Page 12
Glossary
ASCII - American Standard Code for Information
Interchange. A 7 bit plus parity code representing
128 letters, numerals, punctuation marks, and
control characters. It is a standard data transmis-
sion code in the US.
Autodiscrimination - The ability of bar code
reading equipment to recognize and correctly
decode more than one symbology.
Bar Code - An automatic identification technology
which encodes information into an array of varying
width parallel rectangle bars and spaces.
Bar Code Density - The number of data charac-
ters which can be represented in a linear unit of
measure. Bar code density is often expressed in
characters per inch.
CCD (Charged Coupled Device) - A technology
in which scanning is accomplished with an array of
LEDs flooding the bar code with light.
Check Digit - A digit used to verify a correct
symbol code. The scanner inserts the decoded
data into an arithmetic formula and checks that
the resulting number matches the encoded check
digit. Check digits are required for UPC but are
optional for other symbologies. Using check digits
decreases the chance of substitution errors when a
symbol is decoded.
Codabar - A discrete self-checking code with a
character set consisting of digits 0 to 9 and six
additional characters (- $ : / , +).
Code 128 - A high density symbology which
allows the controller to encode all ASCII characters
without adding extra symbol elements.