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From: njgill@ix.netcom.com (Nancy J. Gill)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The Number of the Beast
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 05:25:24 GMT

Jeffrey Nelson / STILL AGIN' <jlnelson@mole.uvm.edu> wrote:

[snip how Jeffrey watched a "really cool video on this, entitled something like "666 and UPC codes" or something.]

>thinbar-thickbar another. Now, in the second set of numbers, the mapping
>for the number 6 is thin-thin. Therefore, every UPC code out there is

>6[whatever]6[whatever]6

>The speaker non-alarmingly quoted and cited Revelations at length and,
>although the verses did not necessarily stick, the claim did...

Jeffrey, the depth of your cluelessness is possibly explained by the source material you are willing to suspend disbelief for.

The following information may be found at: http://www.adams1.com/pub/russadam/upccode.html, and is echoed by every recognized authority on bar-code methodology:

"The Universal Product Code was the first bar code symbology widely adopted. Its birth is usually set at April 3, 1973, when the grocery industry formally established UPC as the standard bar code symbology for product marking. Foreign interest in UPC led to the adoption of the EAN code format, similar to UPC, in December 1976.

There are now five versions of UPC and two versions of EAN. The Japanese Article Numbering (JAN) code has a single version identical to one of the EAN versions with the flag characters set to ``49''.

UPC and EAN symbols are fixed in length, can only encode numbers, and are continuous symbologies using four element widths.

UPC Version A

UPC version A is the basic version of UPC and is usually the version seen on grocery store items. The symbology is used to encode the 10 digit Universal Product Code. An eleventh digit indicates the type of product, and a twelfth digit is a modulo check digit. The symbol is divided into two halves, each containing 5 digits. The two six-digit patterns are surrounded by left, center and right guard patterns. The left six digits use odd parity encodation while the right six digits use even parity encodation.. The first digit is the UPC number system digit related to the type of product (0 for groceries, 3 for drugs, etc.). The next 5 digits are the UPC manufacturer's code. The first five digits of the right half are the product code. The final digit is the check digit. Although UPC A is continuous, the left and right halves of the symbol can be independently decoded.

A digit is coded as a sequence of two bars and two spaces within a space 7 modules wide. Bar and space widths may be 12, 3, or 4 modules wide. This results in 20 possible bar-space combinations. Ten of these patterns are used for the left odd parity digits and ten are used for the right even parity digits. The left digits always start with a space, while the right digits always start with a bar. A typical UPC Version A symbol has center guard bars in the center of the symbol which are longer than the other bars. This divides the symbol into a right and left half. This division allows the symbol to scan in any orientation. The moving beam laser bar code reader in grocery stores produces orthogonal scanning beams either in a cross, starburst, or figure-eight. At least one beam will then pass through each half of the symbol, since the symbol's height is at least equal to half of the length of the symbol.

The height of the symbol should be at least half the length of the symbol. Sometimes the symbol's height is shortened to fit into the design of the package. This truncation of symbol height affects the ability to scan the symbol in any orientation, and will generally reduce the First Pass Read Rate.

UPC Version E

UPC version E is the next most common version of UPC. It is a zero suppression version of UPC. It is intended to be used on packaging which would be otherwise too small to use one of the other versions. The code is smaller because it drops out zeros which would otherwise occur in a symbol. For example, the code 59300-00066 would be encoded as 593663. The last digit (3 in the example) indicates the type of compression. Guard bars precede and follow the data (no middle guard bars). The digits are coded following the parity pattern EVEN, EVEN, ODD, ODD, EVEN, ODD. The data is enclosed between two left-hand guard bars and three right-hand guard bars. The six digit number is always preceeded by a 0 and followed by the check digit. The way the check digit is computed is by expanding the type E to a type A, then doing the regular check.

Version E may include either a 2 digit or a 5 digit supplemental encodation. These extra digits are primarily used on periodicals and books.

        Other UPC Versions
        There are three other versions of UPC. These other versions

are not in wide use.

UPC version B is a special version originally developed to handle the National Drug Code and National Health Related Items Code. It allows for 11 digits plus one product type code. This version does not have any modulo check digit.

UPC version C is a special code designed to promote industry-wide compatibility. The code is 12 digits long with a product type digit and a modulo check sum digit.

UPC version D is a variable message length version of UPC. The symbol must contain at least 12 digits. The first digit is a product type code. This is followed by 10 information carrying digits. The twelfth digit is a modulo check sum, and this is followed by a variable number of digits. "

Nancy J. Gill, Alameda CA
njgill@ix.netcom.com
http://www.ix.netcom.com/~njgill/

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

        Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
        Anglo-American writer