New High Data Capacity Bar Code Spec

Feb. 1, 2008
WARRENDALE, Pa.-AIM Global, the trade association recognized as the worldwide authority on automatic identification and mobility, announced that the public

WARRENDALE, Pa.-AIM Global, the trade association recognized as the worldwide authority on automatic identification and mobility, announced that the public review draft of the International Symbology Specification-Datastrip 2D developed by AIM Global's Technical Symbology Committee (TSC) is available for a 30-day public review.

Datastrip 2D is a variable-size, variable-density two-dimensional symbology offering very high user data capacity at a required minimum level of error-correction and designed for printing on flat surfaces such as cards and to be read under controlled circumstances such as insertion readers.

A predecessor of Datastrip 2D was used in the 1980s to offer machine-readable computer programs in computer magazines. The current symbology has been significantly upgraded and improved. It can encode text, binary and biometric data. It also includes Reed-Solomon error detection and erasure correction algorithms.

According to Richard Strempski of Datastrip,"Datastrip 2D is an ideal candidate symbology for identification documents such as driver's licenses and passports that require machine readable biometric data. It is designed to be easily produced by low-cost printing technologies such as ink jet, laser and plastic card printers."

AIM Global president, Dan Mullen noted, "With increasing demands for machine-readable identity documents, Datastrip 2D offers government agencies and corporate human resource departments another robust means of encoding data in addition to existing options. I congratulate the TSC members for their hard work on this groundbreaking bar code development."

The Public Review process ends March 20. Interested reviewers can download the document for a nominal fee (AIM Global members may download free of charge with login), from the AIM Global Web site at https://www.aimglobal.org/estore/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=580.