Images worth a thousand words

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 7/1/2000

"Imaging devices now do everything a laser scanner can do-and more," says Scott Cardais, executive vice president for Hand Held Products, an affiliate of Welch Allyn Data Collection. "Given a choice, consumers will want to use an image scanner once price and performance equal that of a laser."

Cardais, speaking at a conference held at Welch Allyn headquarters in Skaneateles Falls, NY, says that the time for the two technologies to compete head to head has now come. Recent improvements in imaging technology have brought a price reduction that may give imaging the edge over lasers.

Imagers, unlike lasers, read all symbologies, including 2-dimensional, postal specific codes, optical character recognition, signature capture, stacked linear codes, and digital images. Imaging units will soon be offered in many consumer-based products.

In the auto-capture world, similar technology can be used to collect and then transmit images about an order or package, offering the receiver a picture worth a thousand words that cannot be obtained with laser scanners.