How do barcodes and scanners even work?

Video Description

Barcodes are everywhere. But, what do they actually mean? And better yet, how on earth is a laser capable of reading one? Let’s find out! Check out my brother's shop here: https://lovettsundries.com/ And check out Adam's article here: https://hackaday.com/2015/11/02/the-eloquence-of-the-barcode/ If you want to support the channel please hop over to Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/usagielectric Also, we now have some epic shirts for sale! https://my-store-11554688.creator-spring.com Come join us on Discord! Discord: https://discord.gg/p7UsfHD Thanks for watching! Chapters 0:00 I nerd-sniped myself on this one… 1:09 The history of barcodes and scanners 8:02 The main parts of a barcode 10:14 The encoding of the UPC barcode 14:59 The Symbol LS-7000 (CM) 15:46 A look at the inside of a barcode scanner 19:54 A short physics lesson on HeNe lasers 25:58 How do these random components read a barcode? 28:04 How does the computer know what it’s seeing? 30:45 Taking the barcode scanner for a test drive 36:31 Bunny!