PERFORMANCE TESTING OF HAND HELD SCANNERS FOR TWO DIMENSIONAL BAR CODE SYMBOLOGIES

In this paper, a suite of standard tests are presented to measure the decode time of hand held scanners. These tests were applied to a PDF417 two-dimensional bar code symbol, and used to compare the performance of five newly developed hand-held scanners. The tests focused on the following factors that typically affect decode time: lighting conditions, reading distance, orientation angles of the scanner, and use of the scanners in a typical freehand application. Results show the tests to be a valid means for comparing performance of differing hand-held scanner technologies typically used for two-dimensional symbologies.