Why bar codes?
We all know life involves trade-offs—do you want it fast or do you want it right? Bar codes give you both—lightening-fast data collection and nearly zero errors (see table below). What’s more, they’re easy to use. Add to that decreasing costs for scanning devices, and the rationale for bar code technology becomes compelling—fast, accurate, easy-to-use, and inexpensive. (12-character alphanumeric message) Manual Entry Bar Code Scanning Time required 4 to 6 seconds 1 to 2 seconds Accuracy 1 error / 300 characters 1 error / 10 million characters How do bar codes work? While bar codes have been a part of our lives for years, few people understand the technology. Bar code scanning is based on a simple principle—Light is reflected in different amounts by different colored surfaces. To decode the information in a bar code, a small spot of light is passed over the bars and spaces via a scanning device, such as a hand-held wand, a fixed beam device, or a moving beam device (discussed in more de
