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 (Quick Response) codes and Data Matrix codes which can be read quickly and accurately with or without auto-focus. Omnidirectional scanners are also better at reading poorly printed,wrinkled,or even torn barcodes. There are a range of different omnidirectional 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. Omnidirectional scanners are most familiar through the horizontal scanners in supermarkets, where packages are slid over a glass or sapphire window. Most of them use a single rotating polygonal mirror and an arrangement of several fixed mirrors to generate their complex scan patterns. 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. Omnidirectional scanning uses "series of straight or curved scanning lines of varying directions in the form of a starburst, a Lissajous curve, 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. the Barcodepedia used a flash application and some web cam for querying a database), have been realized options for resolving the given tasks.
#Barcode bar code#
All the bar codes appearing in the photo are decoded instantly (ImageID patents and code creation tools) or by use of plugins (e.g. Large field-of-view readers use high resolution industrial cameras to capture multiple bar codes simultaneously. Video camera readers use small video cameras with the same CCD technology as in a CCD barcode 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. They use a camera and image processing techniques to decode the barcode. Two-dimensional imaging scanners are a newer type of barcode reader.
LED scanners can also be made using CMOS sensors, and are replacing earlier Laser-based readers. 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 barcode whereas pen or laser scanners are measuring reflected light of a specific frequency originating from the scanner itself. 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 barcode is generated in the reader by sequentially measuring the voltages across each sensor in the row. Each sensor measures the intensity of the light immediately in front of it. In both pen readers and laser scanners, the light emitted by the reader is rapidly varied in brightness with a data pattern and the photo-diode receive circuitry is designed to detect only signals with the same modulated pattern.ĬCD readers (also known as LED scanners) ĬCD readers use an array of hundreds of tiny light sensors lined up in a row in the head of the reader. As with the pen-type reader, a photo-diode is used to measure the intensity of the light reflected back from the barcode. 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 barcode.