The Many Kinds of Barcode Scanners

Oh, don't look at us like that! This is a fun topic! Apparently for the simple application of optically scanning data, we have dozens of special needs for each industry, and a Swiss Army knife's worth of gadgets to meet them. Speaking of Swiss Army knives, have you ever noticed that they always have a corkscrew? Who wants their soldiers popping open bottles of Bordeaux out in the trenches, anyway? Must be why the Swiss never successfully invaded another country. Anyway...

Barcode readers can come in the shape of:

* PDA housing - just a sensor on the end of a PDA.

* Fixed position housing - it stays put, you bring the thing to it.

* Pens - at least it's shaped like a pen. It doesn't write anything.

* Handheld scanner - the most common kind. Shaped like a gun, or perhaps a Star Trek phaser.

The "reader" part of a barcode scanner may take any one of the following forms:

* Omni-Directional - Many red lines bouncing off the barcode at once, ensuring that at least one line will be able to read the barcode no matter what direction it's rotated. That's why supermarkets have the star-shaped scanner light, so the clerk can just zip everything through instead of having to turn each can of peas the right way.

* Camera-based - The newest kind, these use 2D imaging in a form of OCR reading.

* CCD readers - for when you need real accuracy and dense information, these are hundreds of tiny LEDs which practically taste the code instead of just winking at it.

* Laser scanners - the red line bounces off the black and white stripes. You've seen it a million times.

* Pen-type readers. You shine a point of laser light across a stripe of code.

And finally, there's different methods and uses for each of these:

* The pen (sometimes called the wand) is used to carry around and zip off a code here and there. Only used when you don't care about speed.

* Semi-automatic handhelds - Those phaser-shaped ones that beam a line of red light. Point and shoot, cowboy. Used in places where you might have to scan hundreds of codes in an hour - like the grocery store!

* Fixed-mounted readers - Something which you might find at an assembly line or warehouse, mounted on a wall and scanning the code on boxes or shipping containers as they pass by. Also used by things like mail-sorting machines. You know those funny little lines on the envelope when you get your bill in the mail? Those things.

* Reader gates - similar to the last one, but we wanted one more entry here just so our writer gets a hearty paycheck. Reader gates are actually like those supermarket checkstand scanners, and also they use them at places like libraries for checking out materials.

Pick and choose the one that's right for your business. Remember to test it in your business environment to make sure its the kind that will keep your business running efficiently. And be careful to use what you've learned here for good, not evil.