BARCODE SCANNERS:A Barcode Scanner or Barcode reader is a computer peripheral for reading barcodes printed on various surfaces.
It is an electronic device to read barcodes that electro-optically converts bars and spaces into electrical signals and decodes the pattern into the original encoded data.It can be attached to Point of Sale systems for sales recording.
Like a flatbed scanner, it generally consists of a light source, a lens and a photo conductor translating optical impulses into electrical ones. Additionally, nearly all barcode readers currently produced contain decoder circuitry analyzing the barcode's image data provided by the photo conductor and sending the barcode's content to the scanner's output port.
Once it is run across the scanner, the scanner picks up the barcode. This is done by it reading the bars and spaces between the bars. There are many barcode formats that encode bars and spaces in different ways. Some can even have 2-d pictures and graphics. Two of the most common barcode formats are UPC and Code 3 of 9.
How does a barcode work to help a company? Barcode labels are attached to all the product in the stores. They help to uniquely identify the items and the scanner is very fast at reading and decoding these barcode labels. For companies having many inventory items, the barcode product identifiers can be quite long and a human agent will take a longer time to key in each product identifier. As well the human agent is likely to make a lot of mistakes when entering the values into the point of sale or store inventory system. As a result, bar-coding can help to speed up processing time at the checkout and as well reduce human data entry errors. This is one of it’s primary benefits.
A bar code scanner with keyboard wedge output plugs directly into the keyboard port on your computer and also provides a pigtail connector to plug in your keyboard simultaneously. When a bar code is scanned with the keyboard wedge bar code reader, the bar code data goes into the computer as if it were typed in on the keyboard by the user. This is called keyboard emulation. Newer barcode scanners can have USB connectors that do the same.
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