But what is a barcode? What are the applications? Tips to optimize your use of 3D barcodes.
Barcodes are very useful for tracking and recording information about products. They are most commonly used in the retail industry, but their uses go beyond that. Here’s some information about how to use 3D barcodes for your business.
Barcodes are a series of black bars and white spaces that represent numbers or characters. These codes can be read by special optical scanners called barcode readers, or more commonly these days, by cameras on smartphones. The first such code was designed in 1948 to help keep track of railroad cars, but barcode technology has come a long way since then. Today, there are many different types of barcodes available to help organize information in all sorts of industries, including retail, manufacturing and healthcare.
The most common type of barcode is called a Universal Product Code (UPC), which uses 12 digits to uniquely identify a specific product. Using UPCs allows retailers to keep accurate inventory records and efficiently process transactions at the checkout counter. But UPCs have other uses as well – they can be used to track items through the supply chain from manufacturer to retailer, or they can be used as marketing tools to provide
3D barcodes are all around us. Continue reading to find out more about this technology, what applications it is used for and how you can promote your business with 3D barcodes.
What is a 3D Barcode?
You might call it a QR Code (Quick Response Code), or a UPC Code, or a Data Matrix, but in fact these are all different types of barcodes. A barcode is an image that is made up of lines and spaces that can be read by a special laser scanner.
The first barcode was invented by Norman Joseph Woodland in 1952. It didn’t get much attention until the late 1960s when the supermarket industry started using it. Today, barcodes are used almost everywhere: in warehouses, stores and on consumer products such as candy wrappers and food packages.
Types of Barcodes
There are many different types of barcodes: 1D (1 dimensional), 2D (2 dimensional) and 3D (3 dimensional).
3D barcodes are a new and innovative way to promote your business. The main advantage of this type of barcode is that it can hold much more information than 2D barcodes, which means you can use them in many more applications. You can use 3D barcodes in the same applications as 2D barcodes, but also in many other applications where 2D barcodes would not work.
2D Barcode
2D bar codes are the most common type of bar code today. They were invented in 1974, and were first used commercially in the 1990’s for tracking vehicles during manufacturing (Source: Wikipedia).
3D Barcode
3D barcodes were developed by Dr. Richard Everson from the University of Cambridge (UK) in 2001 (Source: 3DBarcodes.com).
A World Full of Applications
3D barcodes have been used in a variety of ways since they were first developed. Here are some ways that companies have used 3D bar codes:
• Example 1 – Royal Mail (UK) created postcards that had a 3D barcode on them with a link to a web site where people could upload their own photos and messages to friends without having to pay postage.
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A 3D barcode is a three dimensional QR code. It’s a QR code with depth. When you scan the code with your phone, you can hear the information or watch video of your choice. You can create a 3D barcode for free on http://www.3dbarcodes.net/.
A 3D barcode is a useful way to promote your business and differentiate yourself from your competitors. It’s also an effective way to advertise your products on a small surface area, such as business cards or flyers. A 3D barcode also takes up less space than traditional information, but it can still contain more data than traditional text-based codes and therefore provide more information about your products or services.
3D barcodes are perfect for advertising and marketing campaigns because they are easy to use and they allow people to visualize what they are reading. Since the code doesn’t require special equipment, people can easily use their smart phones to scan it and find out what the code is all about. For example, if you’re promoting a new product, you can make a 3D barcode that says “This product will change your life.”
A barcode is a machine-readable code consisting of an array of parallel bars and spaces. The bars represent numbers and/or characters that can be read by a scanner called a barcode reader, also known as a price gun.
3D barcodes are a type of barcode that can store additional information in allowing you to add data with the traditional barcode, in three dimensions!
If you’re still not sure what 3D barcodes are, watch this video to learn more.
Applications:
In the same way that 2D barcodes have today become ubiquitous, 3D Barcodes will soon be everywhere, particularly on products in the food market. Soon we will all be able to scan these 3D Barcodes with our mobile phones.
Barcodes have been around since the 1960’s and have become an indispensable tool for business, government, healthcare and other sectors. Barcodes are the small dark lines you see on almost every product you purchase. Those dark lines contain information about the product that can be read by a barcode reader.
Barcodes make business easier by speeding up inventory movement and collection of other data. They also cut down on errors and reduce manual labor. In short, barcodes make businesses more efficient, which in turn saves money and makes a company more competitive.
3D barcodes take things a step further; they provide even more information than traditional barcodes, plus they are visually appealing so they help promote your brand. 3D barcodes can be used in many different ways including: coupons, loyalty cards, tickets (for concerts, sporting events and amusement parks), galleries to store images, logos or other graphics to display in place of a text label, logo designs and packaging to enhance your company’s branding strategy and much more.
3D Barcode technology is just starting to gain momentum with some mobile devices such as the iPhone being able to scan them without any additional software or hardware. The possibilities are endless…
A barcode, also known as a UPC (Universal Product Code), can be found on almost any product you buy. Barcodes are a series of vertical bars and spaces that represent numbers. In 1974 the grocery industry adopted the Universal Product Code, or UPC barcode, which allows for fast, accurate scanning at the cash register.
3D barcodes are similar in shape to traditional barcodes – a series of vertical bars and spaces – but with an added dimension. Where traditional barcodes give retailers information about product and price, 3D barcodes are designed for consumers to scan with their mobile devices (smartphones) to get additional information about a product or service.
Simply put, 3D barcodes are QR codes enhanced with colors and images. QR codes have been around since 1994, when they were developed by Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota, to track vehicles during the manufacturing process. The term “QR code” is a trademark name but it is often used interchangeably with “3D barcode” or “mobile tag”.
3D barcodes can be scanned using smartphones with camera technology and/or a QR code reader (application). This is done by downloading a reader or scanning app from the app store on your phone. For example