What is Barcode ? Do you know how does it work, if you don't read this article now to know

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Barcode is basically a machine-readable code; you might have seen it many times on different products or commodity bought from a shopping mall. It looks like a pattern of different lines of different width and some numbers below the line, yes, it is the barcode.

Barcode is used for stock control. There are many useful sides of barcode we will discuss in this article and will tell you how this actually works.

In a very busy store, it is very important to keep track of all the things that are being bought and to make sure it is always available in stock. There are two different ways how a storekeeper can manage it, one is by doing it manually and the second is he could write it down at the time of customer's checkout. The second way is easier than the first one. And yes, barcode technology can help in such conditions. With barcode price can be changed as frequently as the shopkeeper wants.

There is another possibility of things being stolen in a large busy shop, in such cases barcode can really be helpful. With the use of barcode shopkeeper can make sure which item or items are stolen. So, then they can move such items to a secure place and can protect them with RFID tags. If you don't know what RFID tags are please google it to get information in detail. This is basically Radio Frequency tags that help to protect things. It is a chip that gets activated with the incoming radio waves and this radio waves activate the chip.

Now let's get into the topic of how does a barcode work. Barcode may look complicated when you look at it, but the concept is very easy. First look at the image below:

To understand how it works first look at the picture and try to understand it. Here number 1 is represented with two white stripes, two black stripes, two white stripes and one black stripes. In the same way number 2 is represented with two white stripes, one black stripe, two white stripes and two black stripes. In this way each digit is given the same horizontal space. You have probably noticed that barcodes can be quite long and that is because they have to represent three different types of information. The first part of barcode tells you the country where it is issued from, next part tells manufacturer of that product, and the last part tells you about the product.

If you compare two different barcodes of different products you can see they both look totally different from each other. That is why when a barcode scanner device shines laser or LED onto the barcode it easily identifies the product identity price rate of discount etc. The reading from the barcode scanner then go to the computer or system attached to it in binary form (1001101010).

Thank you for reading this article :)