Glossary
AIM Automatic Identification Manufacturers, Inc. is the trade association for
manufacturers of automatic identification systems.
Alphanumeric A character set that contains letters, numbers and other characters such as
special symbols.
Aperture The opening in an optical system defined by a lens or baffle that establishes
the field of view.
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
A 7-bit-plus-parity code representing 128 letters, numerals, punctuation marks,
and control characters. It is a standard data transmission code in the U.S.
Aspect Ratio The ratio of symbol height to symbol length in a 2-dimensional symbol.
Autodiscrimination The ability of an interface controller to determine the code type of a scanned
bar code. After this determination is made, the information content is decoded.
Automatic Identification System The application of various technologies, such as bar code recognition, image
recognition, voice recognition and RF/MW transponders, for the purpose of
data entry into a data processing system and bypassing the key-entry
component of traditional data entry.
Background The area surrounding a printed symbol including the spaces and quiet zones.
Bar The dark element in a printed bar code symbol.
Bar Code An array of parallel rectangular bars and spaces arranged according to the
encodation rules of a particular symbol specification in order to represent data
in machine-readable form (i.e., Code 39).
Bar Code Character A single group of bars and spaces which represent an individual number, letter,
punctuation mark or other symbol.