How does a barcode scanner read prices?
Beep Detective
How does a barcode scanner read prices?
You slide a candy bar across the scanner at the checkout. BEEP. The price appears on the screen. But here's the thing — the barcode doesn't contain the price at all. It's a secret number, and the scanner is a detective.
Those black and white stripes on the wrapper are a code — just a number, like 036000291452. That's the candy bar's ID number, its name tag in the store's computer system. The barcode is a way to write that number in a language scanners can read: stripes.
