How do you read this type of square barcode? What reads it, and why do I find it in such innocuous places. It’s on my medical supplies at work, as well as the shampoo in my shower, albiet both of them very small. Can anyone give me a good skinny on this?
It’s called PDF417. It’s used to store a larger amount of information than a 1D barcode, like UPC or Code 39. It’s read by laser scanners, similar to ones used to read 1D barcodes and sometimes optically, using a CCD camera.
Looks like the kind of barcode I see all the time here that the camera on my mobile phone can recognize. Depending on what it codes for, it will direct you to a web page or input a number for you. Usually it’s for a web page.
Actually, I think the linked image is a format called Data Matrix.
PDF417 is a different symbology.