Difference between Barcode, QR code and RFID  

What Is A Barcode?

Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver was the first to invent barcode, initially it was based on the dots and dashes of Morse Code. In the 1960s American Railroads started to use barcodes to identify trains, cars etc. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that The barcodes became commercially successful in 1970 and thereafter it has been taken up by supermarkets as a way to quick matching of items at the checkout point which is now universally used today.

A barcode is nothing but a series of black and white lines, each representing a number and obviously each bar code is of different patterns. Once a product arrives at a store, the barcode is coded with a price for that particular product and when a purchase is made at the counter, a laser reads and decodes the code and the price is automatically added to the purchase receipt. This is just one simplest example of how barcodes is used popularly and it is the one we are familiar with.

Barcodes are not that simple as we think. There is seen 12 numbers below a barcode, but when a laser from a scanner scans a barcode it’s actually scanning through a series of 95 evenly spaced columns. As the computer does not understand the pattern of bars, it only understands binary codes such as ones and zeros, so for each of these 95 columns, it either recognizes black as one and white as zero.

After reading all the series of bars, the computer comes up with a number that is 95 digits long, made up entirely of binary codes (i.e ones and zeros).

It is still complex than we think!

The guard in the middle of the bar code divides the 12 numbers into two groups, left part and the right part. In the pattern of bar code there is a chance that the machine reads just reverse of the patterns when it is kept upside down. To get rid of this, it is designed such that the codes on the left always have an odd number of ones and begin with a zero, and the codes on the right part always have an even number and begin with a one.

Historically, a barcode scanner has usually been required to read the information in the barcode, but nowadays, even our smartphone can interpret the barcode.

What Is A Quick Response (QR) Code?

Originally the concept of QR codes was developed in the year 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave Inc. The purpose was to create an efficient way of searching the products on the internet by the help of a smart phone. The product details would reflect in the smart phone on scanning the quick response (QR) code which contains relevant product information. Since then it has become the most popular way for shopping services companies like Amazon, flipcart, Google etc.

A QR Code is a type of 2-dimensional matrix barcode designed to read by smart phones. It can be recognized by its structure, a mixture of black and white squares and dots. It is used in marketing & advertising purposes but also found in retail stores where customers can scan it using their phone cameras to access product details on their mobile devices without having any direct contact with them. Now a day’s payment is done in retails stores through QR code scanning method. A QR code can contain many different types of data such as text information, website URLs, wifi router, email addresses, contact data etc.

What is the difference between bar code and QR code?

Barcodes are usually one dimensional whereas QR Codes are two-dimensional as they have rows and columns that combine to make a grid of modules. For equal size of barcode and QR code, QR codes can contain much more data.

QR codes also have correction abilities whereas barcodes does not have such provision. This means, if the QR code is incomplete due to being covered by dirt or scratches, there is a higher chance that it can still be read, in comparison bar code needs to be read full length of it.

In the context of asset tracking and tagging, QR codes can give superior flexibility and tracking options.

What is RFID?

RFID stands for radio frequency identification. It is a kind of wireless communication that incorporates the use of electromagnetic or electrostatic coupling in the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to identify an object uniquely. It is a small electronic device that consists of a small chip and an antenna in it. RFID serves the same purpose as a magnetic strip which is at the back of a credit card or debit card; it provides a unique identifier for that object. The RFID device has to be scanned to retrieve the information of that object.

RFID tags are now a days very commonly used in warehousing and equipment tracking. Also in product assembling, RFID is prominently used so that correct part is assembled in desired model. It reduces the chance of miscounted inventory.

Now let’s discuss how does a RFID really works?

A RFID system consists of three basic components, a scanning antenna, a transceiver and a transponder. When the scanning antenna and transceiver both are combined together, they are referred to as a RFID reader. It uses radio waves to transmit a signal that activates the tag which is purposefully printed on the object. Once it is activated, the tag sends a wave back to the antenna, where the data is translated.

Comparison between Barcode, QR code & RFID.

1. Barcode is 1 Dimensional; QR Code is 2 Dimensional & RFID can be thought of as 3 Dimensional.

2. Barcode and QR Code are comparatively cost-effective than RFID.

3. Barcode has laser scanner technology, QR Code uses optical scanner & RFID uses radio wave to transfer data.

4. Comparatively barcode has a limited scanning range than QR code but the QR Code has a higher scanning range.

5. At one go, Barcode & QR Code can scan only 1 item whereas RFID can scan multiple items at once.