There are a number of applications that a 2D barcode can be used across various industries.
2D barcodes can bring a lot of value to retailers, a good example is their use within grocery stores who could add 2D barcodes. For example, to their meat products which means they can add a lot more information in the barcodes such as expiry date and batch information which in turn could support the reduction in the amount of product recalls, food wastage and selling goods that are expired.
There are a lot of synergies between Healthcare and Manufacturing when it comes to 2D barcodes, For example, 2D barcodes can be used for traceability of pharmaceuticals and authentication but on top of that barcodes can be etched into metal so the 2D barcodes could be etched into. For example, a stent in healthcare or a very small metal item in manufacturing, so it can assist in traceability.
Often warehouses are getting products coming in with 2D barcodes already on them so if they have a small parcel. For example, it may have a 2D barcode displayed on the delivery label and the barcode and information can be easily scanned and parsed immediately without connecting to any backend or third party systems.
In pharmaceuticals, they tend to have very small containers and you can fit a 2D barcode in a very small spot so you can get a lot of information into a small space and the kind of information you can get such as a serial number, batch information, product description and even a URL from which you could look up more information on that product.
There are a lot of benefits to the supply chain as a result of having access to that information. When it comes to scanning those barcodes. Traditionally, there were 1D laser scanners which were designed for scanning the 1D barcodes so it was a laser line that went across every line of the barcode and would decode that barcode.
With society changing, we are all carrying out mobile phones around with us and now we see mobile barcodes on our phones for various reasons and this is another advantage of 2D imagers as they can scan off backlit devices, such as mobile phones. Traditional 1D laser scanners cannot scan off a backlit device so a 2D imager has an additional advantage and if you think about the example of checking out at a supermarket, you have probably got your points card on your phone so you have a barcode and you want to be able to scan that quickly when you check out and that is where a 2D imager can help.