Image
EAN-13	0085391145356
UPC-A	085391145356
Product Name	Cowboys
Category	Electronics / Photography: A/V Media: Movie
Short Description	Weight:0.25 pounds
Amazon.com	Buy on Amazon ~ B000O599WQ
SKU	MON0000001894
Model	2231872
Price New	7.75 US Dollars    (curriencies)
Price Used	2.21 US Dollars    (curriencies)
Rating	PG - Parental Guidance Suggested
IMDb
Run Time	134 minutes
Aspect Ratio	2.20:1
Cast	Bruce Dern, Colleen Dewhurst, John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, Slim Pickens
Genre	Action/Adventure
Run Time	134 minutes
Width	5.5 inches    (convert)
Height	0.5 inches    (convert)
Length	7.75 inches    (convert)
Weight	35 hundredths pounds    (convert)
Binding	DVD
Format	Multiple Formats, AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Published	09/05/1999
Run Time	134 minutes
Features	Shrink-wrapped
Similar Items	9780778603597: John Wayne Double Feature 5060144218582: John Wayne-Triple Pack 4250282100585: Ringo (John Wayne) [Import allemand] 0883929331307: 4 Film Favorites John Wayne 0722306877215: John Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder, The Shootist and El Dorado - 3 Films starring John Wayne 0097361244846: In Harm's Way / Donovan's Reef 0032429271471: True Grit 0032429268105: Shootist 0017153213218: John Wayne Collection, Vol. 2 0011301613165: Dead Man's Revenge
Created	05-22-2010
Modified	05-31-2019 10:21:33am
MD5	033258d58e79be324d348c8e54c1d941
SHA256	d7350d154d0f449d545889dc4e89843f79ac683dc3dcfa0beb58d9babec3252d
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Article of interest

Barcodes are a graphical representation of information that can be easily read by machines. People read text easy enough but machines find this to be too complex so we use barcodes to simplify the process.

Barcodes can store numbers, letters and all the special characters. What can be stored in the barcode depends on which type of barcode is being used. But the basics of how a barcode works is the same regardless of what type of code it is, what information is stored in the barcode or what type of scanner is being used.

It all starts with the scan. The scanner, regardless of which type you are using, will examine the barcode image. The lines (or blocks in the case of 2D barcodes) will either reflect or absorb light. When we look at the barcode, we tend to see the dark stripes and think of those as the important parts. Those are the parts that absorb the light and the white parts reflect the light. So the scanners tend to see the barcodes in reverse of how we think of them. But the dark and light portions of the code on their own don't automatically become the information stored in the code. In most cases, it is the relative placement and size of each dark and light stripe (or block) that make up the information. There are also special markers that help the scanner know which direction the barcode is facing when it is scanned. This allows the scanning process to work even if the barcode is upside down when it is scanned. The scanner simply processes the scanned data in reverse in this case.

Taking a look at an oscolloscope screen as a scanner passes over barcode, you can see that the stripes reflect back light and the scanner registers the changes as high and low levels. So what looks like a simple image is really a rather complex set of layered encryption to store the data. The encryption isn't done to hide the information in this case. Instead it is done to make it easy for the machine to read the information. Since the base language of machines is binary (1 and 0) it is easy for them to read this type of information even if it takes several steps to turn this back into something that people can understand.

The size of each high and low are combined to make binary data. A series of 1 (one) and 0 (zero) values which are strung together then decoded into the actual information. Up to this point, the process is the same for all barcodes regardless of how they are stored. Getting the lines or dots into binary is the easy part for the machine. The next step is to make this binary code into something useful to people. That step depends on  which type of barcode is being scanned. Each type of barcode has its own encoding methode. Just like human languages, what seems to be two similar words (or barcodes in this case) could actually be two very different values even though they have the same basic letters (or bars).

So you can see that the scanning devices need to know not only how to turn the bars or dots into binary, but after they have done that they need to know how to turn that binary string into the original information. But regardless of the encoding process the basic steps are the same. Process the light and dark areas, convert them to binary, decode the binary, pass the information on to the receiving device which is normally a computer program of some sort.

Once the decoded data reaches the computer program, there is no telling how the information is to be used. The grocery store will use the information to keep track of the products you purchased as you go through the register. A manufacturer will use the code to identify where they are storing their parts. And shipping companies use the codes to keep track of the packages they are delivering.

Now that you know a little about the mechanical portion of the process, take some time to learn about the different types of barcode scanners and the different ways the information can be encoded into barcodes.