Computer Bar Code System.
It is beyond one's doubt that day by day we are advancing towards modernisation and along with it new developments in the fields of techniques and technologies are also taking effect. We welcome this advancement as this makes our lives easier compared to what it was before. Our young generation accepting this advancements in the different technical fields and are very happy to live and learn with these changes as it makes their lives more enjoyable and worth living.
It is worthwhile to mention in this context that the bar code system has arrived very long ago in our world and during those days it was found written on the body of foreign products or item goods. Today we find barcode prints in almost every products and it is beyond one's doubt that in future too this will be widely used by us. Bar code prints are generally marked by thick and thin lines on the cover of the products and under these lines some numerical are written.
Today we find bar code prints not only in foreign products items but also in our own Indian products like on wheat packets, sauce bottles, tooth paste cover, salt packets and on boxes of clothes, shoes, medicines etc. Today bar-coding has become compulsory because without it the different items and durables might not find a place in big malls and shopping centres of our country. Bar coding system is such a system with the help of which different information relating to a product is available along with its price, manufacturing date and serial number by just looking at the vertical lines at the backside of a particular product. The bar coding prints are in the computer readable format and with the help of a bar coding reader an operator could very easily find out the price and weight of the product by just focusing some light from the bar code reader.
In a bar code we generally see a combination of some thick and thin lines. The fact is that within these codes lies the data of the product. Generally barcode readers comes with a software which helps in reading bar codes. A data base system works in the background and are built with a software named "Access" which has a fonding and an interface. It also helps to recognize numbers related with the bar codes.
Now-a-days, companies prints the bar codes on the packets of its different products and to read these bar codes different types of barcode readers are available in the market. More often then not, stickers in the form of bar codes are stuck on the packet cover of different products. Through barcode printout barcode printer it is printed in the sticker format.
To tell you the truth, bar codes are even found printed on wine bottles, televisions, DVDs, Almira, blankets, bedsheets and in cosmetics like powder, nail polish etc. A common man doesn't understand anything by just looking at the bar codes. To read bar codes you need a barcode reader. A scanner is there inside the barcode reader together with a software and when light emits from the barcode reader, its light falls on the bar codes. The thick bars of the bar codes absorb more lights and reflects less and the whole process results in displaying all the details of a particular products. When light passes through a scanner there is also a photo sensor. The reflected rays from the barcode fall on the sensor and as a result an electrical signal is created. Now this electrical signal pass through a type of hardware and software and the software decodes it to break it to present the main data in front of us. For instance, quite often you might have seen in a shopping mall that as soon as a bar coder operator flashes light on the bar codes of a particular product its detail flashes on the computer screen.
So with the use of barcode readers different types of it are available in the market starting from Rs 600 to Rs 2000 to even Rs 5000. According to its shape and sizes and its functions different types of barcode readers are available in the market. Among them Wand type reader and gun type readers are very famous. These two types of readers are mostly used in shopping malls and are basically handheld types.
Types of Readers or Scanners
Wand type reader
This type of readers are a bit taller length wise and they resemble to a torch or a pen. It is swiped against the bar codes by holding it in our hands similarly as we do with a mouse. Now-a-days powerful wand readers could focus or reflect light from a distance.
Gun type reader
Yes, this type of reader looks more or less like a gun as the name suggests and this is largely being used in shopping malls by the shopping sales person. Basically this type of reader is used by aiming the bar codes and as soon as the trigger is pressed it emits a red or a green rays of light which gets reflected from the bar codes
Fixed type reader
This type of reader is more or less like that of a gun type of scanner but the difference lies in the fact that it remains stationary or fixed at a place. It depends upon the user to use this type of scanner or not because its usage is limited to a certain places only. But shopkeepers generally use this type of scanners and some are found at the check out point of the Super Markets and with other retailers.
It is worthwhile to mention here that with every reader there is a scanner with some type of specification. Wand type readers are available at a cheap price whereas fixed type readers are very powerful and expensive too. Wand type readers are required to be moved very often and hence might come up with technical errors and problems but now-a-days wand type readers are available in wide ranges and types and they work for a long time.
Gun type readers could scan even from a distance of one to two feet but in dusty conditions these readers doesn't work properly. In contrast to this fixed type of readers work very fast and it is capable of giving maximum output in very less time.
Generally we get data from readers which we need to decode in a methodical way. Most often the barcode readers doesn't come along with a decoder and one needs to purchase it separately because the output which we get from the barcode readers are not only used in computers but also in different industrial and consumer durables. Normally a computer hardware interface connects with barcode readers and decodes in two ways namely through serial ports or keyboard ports but now-a-days UCB boards are mostly used for the purpose.
In conclusion, to tell you the truth, barcode readers are very useful to us and its mere application makes things more easier and simpler for us and that's why it is considered as a boon in terms of shopping, marketing and billing sectors. Gun type readers are used in all shopping malls and by retailers and for future we can only hope that its usage and popularity will always be at the pick
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