barcode

A barcode is an optical, machine-readable, representation of data; the data usually describes something about the object that carries the barcode. Originally barcodes systematically represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or one-dimensional (1D). Later two-dimensional (2D) codes were developed, using rectangles, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns in two dimensions, usually called barcodes although they do not use bars as such. Barcodes originally were scanned by special optical scanners called barcode readers. Later applications software became available for devices that could read images, such as smartphones with cameras.

Barcodes became commercially successful when they were used to automate supermarket checkout systems, a task for which they have become almost universal. Their use has spread to many other tasks that are generically referred to as automatic identification and data capture (AIDC). The very first scanning of the now ubiquitous Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode was on a pack of Wrigley Company chewing gum in June 1974.

Other systems have made inroads in the AIDC market, but the simplicity, universality and low cost of barcodes has limited the role of these other systems until technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID) became available after 2000. The followings some of the numbers which depicts the various countries: -

00-13: USA & Canada
20-29: In-Store Functions
30-37: France
40-44: Germany
45: Japan (also 49)
46: Russian Federation
471: Taiwan
474: Estonia
475: Latvia
477: Lithuania
479: Sri Lanka
480: Philippines
482: Ukraine
484: Moldova
485: Armenia
486: Georgia
487: Kazakhstan
489: Hong Kong
49: Japan (JAN-13)
50: United Kingdom
520: Greece
528: Lebanon
529: Cyprus
531: Macedonia
535: Malta
539: Ireland
54: Belgium & Luxembourg
560: Portugal
569: Iceland
57: Denmark
590: Poland
594: Romania
599: Hungary
600 & 601: South Africa
609: Mauritius
611: Morocco
613: Algeria
619: Tunisia
622: Egypt
625: Jordan
626: Iran
64: Finland
690-692: China
70: Norway
729: Israel
73: Sweden
740: Guatemala
741: El Salvador
742: Honduras
743: Nicaragua
744: Costa Rica
746: Dominican Republic
750: Mexico
759: Venezuela
76: Switzerland
770: Colombia
773: Uruguay
775: Peru
777: Bolivia
779: Argentina
780: Chile
784: Paraguay
785: Peru
786: Ecuador
789: Brazil
80 – 83: Italy
84: Spain
850: Cuba
858: Slovakia
859: Czech Republic
860: Yugoslavia
869: Turkey
87: Netherlands
880: South Korea
885: Thailand
888: Singapore
890: India
893: Vietnam
899: Indonesia
90 & 91: Austria
93: Australia
94: New Zealand
955: Malaysia
977: International Standard Serial Number for Periodicals (ISSN)
978: International Standard Book Numbering (ISBN)
979: International Standard Music Number (ISMN)
980: Refund receipts
981 & 982: Common Currency Coupons

99: Coupons