International Barcode Standard Available for Review

June 1, 2010
The Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (AIM) announces that the public review draft of the International Symbology Specification is available for a 60-day public review.

The new specification, called Han Xin Code, is a variable size, matrix symbology specifically optimized for two- and four-byte alphabets, such as Chinese and other ideographic/pictographic alphabets. It is equally suitable for single-byte ISO Code Pages, such as English. Han Xin Code also includes an option for octet-byte encoding for applications, such as graphics and audio. Extended Channel Interpretation (ECIs) support is also included.

Han Xin Code incorporates strong Reed-Solomon error correction, enabling four levels of error correction to recover information from damaged symbols.

There are 84 versions of Han Xin Code symbols representing increasing data capacity, from dozens to thousands of numbers, English or Chinese characters.

"AIM is pleased to be able to recognize this contribution from China,” says Dr. Clive Hohberger, board chairman. “Han Xin Code represents a significant opportunity for AIM member companies seeking to provide solutions to the Chinese market."

The Public Review process ends July 26, 2010. Interested reviewers can download the document at AIM’s Website.