard-linking to URI. With BlackBerry devices, the App World application can natively scan barcodes. Windows Phone 8 is able to scan barcodes through the Bing search app.
Housing
Barcode readers can be distinguished based on housing design as follows:
- Handheld scanner
- with a handle and typically a trigger button for switching on the light source.
- Pen scanner (or wand scanner)
- a pen-shaped scanner that is swiped.
- Stationary scanner
- wall- or table-mounted scanners that the barcode is passed under or beside. These are commonly found at the checkout counters of supermarkets and other retailers.
- Fixed-position scanner
- an industrial barcode reader used to identify products during manufacture or logistics. Often used on conveyor tracks to identify cartons or pallets which need to be routed to another process or shipping location. Another application joins holographic scanners with a checkweigher to read bar codes of any orientation or placement, and weighs the package. Systems like this are used in factory and farm automation for quality management and shipping.
- PDA scanner (or Auto-ID PDA)
- a PDA with a built-in barcode reader or attached barcode scanner.
- Automatic reader
- a back office equipment to read barcoded documents at high speed (50,000/hour).
- Cordless scanner (or Wireless scanner)
- a cordless barcode scanner is operated by a battery fitted inside it and is not connected to the electricity mains and transfer data to the connected device like PC.
New algorithms for barcode decoding
Symbology Decoding Algorithm
The Symbology Decoding Algorithm for barcode scanners is the first symbology-based algorithm for decoding. The new technique utilizes information from the entire image to detect transitions in the signal, whereas the traditional algorithm relies on the maxima and minima. Traditional methods are prone to errors because the method relies on a derivative; they are also sensitive to noise and blurring. The Symbology Decoding Algorithm for Bar Code Scanners exhibited high resilience to blur and noise when tested on 1D Universal Product Codes. The algorithm can also be extended for use on 2D Universal Product Codes.