Introduction - RFID: Fundamentals and Applications in Contactless Smart Cards and Identification - page 3

The barcode is a binary code comprising a field of bars and gaps arranged in a
parallel configuration. They are arranged according to a predetermined pattern and
represent data elements that refer to an associated symbol. The sequence, made up of
wide and narrow bars and gaps, can be interpreted numerically and alphanumerically.
It is read by optical laser scanning, i.e. by the different reflection of a laser beam from
the black bars and white gaps ( ident , 1996). However, despite being identical in their
physical design, there are considerable differences between the code layouts in the
approximately ten different barcode types currently in use.
The most popular barcode by some margin is the EAN code (European Article
Number), which was designed specifically to fulfil the requirements of the grocery
industry in 1976. The EAN code represents a development of the UPC (Universal
Product Code) from the USA, which was introduced in the USA as early as 1973.
Today, the UPC represents a subset of the EAN code, and is therefore compatible with
it (Virnich and Posten, 1992).
The EAN code is made up of 13 digits: the country identifier, the company identifier,
the manufacturer's item number and a check digit (Figure 1.3).
In addition to the EAN code, the following barcodes are popular in other industrial
fields(seeFigure1.4):

• Code Codabar: medical/clinical applications, fields with high safety requirements.

• Code 2/5 interleaved: automotive industry, goods storage, pallets, shipping con-

tainers and heavy industry.

• Code 39: processing industry, logistics, universities and libraries.

1.1.2 Optical character recognition

Optical character recognition (OCR) was first used in the 1960s. Special fonts were
developed for this application that stylised characters so that they could be read both

Country
identifier

Manufacturer's item
number

Company identifier CD

4012345081509

FRG Chocolate Rabbit

100 g

Company Name
1 Road Name
80001 Munich

Figure 1.3 Example of the structure of a barcode in EAN coding

Figure 1.4 This barcode is printed on the back of this topic and
contains the ISBN number of the topic