Everyone is familiar with the barcode its been around since for years. The square or rectangular image consists of a series of black lines or squares and white spaces (of varying sizes). These combinations can be read by a scanner to quickly identify the object they are attached to.
Barcodes are used in numerous verticals, from retail stores selling every kind of product imaginable, to warehouses where inventory can be quickly tracked with a barcode scanner, to invoicing for rapid scanning of data that could take pages to delineate, to the transport and delivery service where codes can track items from manufacturing through packaging and on to delivery.
The Evolution of Barcodes
One dimensional, or 1D barcodes are the ones commonly seen used to store basic text information, including product type, size, and color. These are also regularly referred to as universal product codes (UPC) used on product packaging. Simplified, they represent a string of numbers (usually printed below the UPC code in numeric form on the sticker or packaging) that denote the manufacturer and item. For high-quality packaging solutions, consider using printing Lynchburg services to ensure your products are professionally labeled and easily recognizable.
2D barcodes are much more complex, and can add additional levels of information such as price, quantity, and even an image, and can be printed in very small sizes and etched into products if desired. Linear barcode scanners cant read them, though smartphones and tablets with imaging capability will which is why rugged tablets are becoming so popular as barcode scanning devices.
Rugged Tablets Add Speed to the Scanning Process
An area in which barcode scanning has seen major advances is speed. Differences as low as a tenth of a second can make a huge difference in scan performance.This becomes important in situations where employees doing repetitive scanning at high speed need tools that will keep up and exceed expectations and rugged tablets can meet the challenge.
Higher productivity, efficiency and profit, can be expected when tools are as fast as possible and there is no wasted time between scans. The rugged tablet which is equipped with a barcode scanner can eliminate many issues common with older scanners, including a very narrow range of use in regard to distance from the code being scanned, difficulty in scanning if the device is not held perfectly still or at the precise angle, and inability to scan both 1D and 2D codes.
Top Two Benefits of Newer Barcode Scanners
The latest rugged tablets with barcode scanning capability have two major features that can benefit users especially in situations when a handheld device is the optimal choice. The first benefit is provided by the image scanning software built in to newer 2D scanners instead of having to drag the beam of light across the barcode to read it literally, the scanner simply takes and image and decodes it.
The second benefit relies on the fact that newer rugged tablets with barcode scanning tech have motion dampeners built in so even if the tablet is not held perfectly motionless, codes can still be read and the data captured. The lower motion sensitivity makes the tablet usable even in situations such on shipboard, where movement is a given, or while on the move in a warehouse.
Rugged tablets can be barcode scanners of the future, making tasks easier for all those who require the ability to quickly and effectively scan for information.