CodeVISION: how the recognition and control of a barcode takes place

Among the peculiarities of the CodeVISION barcode recognition and control system, there is certainly the control of lot, line, production date and expiry date on food packages.

Barcodes can be checked both on a continuous belt (e.g. flowpack) and on single packs. The speed can be variable, even of many meters per minute and the "still image" is guaranteed by an image acquired by a shooting system that makes use of powerful high intensity LED stroboscopic lamps. The system is designed to acquire a very high definition area of ​​about 120x80 mm but it is possible to work, on request, even on larger dimensions.

The layout of the system can be represented as in the following figure, from which the consistency of the supply and the position of the various components can be obtained.

The machine board panel can be positioned in the immediate proximity of the reading head (barcode reader). The camera, the illuminator power supplies, the notch sensor and the power supply circuit will be connected to it. The shooting cabinet (the acquisition head) will be positioned at a very short distance from the film (10 mm) and can be anchored to a support through a fixing plate. The same goes for the notch sensor, positioned about 20 mm from the film and anchored to a support that allows movement:

• in "machine direction" with a range that allows the different lengths of the bags produced to be acquired in the process;
• in "cross direction", with a range that can cover all the widths of the bags produced.

The supply will be comprehensive of everything needed to make the solution operational, with the exception of mechanical supports which, obviously, will be evaluated case by case, according to the layout of the machine on which the system will work.

The powerful features of High Resolution Cameras and the power of LED lighting in barcode control.

In the standard version of the barcode scanner, a high resolution camera of 1,296 x 960 pixels is used, with which it is possible to acquire, thanks above all to a LED lighting optimized for the purpose, at high power and high frequency, images free from reflex-with-processing.

The recognition of characters made with dots is very complex and requires algorithms optimized for the purpose, with a high self-learning capacity. The camera used is a high-resolution camera of 1296x960 pixels, with high-power, high-frequency LED lighting "encapsulated" inside the camera cabinet, shown below, which acts as their support and shelter from external light. The barcode reader computer can also be external or inserted inside the machine board panel.