Universal Product Code

From Free net encyclopedia

UPC or (Universal Product Code) is one of a wide variety of bar code languages called symbologies. The UPC was the original barcode widely used in the United States and Canada for items in stores. The first item to be placed under a UPC scanner in a retail store was a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, on June 26, 1974.

1 History
2 Current Code
3 All countries codes
4 Representation
5 Expansion
6 External links

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History

Wallace Flint proposed an automated checkout system in 1932 using punch cards. [1] Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver patented a bullseye style code in 1952 and the first commercial use of barcodes was in 1966.[2] For a more detailed history see: Barcodes

In 1970 Logicon Inc. created the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code (UGPIC). In 1970 it was used by Monarch Marking in the United States and Plessey Telecommunications in the United Kingdom.[3] (a consulting firm) in conjunction with UGPCC

A group of grocery industry trade associations formed the Uniform Grocery Product Code Council which with McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm, defined the predecessor to the Uniform Product Code. In 1973 George J. Laurer developed the Universal Product Code.[4]

In 1974, a pack of Wrigley's gum was the first item scanned with a UPC.

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Current Code

Image:UPC EANUCC-12 barcode.png

The UPC (now officially EAN.UCC-12) encodes twelve digits as SLLLLLLMRRRRRRE, where S (start) and E (end) are the bit pattern 101, M (middle) is the bit pattern 01010 (called guard bars), and each L (left) and R (right) are digits, seven bits long each. This is a total of 95 bits. The bit pattern for each numeral is designed to be as little like the others as possible, and to have no more than four 1s or 0s in order. Both are for reliability in scanning.

The UPC is only numerals, with no letters or other characters. The first L digit is 0 for ordinary items, 3 for pharmaceuticals, 2 for random-weight items, and 5 for coupons (though stores often ignore this and use 000000 or 999999). The rest of L is the manufacturer code. The first five R digits are the product code assigned by the manufacturer. The last digit R is a check digit, so that errors in scanning or manual entry can be detected. In the UPC-A system, the check digit is calculated as follows:

Add the digits in the odd-numbered positions (first, third, fifth, etc.) together and multiply by three.
Add the digits in the even-numbered positions (second, fourth, sixth, etc.) to the result.
Subtract the result from the next-higher multiple of ten. The answer is the check digit.

For instance, a UPC-A barcode "03600029145X" where X is the check digit, X can be calculated by adding the odd-numbered digits (0+6+0+2+1+5 = 14), multiplying by three (14 × 3 = 42), adding the even-numbered digits (42+3+0+0+9+4 = 58) and subtracting from the next-higher multiple of ten (60 - 58 = 2). The check digit is thus 2.

Pharmaceuticals in the U.S. have the remainder of the UPC as their National Drug Code (NDC) number. Random-weight items, such as meats and fresh fruits and vegetables, are assigned a UPC by the store if they are packaged there. In this case, the LLLLL is the item number, and the _RRRR is either the weight or the price, with the first R determining which. Likewise, coupons are supposed to have the coupon code in LLLLL, the amount to be taken off in _RRRR, and whether that amount is a percent or a literal amount encoded in the first R.

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All countries codes

The first 3 digits of the bar code of any product you buy represents the country.

000 - 019 USA & Canada
020 - 029 reserved for local use (store/warehouse)
030 - 039 USA & Canada
040 - 049 reserved for local use (store/warehouse)
050 - 059 Coupons
060 - 139 USA & Canada
200 - 299 reserved for local use (store/warehouse)
300 - 379 France
380 Bulgaria
383 Slovenija
385 Croatia
387 BIH (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
400 - 440 Germany
450 - 459 Japan
460 - 469 Russian Federation
470 Kyrgyzstan
471 Taiwan
474 Estonia
475 Latvia
476 Azerbaijan
477 Lithuania
478 Uzbekistan
479 Sri Lanka
480 Philippines
481 Belarus
482 Ukraine
484 Moldova
485 Armenia
486 Georgia
487 Kazakhstan
489 Hong Kong
490 - 499 Japan
500 - 509 UK
520 Greece
528 Lebanon
529 Cyprus
531 Macedonia
535 Malta
539 Ireland
540 - 549 Belgium & Luxembourg
560 Portugal
569 Iceland
570 - 579 Denmark
590 Poland
594 Romania
599 Hungary
600-601 South Africa
608 Bahrain
609 Mauritius
611 Morocco
613 Algeria
619 Tunisia
621 Syria
622 Egypt
624 Libya
625 Jordan
626 Iran
627 Kuwait
628 Saudi Arabia
629 Emirates
640 - 649 Finland
690 - 695 China
700 - 709 Norway
729 Israel
730 - 739 Sweden
740 Guatemala
741 El Salvador
742 Honduras
744 Costa Rica
745 Panama
746 Republica Dominicana
750 Mexico
754 - 755 Canada
759 Venezuela
760 - 769 Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera
770 Colombia
773 Uruguay
775 Peru
777 Bolivia
779 Argentina
780 Chile
784 Paraguay
786 Ecuador
789 - 790 Brasil
800 - 839 Italy
840 - 849 Spain
850 Cuba
858 Slovakia
859 Czech
860 YU (Serbia & Montenegro)
865 Mongolia
867 North Korea
869 Turkey
870 - 879 Netherlands
880 South Korea
884 Cambodia
885 Thailand
888 Singapore
890 India
893 Vietnam
899 Indonesia
900 - 919 Austria
930 - 939 Australia
940 - 949 New Zealand
950 Head Office
955 Malaysia
958 Macau
977 Serial publications (ISSN)
978 - 979 Bookland (ISBN)
980 Refund receipts
981 - 982 Common Currency Coupons
990 - 999 Coupons

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Representation

In the barcode, each number is represented by two bar and space configurations. One configuration is used in the "L" digits, while another is used in the "R" digits. This is done so that the barcode can be scanned forwards or backwards, and the scanner can determine from which direction the code is being scanned so that it can be registered correctly. If it were not for this, products could easily be registered incorrectly.

Each digit has four forms, of which two are used in UPC-A and three in EAN. For instance, the number 6 can be encoded as:

0101111 (In the left half of a UPC-A barcode)
1010000 (In the right half of a UPC-A barcode)
0000101 (In an EAN barcode)
1111010 (unused)

The first and second forms are the one's complement of each other, as are the third and fourth.

The (L) codes for the ten digits are:

0: 0001101
1: 0110011
2: 0011011
3: 0111101
4: 0100011
5: 0110001
6: 0000101
7: 0111011
8: 0001001
9: 0010111

The (R) codes are simply the one's complement of the (L) codes. All left-side digits have odd parity, while all right-side digits have even parity.

Company Prefixes are assigned by a GS1 Member Organization, which is now using longer company codes (with shorter item codes) for smaller companies.

If you want to read barcodes yourself and not need to count one, zero, zero, one..., or have to memorize those, there is an easier "code" to reading barcodes. The bars and spaces in barcodes have four different lengths, or values. A digit in a UPC barcode consists of two spaces and 2 bars, the lengths of the digit always equalling seven. The lengths can be called 1, 2, 3 and 4. 1 is the thinnest, 2 is twice as wide as 1, 3 is as wide as three 1 bars, and 4 is the widest, equal to four 1 bars, or two 2 bars.

(L) codes:
   0 : 3-2-1-1
   1 : 1-2-2-2
   2 : 2-2-1-2
   3 : 1-4-1-1
   4 : 1-1-3-2
   5 : 1-2-3-1
   6 : 4-1-1-1
   7 : 1-3-1-2
   8 : 3-1-2-1
   9 : 2-1-1-3

For example, let's say the first digit in a barcode, after the 1-1-1 start code, is one. You would see a space 2 long, a bar 2 long, a space 2 long and a bar 1 long. After the first six digits, there are five 1's (space bar space bar space), this is to make sure the barcode ends in a bar, not a space. After that, the digits on the right start with a bar and end with a space, the inverse of the digits on the left. Then the ending 1-1-1 sequence, which is bar-space-bar again.

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Expansion

EAN was developed as a superset of UPC, adding an extra digit to the beginning so that there would be plenty of numbers for the entire world. The prefix digit 0 has been reserved for UPC, and in fact the Uniform Code Council has mandated all retail systems be able to recognize both UPC and EAN by January 1,2005. This means that products marked with an EAN will be accepted in the US and Canada in addition to those products already marked with a UPC. Any product marked with a UPC does not have to be remarked with an EAN. In addition, this also expands the numbers available for the U.S. and Canada by 50%, adding 10 to 13 to the 00 to 09 (0 to 9 in UPC) already in use.

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