3 ms·

I've seen the "overzealous barcode scanner" issue happen with some gas station POS systems, to the point where the seasoned cashiers know to cover the QR codes

I've seen the "overzealous barcode scanner" issue happen with some gas station POS systems, to the point where the seasoned cashiers know to cover the QR codes with their fingers before attempting to scan an item.

EvanAnderson 2y ago
Absolutely. I helped with a physical inventory count project using smartphones as the "terminals". The barcode app we didn't allow us to selectively turn off symbologies. We ended up with a ton of links to recipes, websites, etc in the data.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
  Reminds me of the Jurassic Park novel where they ask the computer to find 10 velociraptors on the island and it finds 10. And they actually have 20.
  - af3d 2y ago
    Can you really blame the computer tho? That sounds more like a case a PEBCAC, if you ask me...
    - wongarsu 2y ago
      More like bad requirements. The system knew how many dinosaurs of each species had been released into the park, and the inventory system was only supposed to figure out if any were missing. No sense in looking further than that, after all where should the additional dinosaurs come from. That was the main theme of the book. Everything was well designed with failsafes, but too many of the design assumptions turned out to be wrong. Expecting only the expected lead to many small mistakes that were harmless individually but together snowball into a disaster.
      - lazide 2y ago
        Crichton novels are excellent at that kind of technical dystopian/disaster. (Well, not obviously dystopian, more ‘oh shit, that is how we’d be fucked isn’t it). Alien and Aliens also had a similar feel in their writing, except in real life there is rarely a Ripley there when you need one.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - bluedino 2y ago
    They can run the whole park with minimal staff for up to 3 days. You think that kind of automation is easy? Or cheap?
    - lazide 2y ago
      It is when you outsource to one Nedry and his coke habit!
  - ipdashc 2y ago
    The Jurassic Park novel had some of the best depictions of technical failures like that, IMO. The scene where they realize they've been running on backup power and everything goes down is another good one. I won't call them realistic per se, but they just felt right. Andromeda Strain, another Crichton work, was also pretty good at this.
    - EvanAnderson 2y ago
      The Andromeda Strain is the most underrated of Chrichton's books, to my mind. The movie adaptation is very good, too.
devmor 2y ago
It's also a common annoyance in grocery store apps. Kroger, for example, has an app that allows you to scan items to add them to a virtual cart as you shop and avoid scanning them at the register... however the same app is used to read QR codes on in-store coupons, which are "helpfully" placed very close to the price tags with UPC barcodes on them. If I want to scan one of those coupon QR codes, I need to either start with the camera very close to the QR code or cover the barcode with my finger.
neilv 2y ago
Sounds like the POS software isn't controlling the reader well, maybe because it wasn't adjusted for this model of reader. Or the reader's firmware could have been misconfigured, from what it's supposed to be for that POS setup. The modern reader firmware tend to have multiple modes and many options. Some modes are as simple as "scan whatever you see out of the many formats you support, and spit out the decoded value of something as USB Serial". Or, worse, "...as USB Keyboard". You can imagine how easy those modes are to integrate with POS software, without implementing the proprietary protocol for that device, and you can also imagine how poorly that can work out. If you owned a store with a POS setup with flaky reader behavior like this, and were stuck with it, you could try reconfiguring the reader (to, say, disable QR support). This reprogramming can sometimes be done via documented protocol, via sketchy Windows software, or via... barcode... Careful you don't make it worse. (Our startup used modern readers (multiple 1D formats, QR, NFC) for a factory station, and had to do a lot of experimenting with different brands and models, to get the behavior and speed we needed. We even managed to brick a reader, just with configuration changes, not flashing firmware.)
- kevincox 2y ago
  The shop may use QR codes for coupons or loyalty programs even if the merchandise doesn't use it. So being able to scan these items without switching mode is often an important feature.
masfuerte 2y ago
I went to a meeting the other day in a building with a touch screen registration system. The woman in front of me was struggling with it. Every time she tapped the register button the system decided that some part of her was a badly formed barcode, printed an error message and exited back to the menu. She eventually got it working by moving to the side until it wanted to take her picture.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

EvanAnderson 2y ago

Absolutely. I helped with a physical inventory count project using smartphones as the "terminals". The barcode app we didn't allow us to selectively turn off symbologies. We ended up with a ton of links to recipes, websites, etc in the data.

01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
Reminds me of the Jurassic Park novel where they ask the computer to find 10 velociraptors on the island and it finds 10. And they actually have 20.
- af3d 2y ago
  Can you really blame the computer tho? That sounds more like a case a PEBCAC, if you ask me...
  - wongarsu 2y ago
    More like bad requirements. The system knew how many dinosaurs of each species had been released into the park, and the inventory system was only supposed to figure out if any were missing. No sense in looking further than that, after all where should the additional dinosaurs come from. That was the main theme of the book. Everything was well designed with failsafes, but too many of the design assumptions turned out to be wrong. Expecting only the expected lead to many small mistakes that were harmless individually but together snowball into a disaster.
    - lazide 2y ago
      Crichton novels are excellent at that kind of technical dystopian/disaster. (Well, not obviously dystopian, more ‘oh shit, that is how we’d be fucked isn’t it). Alien and Aliens also had a similar feel in their writing, except in real life there is rarely a Ripley there when you need one.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- bluedino 2y ago
  They can run the whole park with minimal staff for up to 3 days. You think that kind of automation is easy? Or cheap?
  - lazide 2y ago
    It is when you outsource to one Nedry and his coke habit!
- ipdashc 2y ago
  The Jurassic Park novel had some of the best depictions of technical failures like that, IMO. The scene where they realize they've been running on backup power and everything goes down is another good one. I won't call them realistic per se, but they just felt right. Andromeda Strain, another Crichton work, was also pretty good at this.
  - EvanAnderson 2y ago
    The Andromeda Strain is the most underrated of Chrichton's books, to my mind. The movie adaptation is very good, too.

devmor 2y ago

It's also a common annoyance in grocery store apps. Kroger, for example, has an app that allows you to scan items to add them to a virtual cart as you shop and avoid scanning them at the register... however the same app is used to read QR codes on in-store coupons, which are "helpfully" placed very close to the price tags with UPC barcodes on them. If I want to scan one of those coupon QR codes, I need to either start with the camera very close to the QR code or cover the barcode with my finger.

neilv 2y ago

Sounds like the POS software isn't controlling the reader well, maybe because it wasn't adjusted for this model of reader. Or the reader's firmware could have been misconfigured, from what it's supposed to be for that POS setup. The modern reader firmware tend to have multiple modes and many options. Some modes are as simple as "scan whatever you see out of the many formats you support, and spit out the decoded value of something as USB Serial". Or, worse, "...as USB Keyboard". You can imagine how easy those modes are to integrate with POS software, without implementing the proprietary protocol for that device, and you can also imagine how poorly that can work out. If you owned a store with a POS setup with flaky reader behavior like this, and were stuck with it, you could try reconfiguring the reader (to, say, disable QR support). This reprogramming can sometimes be done via documented protocol, via sketchy Windows software, or via... barcode... Careful you don't make it worse. (Our startup used modern readers (multiple 1D formats, QR, NFC) for a factory station, and had to do a lot of experimenting with different brands and models, to get the behavior and speed we needed. We even managed to brick a reader, just with configuration changes, not flashing firmware.)

kevincox 2y ago
The shop may use QR codes for coupons or loyalty programs even if the merchandise doesn't use it. So being able to scan these items without switching mode is often an important feature.

masfuerte 2y ago

I went to a meeting the other day in a building with a touch screen registration system. The woman in front of me was struggling with it. Every time she tapped the register button the system decided that some part of her was a badly formed barcode, printed an error message and exited back to the menu. She eventually got it working by moving to the side until it wanted to take her picture.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]