What is the definition of "Barcode"?
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Posted in: Barcodes
What is the definition of “barcode”?
Barcodes are a technology. Like most things technical, the barcode world has developed a lexicon of its own. Of course this includes a long list of acronyms which make our technical communications faster. But ultimately we serve non-technical people in non-technical occupations. For example, as experts in barcode quality, we deal with graphics designers, printers and corporate quality assurance people, distributors and retailers. Often these people know a something about barcode quality but need help understanding the parameters that control barcode performance—things like “decodability” and “modulation.” And so we help them with the definitions and try to provide them with examples to make it real for them and give them a sense of what to do.
The other day a colleague with years of experience, a respectable technical education and who is still smart asked a brilliant question. She said, “What is the definition of ‘barcode’?” The room went silent for a moment before the responses began.
“A barcode is automatic identification,” somebody offered.
“No, that’s the technology, not the definition,” another objected.
“Barcodes are patterns of lines and spaces that represent something,” a third person reasoned.
“That’s how they look, but not what they are.”
And so it went. After about 30 minutes, with numerous thoughts and ideas proffered, we gave up. What is a barcode? A simple enough question but a room full of people with industry insight and experience couldn’t answer it. A fascinating situation.
We spend day after day, year after years dissecting traditional versus ANSI verification, check digit algorithms, X dimension calculations, concatenation schemes, application identifiers, subset shifts, linear, stacked and now 2D symbologies, and we can’t even define what a barcode is. Fascinating.
Anybody out there ready to offer a definition for a barcode? Not a definition that describes how it works or how it’s used—a true definition that, well, defines what it is.
Any takers?
