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Understanding Universal Product Code—A Study and Simulation Experiments

Article  in  Indian Journal of Industrial and Applied Mathematics · June 2014

DOI: 10.5958/1945-919X.2014.00206.0

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Afaq Ahmad Saad Ahmad

Sultan Qaboos University University of Texas at Austin
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Indian Journal of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (IJIAM) vol. 5 (1)
Indian Journal of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (IJIAM) vol. 5 (1)

Understanding Universal Product Code—A Study and Simulation

Experiments

A. Ahmad

Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of

Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, PO Box 33, Zip-code 123, Oman

Email: afaq@squ.edu.om
Indian Journal of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (IJIAM) vol. 5 (1)

S. Ahmad

Student, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering,

University of Texas at Austin, USA

Email: Email: ahmad8@utexas.edu

A. Al-Habsi

Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering,

Sultan Qaboos University, PO Box 33, Zip-code 123, Oman

Email: alhabsi@squ.edu.om

M. Al-Hinai

Student, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, Sultan

Qaboos University, PO Box 33, Zip-code 123, Oman

E-mail: m070079@squ.edu.om

ABSTRACT
Given the importance of computers in the world today, almost every item produce is calculated,
quantified and documented. It is, therefore, crucial for human societies to develop methods of facilitating
these processes. The Universal Production Code (UPC) is one such method, a standard which not many
consumers have knowledge of but in probability encounter items with the UPC code on a daily basis. The
importance of the UPC as well as its ubiquity serves as the motivation of the following paper. It mainly
consists of research that is readily available online but also explores how the coding, the application of
parity error check, and the mod theory application are involved to the UPC. The paper also presents some
useful simulation experiments in MATLAB as teaching aid.
Understanding and interpreting the UPC equips one with the knowledge of doing business in a
more efficient manner. As opposed to manual entry, the early method of documenting and quantifying
products, the barcode system allows companies to track their items at a much faster rate; at a lower cost
while simultaneously preventing error (UPC code is 10,000 times more accurate than manual entering).

KEYWORDS: Universal Product Code, Barcode, Error check, Parity, Mod

 Indian Journal of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (IJIAM) vol. 5 (1)

1. INTRODUCTION

As many teaching tools (1 - 10) have been developed and successfully resulted in providing help to teachers,
students and common people in learning and understanding the topics. This paper is another milestone which is

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