The conception of bar coding appeared more than 30 years ago. First linear bar codes were used in USA for tracking railway transportation of goods. Now linear bar codes can be found everywhere. At the end of 1980s two-dimensional (2D) bar codes first appeared. In comparison to linear bar codes they have a number of advantages, though they still have not been used to their full potential.

Until recently scanning and decoding of 2D symbology was a challenge. First, linear barcode scanners, - those ones you can see in stores and supermarkets, - can't be used to read 2D-symbols because they read the symbol only in one direction. Second, cheap and hi performance hardware platforms did not exist until now and they were not able to decode 2D symbology. Both problems have been resolved: processors have enough processing power, digital CCD-cameras are not expensive and are connected to the hardware through standard high-speed interfaces (USB ports for instance). Thus the most widely-spread in the world hardware - PCs, minicomputers PDAs (Portable Device Assistants), mobile phones with digital cameras - are now capable of decoding 2D barcodes. And in this case you don't need specialized scanners, the only thing you need is a software program which can recognize digital images of the surface with a barcode on it. It is that kind of software that is developed by NPC Intelcom.

Our place at the encoding/decoding software market

icDMatrix DS - decoding software that reads a single Data Matrix per scan (single mode);

icDMatrix DM - decoding software that reads multiple Data Matrices per scan (multi mode);

icDMatrix fax - decoding software that read Data Matrices from faxes;

icDMatrix E - encoding software that writes the Data Matrix symbol;

ATL_Video - ActiveX library to implement surprisingly good Data Matrix scanners with webcams.

Three software/hardware platforms are supported: Windows, Linux, Solaris.

Our customers include companies in the healthcare industry, jewel industry, developers of document management systems. Our programs have been sold successfully all over the globe.

Here are some comments on our products from our customers:

- We have had opportunity to initially evaluate the SDK and we are quite impressed with the accuracy and speed in which the sample application provided can process a variety of images. Please pass on our favorable impressions to those of you involved in developing this code.

- Hello, I have just tested your Data Matrix decode program and it worked flawlessly for our application. I need to know your prices and some information.

- I will most likely be able to incorporate your software into our application. So far, I have found the trial applications offered at your web site very satisfactory.

- I very much like the stability and speed of the samples you have available on your web site. We are a US company.

Work directions.

The above programs have been completed and are sold as software packages. Demo version of these products can be downloaded and tested from this website.

We are now developing:

decoding software for PDF417,

decoding software for main linear barcodes.

Future projects include the development and completion of a QR Code decoder.

We are working on the development of applications for document flow tasks, tracking of computer parts based on non-expensive digital cameras, as well as barcode processing applications for mobile platforms and in particular for mobile phones with digital cameras.