Analog-to-digital data conversion found a new use in the real world when the UCLA engineers designed a bar code reader that has been clocked at nearly a thousand times faster than any bar code reading device currently on the market.The technique was developed by the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, at UCLA. It has the potential to allow for real world scanning system to take on lengthier and more complex scans in real time. These scans have a variety of potential commercial applications ranging from:
- Increased accuracy in retail scanners.
- Faster scanning when shipping packages.
- More data easily accessible to hospitals and paramedics who are transfusing blood.
- Easier storage on records.
- erpetually rolling inventory for warehouses.
The new scanners are to be known as the CWEETS Scanner (chirped wavelength electronic encoded time domain sampling. CWEETS requires no camera, or mirrors like the traditional scanners you would find in a grocery store, and also has no moving parts. This reduces the chances of a breakdown in the machinery, and in addition to increased accuracy, lower repair and operations costs.
For those of you who are interested in reading the research directly it was published in the Sept. 29 edition of the journal Applied Physics Letters.
