The bar code by Ashwin Advani

original template by Ray Lam, Fall 97

revised template by Rachel Shorey and Steve Bergen 2/9/98

First Base

Finding the basic who, where, when facts. This was done for Ms. Carlson and Mr. Holister in October 97.

Second Base

Expository Writing Paragraphs for Ms. Snyder and Mr. Carey in December 97.

Third Base

Creative Writing Paragraphs for Ms. Snyder and Mr. Carey in March 98.

Home Plate

"Guestimating" and "Analysis" Paragraphs for Ms. Lucenta and Mr. Toubman in May 98.

Left Field Center Field Right Field

Graphics from Electives: Pictures drawn for Ms. Swayze in Visual Arts, Mr. Bergen in CP1 and a movie for Ms. McElroy in Drama (too big to post on web, but we are making our own CD-ROM!

Sources

A bar code is a language of symbols, which are made up of lines and spaces, that are read by machines. These lines give information about the product which has the bar code on it. You probably think that bar codes were made for scanning groceries. Actually, they were first invented to read rail car owner and serial number information from moving trains. (1).³In 1959, a group of railroad R&D Managers organized a meeting in Boston to bring together technology specialists from the defense supply community to listen to descriptions of unsolved railroad industry problems.² The biggest problem was the need to monitor and control railroad movements. In 1962, Sylvania, one of the specialists, designed the first bar code. The bar code was totally different from what it is now. It was a system using scanning machines that read color bars on a black background. By 1968 bar codes were simplified and the color coding was eliminated. (2). ³Commercial use first began in 1970 with grocery carton scanning for conveyorized order picking at distribution centers.² It was followed by the automotive industry for Œautomotive component tracking applicationsı. The bar code now touches almost every industry. The bar code system is very complicated. It can capture data faster and more accurately than keyboards. One error per 300 characters entered by a keyboard does not compare with the bar codeıs less than 1 error in 1-3 million characters entered! Data entries by bar codes are 5-10 times faster than keyboards, which makes bar codes very popular in high volume supermarket check-outs, inventory tracking, and many other applications. The language of a bar code technology is called a symbology, the lines in a bar code. It is read by a scanner; the label and scanner must communicate with the same symbology or they wonıt understand each other. Of the 40 symbologies , only a few are used in 99% of all applications. One of the five most popular symbologies is the Universal Product Code (UPC). It is used by the grocery industry. UPC closely resembles IBMıs Delta Distance code, which was adopted in 1972 to speed up and simplify checkout. Originally planned for the grocery industry, UPC expanded to convenience stores and general merchandise retailing. This symbology is made up of 10 characters that identify the producer and product numbers and 1 character that identifies a classification. Bar coding seems like a bunch of lines, but there is a lot more to it! 1. Internet Web Site: http://www.barcode-system.com 2. Internet Web Site: http://www.barcode-system.com