A set of parallel lines of varied thicknesses and space on products sold in supermarkets. The lines represent alphanumerical characters which can be recognized and interpreted by an optical scanner. The code represented by bars is known as Universal Product Code.
It is specially designed label consisting of closely spaced lines of varying widths which is used to encode a numeric identifier. A typical bar code label measures 1.5 to 2 inches in width and 0.6 to 0.75 inches in height.
On the other hand, State University, New York Upstate Medical Center adopted this system that counted of identification card, plastic book card, and IBM Transmission Card, employing addressograph class 9500 optical code reader, IBM 1440 computer and IBM collator. The system uses one borrower card with different colors for students, faculty and staff. Four lines of data are recorded on each card. A ten-digit number is empossed on the top of the card in numeric and bar code form, which is machine readable, by optical character reader identifying the borrower by category, school, year of graduation or department. Most of the bar codes formats employ a 14 to 16 digit number. Barcode labels which may be affixed to documents or other objects are read by specially designed scanners that interpret the number they represent and transmit them to a computer. Barcode scanner is an optical device used to decode the information present on any document or object.