Bar code is a group of bar and space symbols arranged according to certain coding rules to represent information composed of certain characters, numbers and symbols. The barcode system is an automatic identification system consisting of barcode symbol design, production, and scanning and reading.
Advantages of barcode technology:
Barcode is by far the most economical and practical automatic identification technology. Barcode technology has the following advantages:
A. Fast input speed: Compared with keyboard input, barcode input is 5 times faster and can achieve "instant data input".
B. High reliability: the error rate of keyboard input data is one in three hundred, the error rate of using optical character recognition technology is one in ten thousand, and the error rate of using barcode technology is less than one in a million.
C． Large amount of information collected: Traditional one-dimensional barcodes can collect information of dozens of characters at a time, while two-dimensional barcodes can carry information of thousands of characters and have certain automatic error correction capabilities.
D. Flexible and practical: Barcode identification can be used alone as a means of identification, or it can form a system with related identification equipment to achieve automated identification, and can also be connected with other control equipment to achieve automated management.
In addition, barcode labels are easy to make and have no special requirements for equipment and materials. The identification equipment is easy to operate and does not require special training, and the equipment is relatively cheap.
Application scope of barcode technology:
Commercial automation system: POS (Point of Sales) is a real-time commercial point of sale system. This system uses barcodes as a means and computers as the center to realize the management of the store's purchase, sales, and storage, and quickly feedback information on each link of purchase, sales, and storage to provide information for business decisions.
Application of barcode technology in warehousing management: Three-dimensional warehouse is an important part of modern industrial production. Using barcode technology, the guidance, positioning, and grid entry operations of warehouse goods can be completed, and the identification speed can be improved. Reduce human errors and thereby improve warehouse management.
Bar code technology is also widely used in traffic management, financial document management, commercial document management, medical record management, blood bank blood management and various classification technologies. Bar code technology is a kind of data identification and automatic data input. The method has been widely used by people and penetrated into all fields of computer management.
The development history of barcodes:
Barcode technology has a history of more than 50 years. Initiated in the United States in the 1940s, it was widely used internationally in the 1970s and 1980s. With the application of foreign barcode technology, my country began to study it in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and improved barcode management systems in some industries, such as postal and telecommunications, banks, chain stores, libraries, transportation, and major enterprises and institutions. In December 1988, my country established the "China Article Coding Center" and formally applied to join the international coding organization EAN Association on April 19, 1991. In recent years, my country's barcode industry has developed rapidly. At present, the prefix codes used for products include "690", "691", "692", "693", "694" and "695". Barcode technology has been widely used in our country. application.
Introduction to barcode encoding methods (code systems):
There are many types of barcodes, and there are about 20 common code systems, including:
Code39 code (Standard 39 code), Codabar code (Cudabar code), Code25 code (standard 25 code), ITF25 code (interleaved 25 code), Matrix25 code (matrix 25 code), UPC-A code, UPC-E code, EAN -13 code (EAN-13 international commodity barcode), EAN-8 code (EAN-8 international commodity barcode), China postal code (a variant of matrix 25 code), Code-B code, MSI code, Code11 code , Code93 code, ISBN code, ISSN code, Code128 code (Code128 code, including EAN128 code), Code39EMS (EMS-specific 39 code) and other one-dimensional barcodes and PDF417 and other two-dimensional barcodes.
At present, the types of barcodes widely used internationally include EAN and UPC codes (commodity barcodes, which are used to uniquely identify a commodity around the world.
The most common ones we see in supermarkets are EAN and UPC barcodes), Code39 codes (can represent numbers and letters, and are most widely used in the management field), ITF25 codes (mostly used in logistics management), Codebar codes (mostly used in medical, Book field), Code93 code, Code128 code, etc. Among them, the EAN code is a commodity barcode widely used in the world today and has become the basis of electronic data interchange (EDI); the UPC code is mainly used in the United States and Canada; in various barcode application systems, the Code39 code can use numbers The method formed with the same alphabet is widely used in internal management of various industries; in the business of blood banks, libraries and photo studios, Codebar codes are also widely used.
In addition to the one-dimensional barcodes listed above, two-dimensional barcodes have also been developing rapidly and have found applications in many fields.
Introduction to commonly used barcodes:
EAN code: The EAN code is a commodity barcode developed by the International Article Numbering Association and is used throughout the world. There are two types of EAN code symbols: standard version (EAN-13) and shortened version (EAN-8), which are equivalent to my country's general commodity barcode. The barcode printed on the packaging of the products we buy daily is generally the EAN code.
UPC code: The UPC code is a barcode for commodities developed by the United States Uniform Code Committee. It is mainly used in the United States and Canada. We can see it on goods imported from the United States.
Code 39: Code 39 is a barcode that can represent numbers, letters and other information. It is mainly used for automated management of industry, books and tickets, and is currently widely used.
Codabar code:
CodaBar code is a barcode widely used in the medical and book fields. Its character set is 10 numbers from 0 to 9, "ABCD" "Four letters and six special characters "$-:/.+", of which "ABCD" is only used as the start character and terminator and can be combined in any way.
Code 128 code: 128 can represent ASCII 0 to ASCII 127 ***128 ASCII characters in total.
Code 128 is widely used due to its large character set and high density. The international UCC/EAN organization has a special barcode identification standard for 128 codes, which is the UCC/EAN128 code. This 128 code has unified coding specifications and interpretations worldwide.
Code 128 is also widely used in our country. The new barcode standard of the postal department uses code 128, and the Chinese Blood Transfusion Association also uses code 128 as the identification barcode on blood bags.
Two-dimensional barcode: The amount of information carried by one-dimensional barcode is limited. For example, the barcode on the product can only accommodate 13-digit (EAN-13 code) Arabic numerals. More information can only rely on the product database. Support, without the pre-established database, this kind of barcode is meaningless, so it also limits the application scope of the barcode to a certain extent. For this reason, 2D barcodes were invented in the 1990s. In addition to the advantages of one-dimensional barcodes, two-dimensional barcodes also have the advantages of large amount of information, high reliability, confidentiality, and strong anti-counterfeiting.
At present, the two-dimensional barcodes mainly include PDF417 code, Code49 code, Code 16K code, Data Matrix code, MaxiCode code, etc., which are mainly divided into two categories: stacked or layered type and checkerboard or matrix type.
As a new information storage and transmission technology, 2D barcode has attracted widespread attention from the international community since its birth. After several years of efforts, it has been used in many fields such as national defense, public security, transportation, medical care, industry, commerce, finance, customs and government management.
Relying on its huge information carrying capacity, two-dimensional barcodes can include the information stored in the backend database when one-dimensional barcodes were used in the past. The corresponding information can be obtained directly by reading the barcode, and the two-dimensional barcode can Dimensional barcodes also have error correction technology and anti-counterfeiting functions, which increase data security.
Two-dimensional barcodes can include photos and fingerprints, which can effectively solve the machine-readable and anti-counterfeiting problems of documents. Therefore, it can be widely used in passports, ID cards, driving licenses, military IDs, health certificates, insurance cards, etc.
Driver’s licenses, US military IDs, military medical certificates, etc. in more than ten states including Arizona have adopted PDF417 technology a few years ago.
Encoding the personal information and photos on the ID into the 2D barcode not only enables automatic identification of ID cards, but also effectively prevents counterfeit IDs. Many countries such as the Philippines, Egypt, and Bahrain have also adopted two-dimensional barcodes on their ID cards or driver's licenses, and my country's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport has also adopted two-dimensional barcode technology.
In addition, there are also examples of using 2D barcode technology to solve data input and prevent forgery and deletion of forms on customs declarations, long-distance freight bills, tax reports, and insurance registration forms.
In some areas of my country, 2D barcodes have also been initially used in areas such as certified public accountant certificates and automobile sales and after-sales services.
Barcode prefix codes of some countries and regions (EAM) members
United States, Canada 00-09 Israel 729 Denmark 57
(In-store code) 20-29 Venezuela 759 Norway 70
Japan 45-49 Uruguay 773 Switzerland 76
Belgium/Luxembourg 54 Bolivia 773 Spain 84
Finland 64 Chile 780 Austria 90-91
p>Sweden 73 Ecuador 786 New Zealand 94
Italy 80-83 Cuba 850 Slovenia 383
Netherlands 87 Czech Republic 859 Germany 400-440
Australia 93 South Korea 880 Taiwan 471
Bulgaria 380 Singapore 888 Latvia 475
Croatia 385 Malaysia 893 Sri Lanka 479
Russia 460-469 Vietnam 977 Hong Kong 489
< p>Estonia 474 Mexico 750 Cyprus 529Lithuania 477 Colombia 770 Malta 535
Philippines 480 Peru 775 Portugal 560
Greece 520 Argentina 779 Poland 590
Macedonia 531 Paraguay 784 Hungary 599
Ireland 539 Brazil 789 Mauritius 609
Iceland 569 Slovakia 858 Albania 613
Romania 594 Yugoslavia 860 Mainland China 690 -692
South Africa 600-601 Thailand 885 France 30-37
Morocco 611 India 890 United Kingdom 50
Turkey 619, 869 Indonesia 899