Originally developed to track moving railroad cars and their cargo, barcodes are now widely used for product inventory and serial number tracking. Among the most common types is the UPC code, used by manufacturers and retail stores to manage inventory. How a company can get it, what types there are and how universal product code works, read the blog from Priceva by https://priceva.com/blog/product-codes - pricing platform that helps online stores and brands to track prices, reduce & automate pricing.

Barcodes are scanned using a variety of methods, from simple point-and-point scanners to hand-held guns to sophisticated point-of-sale scanners. These scanners use laser beams to read the reflection of a bar code, translating it into a series of binary digits through a self-timed serial data stream.

Key elements of a barcode include a start code, data (usually up to 12 digits), a checksum for error checking, and a stop code. Scanners identify start and stop codes to read the entire barcode, beeping on successful reads and beeping on unsuccessful attempts.

While linear barcodes have been the standard for many years and have limited information capacity, two-dimensional codes such as QR or VR codes offer expanded data storage and require image processing on computers. These codes often contain Internet URLs for quick access to web pages and are found on product labels, magazine advertisements and airline tickets, and can be decrypted using smartphones.