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Resolution of Barcode Scanner |
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The scanner resolution is measured by the size of the dot of light emitted by the reader. If this dot of light is wider than any bar or space in the bar code, then it will overlap two elements (two spaces or two bars) and it may produce wrong output. On the other hand, if a too small dot of light is used, then it can misinterpret any spot on the bar code making the final output wrong. The most commonly used dimension is 13 mils (0.3302 mm). As it is a very high resolution, it is extremely important to have bar codes created with a high resolution graphic application. While cell phone cameras are not suitable for many traditional barcodes, there are 2D barcodes (such as Semacode) which are optimized for cell phones. These open up a number of applications for consumers: - Movies: DVD/VHS movie catalogs
- Music: CD catalogs, play MP3 when scanned
- Book catalogs
- Groceries, nutrition information, making shopping lists when the last of an item is used, etc.
- Personal Property inventory (for insurance and other purposes)
- Calling cards: 2D barcodes can store contact information for importing.
- Brick and mortar shopping: Portable scanners can be used to record items of interest for looking up online at home.
- Coupon management: weeding expired coupons.
- Personal finance. Receipts can be tagged with a barcode label and the barcode scanned into personal finance software when entering. Later, scanned receipt images can then be automatically associated with the appropriate entries. Later, the bar codes can be used to rapidly weed out paper copies not required to be retained for tax or asset inventory purposes.
- If retailers put barcodes on receipts that allowed downloading an electronic copy or encoded the entire receipt in a 2D barcode, consumers could easily import data into personal finance, property inventory, and grocery management software. Receipts scanned on a scanner could be automatically identified and associated with the appropriate entries in finance and property inventory software.
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