If you’re using automation technology like barcode readers in your operations, you’re probably already aware of the benefits that they bring to your business. To name a few: reduced manual labor, faster processes, and reliable data tracking – all resulting in fewer errors and less money invested in corrective actions like rework or recalls.

Now think about the impact that a single barcode has on these processes. When a barcode is clear, high-quality, and readable, your automated processes function as expected, the data you need is appropriately entered into your system, and everyone is happy. However, when an unreadable barcode enters the mix, time and cost savings may be lost due to re-labeling, re-scanning, or even manual entry of barcode data by a human operator – if you don’t miss the barcode data altogether. Ultimately, bad codes counteract the benefits of the automation technology you’ve come to rely on.


When ensuring barcode quality is of the utmost importance, you may choose to add preventative measures to your automated processes – for instance, a verification system. In Microscan’s recent webinar, Ensuring Readable Codes with Machine Vision Verification, we looked at some of the ways good- and bad-quality barcodes may affect automated processes and how a verification system can help...

What would you say if I told you that there is a language that is understood all over the world? What would you say it is? I have heard this question a few times in my life and depending on my mood I might suggest Latin, Esperanto, C++, or HTML as the answer. Other candidates as a lingua franca are Seaspeak, Old High Elvish, and, some would say (sorry mes amis), the English language itself.

There is another candidate in the world of auto ID that may be of particular interest to readers of this blog. This is the standard label format that is being promoted with increasing success by the GS1 standards organization.



First a little background

You are all aware of barcodes – they have been around for thirty years as product identifiers on consumer goods. They revolutionized retail by allowing more advanced inventory control and, most importantly for many of us, by speeding up the check-out line at the supermarket. The process of standardizing retail barcodes was supervised by the Uniform Code Council (UCC) in the US and the European Article Numbering Association (EAN) in Europe. These two organizations managed the issuance of the product codes that show up on everything we buy. In 2002 they merged and in 2005 changed the name of the new global organization to GS1 which stands, rather grandly I think, for Global Standard One.

What is new?

For GS1, which now styles itself as “The International Language of Business” and its national affiliates such as GS1 US, it is onwards and upwards in terms of promotion of standards for auto ID (1D, 2D, and RFID) and for their application in business, trade, and healthcare.

One of the most significant developments promoted by GS1 is the use of a standard set of identifiers to indicate the contents of auto ID codes in shipping and product labels.

The problem being addressed here is the one that might occur if a vendor in Mongolia prepared a carton of yummy (dried) yak meat for shipment to the US – let’s say to a Trader Jim’s warehouse in trendy Seattle. The vendor could label the carton with a code containing his vendor ID, a batch number, a use by date, a sell by date, and the ID of the sustainable and very contented yak herd...

GS1 is an international association dedicated to the development and implementation of global standards to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply-and-demand chains globally and across multiple sectors. You can think of them as the rule-makers who oversee all of these sectors to ensure that employees and their business systems speak a common language.

A GS1 barcode, or GS1 Data Matrix code, is a barcode that uses globally recognized GS1 Identification Keys for unique identification of a product, company, locations, quantities, services and other identifying data related to a product. These ID Keys are numeric strings that must be formatted in accordance with values specified by GS1. Using GS1 standards, a company can format a numeric string containing the necessary ID Keys to identify a particular product within a particular process. This string can then be used to create a barcode for complete product identification. (Learn more about implementing a GS1 barcode.)

GS1 validation is an important quality control step for companies who must conform to GS1 standards. Microscan, for example, provides automation technology to read GS1 barcode and ensure that these codes adhere to the prescribed syntax for a string containing several GS1 ID Keys. In other words, Microscan can make sure that a barcode is formatted properly to convey the correct message. The latest release of our machine vision software platform, AutoVISION 2.0, in particular features a new GS1 syntax validation and parsing option for monitoring GS1 code accuracy. Using a Microscan smart camera such as Vision HAWK or Vision MINI running the AutoVISION software platform, any GS1 code can be validated to meet necessary parameters.

When I attended the GS1 conference last June, I was able to pick up a sample GS1 barcode label from a printer manufacturer exhibitor at the conference. Ironically, I was trying to ask them if there was any synergy between our businesses or any way we two could partner up...

Microscan partner ISW GmbH organized a very successful open house on 13 March 2013 at their premises in Kölln-Reisiek, Germany. Microscan was proud to be part of the program and had the chance to meet with many industry professionals from Germany to discuss new applications for barcode and machine vision in industrial manufacturing and other markets. During the event, the Microscan team gave a presentation about machine vision applications using smart cameras, focusing particularly on our Vision HAWK smart camera and new AutoVISION™ 2.0 machine vision software.



Visitors to ISW GmbH gather for a welcome message at the start of the open house.




My colleague Helmuth Zierer and I take turns presenting Microscan’s corporate overview and automation solutions to the group.
We led two presentations during the day, introducing our company and describing the impact of new innovations in our machine vision line such as new features of AutoVISION machine vision software...

Some of the new features in Microscan’s new AutoVISION™ 2.0 machine vision software are especially beneficial to packaging applications, where conformance to quality standards, accurate labeling, and process efficiency are top objectives. Below are three key AutoVISION applications for food & beverage, consumer goods, and pharmaceutical customers:

1. Inline Verification ensures that every marked part is processed and shipped with legible, high-quality barcodes, ensuring process efficiency and cradle-to-grave legibility. AutoVISION 2.0’s 1D and 2D barcode verification tool evaluates a code’s quality against published verification standards such as ISO 15415, ISO 15416, and AIM DPM. Parameters can be modified for custom validation to ensure consistently readable codes for internal process control or internal/external quality requirements. Verification ensures that no product leaves the factory without a readable symbol...

There is a strict qualification process that determines which food items will make it to your cupboard – and it doesn’t rely solely on your shopping list and good taste! Automated packaging systems today employ a series of highly regulated checkpoints to guarantee the integrity of each and every food product available on the market. These systems have become the norm in the food and beverage industry, where sophisticated machines work autonomously to ensure that your food is packaged quickly and safely. To prevent errors from slipping by unnoticed amid all the hustle and bustle, automated packaging systems rely on data tracking and inspection solutions (like barcode and machine vision technology) to communicate errors back to the line operators or to a centralized system. These technologies perform many functions throughout a packaging line, capturing and processing data at various checkpoints to ensure your can of beans arrives to you properly labeled with the correct contents, free from dents and defects, and thoroughly documented in compliance with important safety regulations...

Those of you who follow the application of auto ID (automatic identification) symbology are likely to recognize the acronym UID. This acronym refers to the program whereby the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) seeks to mark all mission-critical, high-value, and serialized parts with a unique ID (UID) in the form of a distinctive item number encoded in a 2D Data Matrix code, etched or printed directly onto each part.

Close readers of the Microscan catalog will know that Microscan supports this program by offering products in the form of the UID Label and Data Plate (LDP) Verifier and the UID Direct Part Mark (DPM) Verifier – casually referred to as the Coffee Maker and the Espresso Machine.

While the DoD aims to achieve incredible savings by using UID to keep track of their guns, bombs, and rockets, there is now a new initiative from another part of the federal government that aims use some of the same technologies (and the same letters) to improve public health devices and save a few health care dollars: The UDI program...

It’s the start of a new year and Microscan is hitting the ground running! This past season provided us with plenty of momentum to propel us into 2013, including our 2012 “Grand Finale”: a trip around the globe to host at four international tradeshows, exhibiting our latest auto ID (barcode) and machine vision products from Chicago to Shanghai. At these shows, our team had the chance to meet face-to-face with thousands of industry professionals and learn about exciting new projects in automation, data tracking, and quality control.



The first stop on our world tour was Chicago’s PACK EXPO 2012, where technologies for packaging and processing from nearly 1,800 exhibiting suppliers were on display for the over 46,000 attendees of this international show. The Microscan booth was literally buzzing with the activity of over four live demonstrations of packaging inspection and identification. In one very speedy assembly by Microscan Solutions Engineer, Mike Dietzel, Microscan’s Vision HAWK C-mount smart camera was exhibited reading printed text (OCR) from the bottoms of vegetable cans moving at 500 parts per minute!

Watch Microscan’s high speed can inspection demonstration from PACK EXPO in action:


Packaging manufacturers rely on applications like these to ensure with utmost efficiency that food containers are printed with accurate date and lot codes, are traceable throughout their packaging processes, and are batched appropriately for distribution. The Vision HAWK is a powerful packaging solution, not only for its high-speed performance, but also because of its flexibility to mount into tight spaces...

This year, Microscan celebrated its 30th year anniversary, recognizing the diverse legacy we have built through innovation, partnership, and acquisition since our beginnings in 1982. Several of my colleagues have shared their stories from Microscan’s machine vision timeline on this blog, extending back from Siemens Machine Vision (acquired by Microscan in 2008) to ground-breaking innovators like Itran, I.D. Matrix, and Automatix. Now, as one of the original resident “Microscanners,” I would like to commemorate this year with my personal history from my years at this company. My story begins 6 years after Microscan was founded by Mike Mertel, who had just invented a new kind of barcode scanner while working with laser diodes in his basement. This is the Microscan I remember, from its earliest days...

Last month Microscan broadcast a live web event, Beyond Barcodes: Simplified Machine Vision for Electronics, all about doing more with less in electronics manufacturing inspection. Presenters Matt Van Bogart and Steven Moser (from Microscan’s industry-focused electronics solutions team) provided insights on adding simplified machine vision to applications in electronics, without adding the cost or space of additional hardware. In this webinar, the team gave real examples of how electronics companies are now combining barcode reading (or “auto ID”) with simple machine vision tools in compact, single-solution “auto ID+” technologies. Auto ID+ is all about going beyond barcodes – taking the decode capability of today’s barcode readers and imagers and adding a few select and easily deployable machine vision tools to yield one comprehensive hardware solution...