The Uniform Code Council (UCC) has begun promoting a new type of bar code that compresses more data into a symbol than was previously possible. The group has been conducting tests with grocery and pharmaceutical companies on the new Reduced Space Symbology (RSS), which was designed to let manufacturers embed information that goes well beyond the traditional product and manufacturer identification into a bar code.

Based in Princeton, N.J., the UCC assigns bar-code identifiers to individual products, which allows retailers and grocers to collect information on what products are being sold at store checkout counters. Several years back, the council teamed up with another international standards organization, EAN, to develop the RSS system for applications where space limitations were a concern. At the moment, there are seven variations of the RSS symbology, says Stephen Halliday, a vice president of technology at the Pittsburgh-based automatic-identification industry organization AIM, who is familiar with the code. The basic version RSS-14 is a linear symbol that can hold 14 digits of information. The expanded stack version, which has a two-dimensional (2-D) code in the middle of the symbol, can convey 34 digits of information. (Linear bar codes encode data on one axis, while 2-D codes encode information within a field.) Besides the RSS symbologies, the bar-code industry has also developed data-compression languages for two-dimensional codes called composite symbols.

Although AIM published a standard for RSS codes in 1999, the UCC and bar-code equipment makers have only recently begun working with companies to implement the new symbology. The UCC has overseen two tests to date. One of those involved Alcon Labs of Fort Worth, Texas, which used the RSS code to mark unit doses of items delivered to hospitals. "This test was very successful," reports Frank Sharkey, a senior project manager at the UCC.

The UCC is also currently analyzing the results of a test by a Midwestern grocer, which used the smaller-sized RSS codes to mark produce and meat. Dorothy Lane Markets in Dayton, Ohio, has installed special scanners from NCR Corp. in some of its supermarkets to read RSS codes. Craig Maddox, a product line director at Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp., says his company modified the underlying software in its Model 7075 scanner so the device could read the RSS symbols. "We did citrus, apples, and grapes as well as all the meat in the test," says Maddox. "It gives the supermarket the ability to know what's sold when. It's great information for [managing] your supply chain."

Maddox says RSS codes will allow grocers to scan fresh food at the checkout counter just the way they scan boxed and canned items now. "From a consumer product safety point of view, it's fantastic," he adds. "If you get a bad crate of produce, you can track it down immediately. You will even be able to track meat to the exact cow it came from."

In addition to their use in item identification, the newer compact symbols will also be deployed in logistics applications. UCC's Sharkey reports that his organization plans to test a composite symbol that will function as an advance shipment notice in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, bar-code equipment manufacturers have started marketing scanners capable of reading RSS and composite codes. Symbol Technologies Inc. of Holtsville, N.Y., and PSC Inc. of Portland, Ore., both unveiled new scanners for this purpose at a recent trade show. A representative for Handheld Products in Skaneateles Falls, N.Y., an affiliate of Welch Allyn, says its Model 4410 scanner can also read some RSS codes.