Motorola Hybrid Presentation Imager: Revenue At The Point Of Sale

Patented in 1952, bar codes have been around far longer than the personal computer. Even today's UPC standard was invented all the way back in 1972, 12 years before IBM's first PC. Yet scan-related revenue streams continue to emerge. For example: The paper boarding pass might soon be obsolete now that airport scanners can decode bar-code images right from a cell phone screen.

Camera-equipped mobile devices with a browser have for years been able to scan and look up items using UPCdatabase.com. Retail outlets in particular have seized upon bar-code scanning as a means to increase speed and accuracy at the checkout counter, as well as to increase security, reduce shrinkage and ease the management of inventory assets.

Bar-code scanning is anything but new, but as display phones and other technologies continue to evolve, new ways to use old solutions emerge. With such information literally at the developers' fingertips, solution providers need only a capable, versatile input device and the desire to ring up the sales.

One such device is the DS9808 Hybrid Presentation Imager from Motorola. Unlike the laser-based scanners at your local supermarket, the handy Motorola unit is built around a sophisticated image capture device that analyzes captured images and decodes any of hundreds of bar-code formats and symbologies. For the solution provider, this means the device can be used for inputting not only UPC, EAN and other code data, but also for photographing customers for ID cards or capturing images of licenses, passports or other credentials. There's also an RFID reader/writer option.

With its USB connector, tilting action, enlarged crown and front-mounted trigger, the DS9808 looks more like a FlightStick than a bar-code scanner. But plug it in or pull that trigger and its resemblance to a joystick quickly ends. Bright lights and loud beeps indicate that this thing means business.

To test the Motorola 9808 scanner, the CRN Test Center downloaded and installed a copy of Intuit's QuickBooks Cash Register Plus Free Edition on an HP Z200 quad-Xeon workstation running Windows 7 Professional with 6 GB of memory. The scanner was plugged into a USB 2.0 port and left in its default mode as a human interface device in standard presentation mode (optimized for general-purpose scanning). The cash register software was loaded with sample inventory items, and testers conducted several sample transactions. The scanner performed flawlessly and with zero input errors, regardless of the angle and speed at which items were scanned. Motorola claims that the DS9808 can accurately scan items moving at a speed of up to 100 inches per second (supermarket scanners are rated at about 40 inches per second). While our hands can't move that quickly, testers were able to measure effective input velocity. They scanned a pair of UPC-coded items alternating between the two in a circular motion as fast as they could rotate them. The DS9808 was able to scan the items at a rate of 222 items per minute. There were no input data errors. We'd call that very fast, considering the unit has to capture the image, decipher the presence of a bar code, decode that bar code and send those decoded bits across the wire.

Setting up the scanner could not have been simpler. Once plugged into a USB port, the DS9808 was recognized by Windows 7 as an HID and was ready to accept input. Testers were curious about the scanner-end of the cable, which was affixed with an RJ-45 connector. According to the company, that's to accommodate the other interfaces that the DS9808 can communicate with, including RS-232 and RS-485. Also shipped with the scanner is a quick start guide that includes bar codes to program the unit for specific types of input and to return it to its factory defaults. These modes engage with audible feedback. There's also 123-Scan, a free configuration and firmware updater utility.

Scanning The Channel About 80 percent of the sales of Motorola's DS9808 and its other bar-code scanning devices have been through the channel for point-of-sale applications, inventory control and other tasks within the same four walls, according to Motorola.

The CRN Test Center recommends this product for point-of-sale solutions.

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