The origin and development of barcode technology
Barcode technology focuses on how to represent information in a barcode, and how to convert the data represented by the barcode into data that a computer can recognize. Bar code technology is one of the most widely used automatic identification technology. The following will introduce the concept, history, characteristics and development trend of bar code technology in detail.
The origin and development status of bar code technology abroad
With the development of computer, information and communication technology, the capacity of information processing, storage, transmission and communication is becoming more and more powerful. Comprehensive and effective information acquisition and input has become the key of almost all information systems. Bar code automatic identification technology is in such an environment arises at the moment. It is a comprehensive science and technology developed on the basis of computer, photoelectric technology and communication technology. It is an important method and means of information acquisition and input.
Bar code first appeared in the 1940s, but it has been applied and developed rapidly in the past 20 years. Barcode technology is already widely used in Europe, the United States, and Japan, and it is rapidly spreading around the world, so its application areas are constantly expanding.
In the late 1940s, two American engineers, Joe Wood Land and Benny Silver, began working on coding food items and the corresponding automatic identification device. They were granted a U.S. patent in 1949. This code pattern is shown in the top right of Figure 2-2. The design resembles miniature archery targets and is called the "bull's eye" code. The concentric rings of the target are drawn with circles and blanks. In principle, the "bull eye" code is very close to the later barcode symbol. Unfortunately, the commodity economy at that time was not very developed, and the technology was not good enough to print such a code. Twenty years later, however, Joe Woodland, an IBM engineer, became the founder of the North American unified code, the UPC bar code. A patent filed in 1959 by Girad Feissel and others shows each number from 0 to 9 in seven parallel bars. But the code is hard for machines to read and hard for humans to read. However, this idea promoted the birth and development of the barcode system. Soon after, E. F. Brinker put bar code logos on streetcars. In the late 1960s, Sylvania invented a bar code system that was adopted by the railroad systems of North America. These two inventions are arguably the earliest uses of barcode technology.
Since 1970, when the U.S. Supermarket AdHoc Committee came up with the Universal Commodity Code -- UniversalProduct Code -- many groups have come up with various schemes for barcode symbols, as shown in the lower right and left parts of Figure 2-2. The UPC code was first trialed in the grocery retail industry, which set the stage for its widespread adoption later. The following year, the Blasey Company developed the "Blasey code" and the corresponding automatic identification system for inventory checking. This is the first time that bar code technology is applied in warehouse management system. Barcode technology in the U.S. got a new jump in development in 1972 when someone like Monarch Marking came up with Codabar.
The United States Uniform Code Council Inc (UCC) established the UPC barcode system in 1973, and has fully realized the standardization of the barcode code and the commodity code identified by it. That same year, the grocery industry adopted UPC code as its standard code system, which played a positive role in promoting the widespread use of barcode technology in commercial circulation and sales. In 1974, Dr. Davide allair of Intermec introduced code 39, which was quickly adopted by the U.S. Department of Defense as a military code system. Thirty-nine is the first letter, digital code that was later widely used in industry.
The UPC system was successfully used in supermarkets in the U.S. and Canada in 1976. That gave people a lot of encouragement, especially the Europeans who took a lot of interest. The following year, the European Community developed a European Article Numbering System, or EAN numbering System, which is compatible with the UPC numbering code, based on the UPC barcode. It signed the Memorandum of Agreement for European Item Numbering, It is Numbering that the European Article Numbering Association, or EAN, was officially established. Numbering until 1981, as the EAN organization had grown into an International numbering Association, it was called the "International Article Numbering Association." It is generally referred to as IAN. But due to history and custom, The organization still uses EAN as its short name.
In the 1980s, even denser 1D codes were developed, such as EAN128 and 93 codes (both of which have nearly 30% higher symbol density than 39 codes). At the same time, some industries have chosen bar code symbols to establish industry standards and bar code application systems within the industry. After this, two-dimensional bar codes began to appear. David Alier has a 49-yard gain. Ted Williams introduced 16K size in 1988, and Symbol introduced PDF417 size. The emergence of two-dimensional bar code makes the role of bar code expanded from being only easy to be read by the machine to carrying a certain amount of information packet, which makes the system can realize automatic identification and data collection of information packet through the bar code. In some cases, 2D barcode has incomparable advantages in information identification and data acquisition due to its convenience, low price and fast performance.
The most widely used and familiar field of barcode technology is the point-of-sale (POS) system in the circulation and sale of general goods, which is commonly known abroad as the point-of-sale terminal. In North America, European countries and Japan, the penetration rate of POS system has reached more than 95%. As of December 31, 2000, there are more than 200,000 members of bar Code System in the United States and Canada. Bar Code automatic Scanning stores (POS) cover all wholesale and retail enterprises, and there are more than 30,000 users of Electronic Data Interchange (EANCOM) in circulation. By 2000, France had 24,314 bar code system members, and all wholesale and retail stores had realized POS, with more than 10,000 EANCOM users. By the end of 1996, there were 125,700 members of the bar code system in Japan, and the POS system covered all wholesale and retail enterprises.
As of December 31, 2000, EAN members were present in more than 60 countries and territories in six major states. More than 650,000 companies worldwide are members of the EAN Organization, and with over 200,000 companies in the United States Uniform Code Committee (UCC) system, that brings to 850,000 companies worldwide who use barcodes and benefit greatly from modern information technology in business.
EAN establishment, not only for the establishment of a global uniform article identification system to provide organizational guarantee, at the same time, promote the application of bar code technology in various fields. Now bar code technology has penetrated into business, management, post and telecommunications, industrial and communication and other computer applications in all fields. Further cooperation between the International Article Coding Society (EAN) and the United States Uniform Code Committee (UCC) has further promoted the development of barcode technology.
The rapid development of bar code technology has promoted the birth of a new industry, that is, the formation of automatic identification technology and equipment industry in the world. Under the promotion of each economically developed country, the International Association of Automatic Identification Manufacturers was established in the mid-eighties. Its objective is to establish a collaborative community of manufacturers and suppliers to form the broadest possible efficient market for the production, supply, systems and related services of automatic identification equipment. Its task is to support, promote and promote the development of automatic identification technology and equipment industry, compile and release information about the file, automatic identification technology development and market information, promote cooperation and exchanges between membership organization, on the basis of the nonprofit, committed to the professional activities of legal, at present has been more than 30 member organizations.
Some economically developed countries have also established their own automatic identification manufacturers association, which has greatly promoted the rapid development of barcode automatic identification technology industry. Nowadays, there are tens of thousands of manufacturers engaged in the development, research, production and operation of barcode technology and its series products in various countries in the world, and tens of thousands of products have been developed and operated, which has become an emerging high-tech industry with a considerable scale.