John Pickering - 26 September, 2000

Re: barcodes + rogadines

Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 19:06:31 -0400
To: "John T. Longino" 
From: John Pickering 
Subject: Re: barcodes + rogadines
Cc: msharkey@byron.ca.uky.edu

Jack,

Thanks for your inquiry about barcodes.  Generally good news.  I've spent
most of my summer developing a new and improved solution.  I even visited
Intermec to get their help.  I'm nearly there on most fronts.  If
everything continues on tract, I'll have a fantastic solution ready for
testing late this fall and plan to wow everybody at ECN.

I'm fine tuning a new label that employs data matrix symbols.  Go to
 to get an idea of what it looks like.  Follow links
under "Labels" and then "Overview."   What you see is where I was about a
month ago.  The symbol is now somewhat smaller.  Bottom line, I can print
"all-in-one" labels that combine a conventional label and a unique symbol
into a single INBIO-sized label.

I'm writing a Web interface for a database that will allow authorized users
to format globally unique labels via their browser and print them on
Web-based printers.  My ultimate goal is then to allow any authorized user
to use the Web to associate additional data with the labels, such as info
on determinations, and for the general public to retrieve what we wish to
disseminate.

Some hurdles still exist before I have a complete solution that will work
for everyone.  While I can read the new labels very, very quickly with a
1470 imager on my UNIX box, it will be next year before Mac and Wintell
users will be able to do the same -- unless they are willing to write a
software interface for the 1470, which unfortunately doesn't come with a
keyboard wedge interface.  Sometime around March, Intermec plans to have a
new USB imager that will solve this problem and make reading the labels
possible on machines with USB ports without writing any software.

Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.  If you like, I
could send you some samples.  I also have some gummed labels for slides and
vials in a formative stage.  Ideally, I'd like you to be a beta test site
early next year.

Mike just wrote to me about getting more ALAS rogadines from your mountain
transect.  Delighted.  I'm planning on it.  Thanks.

Cheers,
Pick







>Pick,
>
>You there? How's life?
>
>It's time to revisit the barcode scene. Do you have any new
>ideas/info? The last activity on the website was over a year ago.
>
>Jack
>******************************************************
>John T. Longino
>Lab I, The Evergreen State College
>Olympia WA 98505 USA
>longinoj@evergreen.edu
>Ants of Costa Rica on the Web at http://www.evergreen.edu/ants
>Project ALAS at http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/ALAS/ALAS.html
>******************************************************






Discover Life in America | Science | Labels, Unique Identifiers & Barcodes | Barcode Correspondence | John Pickering - 26 September, 2000