The Methodology of UPC Bar Codes

Have you always been curious to know how the bar codes that appear gibberish to us, actually work?

Go through your kitchen cabinet or refrigerator and on most of the items you will find zebra striped codes. Doesn't it rattles your mind as to what does it signify and where does it come from?

Well the answer is that a bar code is an optical machine-readable representation of data that represents data in the widths (lines) and the spacings of parallel line.

The UPC (Universal Product Code) on the other hand is one specific type of bar code among many others. They are incorporated to identify retail items or its products and comprise of two parts. The first is the machine readable bar code, that consists of several bars. The second part is the human readable numbers that one can find at the bottom of the UPC. The first six digit of the numbers is the manufacturer identification number and the rest are the item member. The person positioned by the manufacturer needs to ensure that the same code is not used for more than one item.

In fact, by looking at different UPC labels one can know which set of bars are associated with which number and then decoding them becomes very easy. They can be read by optical scanners, better known as bar code readers. When the bar code is run across a scanner, the scanner picks up the bar code by reading the spaces between them. It then transfers the information to the computer or the device attached. The computer further matches the records already stored with the bar code reading. The computer records may contain such information as price, number of items available, and other relevant information.

The numbers on the bar code play a very important role in the functioning of the UPC. The first six digits are the manufactures number that is allotted by UCC (Uniform Code Council). The next five numbers are specific item's identification number. The last digit is the check digit that lets the scanner know if the UPC code was scanned in correctly, thus helping the scanner to retain the price and other details of the product, correctly.
The benefits of using UPC in retail markets and various other places are many. Firstly it helps the manufacturer as well as the customers, a lot in keeping the price more accurate as it avoids one to indulge in manual calculation. By scanning, the chances of error is extremely minimal. It is also acts auxiliary in keeping the company or store cognizant as to how much of an item is still in stock with them, hence aid them in keeping their inventory updated.

Each time the scanner scans an item, it not only performs impeccable calculation but when the check digit it calculates is different from the check digit it reads, the scanner gets to know that something id wrong and the item needs to be rescanned. It is this advantage that has made UPC bar code readers ubiquitous everywhere in the markets.

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