Sometimes when I’ve received packages from something other than USPS (like UPS), that there is a speckled code surrounding something looking like a bull’s-eye.
What is the significance of this?
UPS already uses a bar code, so what does this other code to, and what do you call it?
It is a two dimensional bar code. It has some special error-correcting encoding properties that make it readable even if large parts of it are damaged.
Rick
NO, it’s a target and the speckles are pen tip marks dropped from about 3 feet.
We live in an age that reads to much to be wise, and thinks too much to be beautiful–Oscar Wilde
I work at UPS, and this is what I have been told. The Bullseye barcodes are for special, automatic, sorters… apparently some UPS facilities have robots that move the packages to the proper belts for sorting, and the bullseye code contains all of the necessary information about where it is from and where it is going.
The standard UPS barcode only contains a package ID number, and whether the package is 1day, 2day, 3day, or ground.
– Karl Butcher
Y2K compliant since 1836
So much for UPS technology; last month, I ordered something from South Carolina, and I asked for the UPS tracking number. From the UPS site, I could track its progress across country. Then it took a two day detour to Indiana, which was noted in the UPS tracking report as “Parcel Misdirected”. It’s a good thing it wasn’t my Teacup Monkey…
TT
“Believe those who seek the truth.
Doubt those who find it.” --Andre Gide
How’s this for UPS “tracking”: a friend at work was to receive a package from Virginia (we’re in Savannah). The package went to Washington DC, Baltimore, somewhere in VA, Jacksonville, FL, Atlanta, and finally arrived in Savannah. However, the day it arrived, the “tracking” website had it being received in New Jersey!
Somebody’s lost track of the OP here. Maybe it’s in NJ by now.
Ray (Isn’t a bar code what cocktail waitresses use?)
Mjollnir: Sometimes when I’ve received packages from something other than USPS (like UPS), that there is a speckled code surrounding something looking like a bull’s-eye.
What is the significance of this?
UPS already uses a bar code, so what does this other code to, and what do you call it?
That is a bar code standard, and can contian a lot more information than a linier line bar code.
There’s a 2-D barcode standard called PDF417 which my company built decoders for (just before we got out of the barcode business) which can encode up to 1 KB in a barcode about 2 inches square. It’s really caught on for encoding relatively large databases on small cards; look for it on your Citizen ID card soon !
UPS’s symbology I recall is called Maxicode, and is unique to UPS.
I’m sure that the major barcode vendors make decoders for it (Accusort is the leader, I expect) but it’s not used generally in industry. It’s purpose in life is not high data density but rather resistance to data loss or corruption by smudging, tearing, etc.
“It ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive”
Bruce Springsteen