ICT in organisations
Barcode reader
Barcodes are represented by black vertical bars and are read by a barcode reader. Barcodes are printed on nearly every product you buy, each product has a unique code. When read, information stored in the shop's databaseA data store designed in an organised way, making it easier to search for the information you need. is recalled, such as the product name and price. This information later appears on your receipt. The scanning process also assists in stock management, reducing the stock by one each time a product is scanned/sold.
Magnetic Ink Character Reader (MICR)
Magnetic ink characters appear at the bottom of cheques. Banks use MICR to read the numbers from the bottom of cheques to obtain data such as account numbers and bank sort codes. A particular fontStyle applied to text, eg Times New Roman, Arial and Verdana are all types of font. is used that makes it easy for the machine to discriminate between characters. The ink is magnetised, this makes it immune to creases and dirty marks.