User manual

Glossary–1
SCANTEAM 3700 GLOSSARY
AIM– is the Automatic Identification Manufacturers, Inc. AIM is an industry
organization that supports the application of all varieties of automatic identification
technology including bar codes. An important contribution has been AIM’s efforts to
standardize bar code symbologies and the way they are identified in data communication.
Algorithm– is a finite set of rules to solve a problem in a measurable number of steps.
It is a predetermined numerical calculation which is permanently programmed into the
data system’s memory to provide a desired result (bar code decoding, for example).
Ambient Light Immunity– describes the ability of a scanner to maintain its specified
scanning ability in the presence of external light sources. Usually, scanners are specified
for incandescent, florescent, and sunlight.
Analog– (used in contrast to Digital) describes a signal whose amplitude is directly
proportional to the physical factors responsible for the signal. An example of this is an
optical sensor’s output depicting the bars and spaces of a bar code as it “sees” it.
ASCII– is an acronym for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It
is a data communications protocol for data transmission between an originating and a
destination interface. 128 coded characters are included, comprising 96
noncommunications data characters and 32 control characters. It should be noted that
most bar code symbologies are unable to encode the full ASCII set.
Asynchronous Serial Communication– is a form of data communication transmission
which occurs without a regular or predictable time relationship. The transmission of data
characters is one at a time.
Autodiscriminates– refers to the ability of the SCANTEAM 3700 to recognize and
decode multiple bar code symbologies.
Bar code– is an array of parallel bars and spaces arranged in a predetermined pattern to
represent data elements called characters.
Baud Rate– is a means of expressing data transmission speed, where “baud” equals the
number of signal events per second (roughly equivalent to bits per second).
Beam Velocity– is the speed of a laser’s scanning beam on the target.
Bidirectional– refers to the ability of a scanner to scan a bar code in either a
left–to–right or right–to–left direction.
Bit– is a contraction of “binary digit,” the smallest unit of information used in data
processing.