Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Shipping Secret Messages Through Barcodes
Search
Karina Ruzinov
January 23, 2018
Programming
0
580
Shipping Secret Messages Through Barcodes
PyCascades 2018 talk
Karina Ruzinov
January 23, 2018
Tweet
Share
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
デザインシステムが必須の時代に
yosuke_furukawa
PRO
2
110
The State of Fluid (2025)
s2b
0
200
レガシープロジェクトで最大限AIの恩恵を受けられるようClaude Codeを利用する
tk1351
2
1.1k
オホーツクでコミュニティを立ち上げた理由―地方出身プログラマの挑戦 / TechRAMEN 2025 Conference
lemonade_37
2
490
Scale out your Claude Code ~自社専用Agentで10xする開発プロセス~
yukukotani
9
2.6k
ライブ配信サービスの インフラのジレンマ -マルチクラウドに至ったワケ-
mirrativ
2
260
CSC305 Summer Lecture 12
javiergs
PRO
0
110
ゲームの物理
fadis
5
1.5k
WebAssemblyインタプリタを書く ~Component Modelを添えて~
ruccho
1
910
kiroでゲームを作ってみた
iriikeita
0
180
Google I/O recap web編 大分Web祭り2025
kponda
0
2.9k
Laravel Boost 超入門
fire_arlo
1
120
Featured
See All Featured
XXLCSS - How to scale CSS and keep your sanity
sugarenia
248
1.3M
Cheating the UX When There Is Nothing More to Optimize - PixelPioneers
stephaniewalter
283
13k
The Cost Of JavaScript in 2023
addyosmani
53
8.8k
[RailsConf 2023 Opening Keynote] The Magic of Rails
eileencodes
30
9.6k
Optimising Largest Contentful Paint
csswizardry
37
3.4k
Agile that works and the tools we love
rasmusluckow
329
21k
Rails Girls Zürich Keynote
gr2m
95
14k
Typedesign – Prime Four
hannesfritz
42
2.8k
Gamification - CAS2011
davidbonilla
81
5.4k
Large-scale JavaScript Application Architecture
addyosmani
512
110k
Docker and Python
trallard
45
3.5k
The Illustrated Children's Guide to Kubernetes
chrisshort
48
50k
Transcript
Shipping secret messages through barcodes Karina Ruzinov Software Engineer @
Transfix
Logistics Point A ➡ Point B ✈
Lingo • Carrier: does the shipping of The Thing •
UPS, USPS, FedEx • Shipper: the creator of The Thing • Warby Parker, Five Guys, Nike
So…barcodes?
None
UPC Code39
How you too can read a (UPC) barcode Credit: http://barcode-labels.com/you-can-learn-read-barcode/
What you’re seeing
420112159361289697090020989867 What the carrier is seeing
420 11215 9361289697090020989867 The Identifier for Zip Codes My actual
zip code What the customer impatiently stalks
But how did the scanner know how to do this
None
Convert the electrical signal from the LED reading to a
digital representation First things first.
Image credit: carolinabarcode.com
None
11000101000 11000100010
Is the check digit correct? Before we proceed.
Convert to ASCII text based on decoder 11000101000 11000100010 =
40 = H = 41 = I
Output the final text Allows us to go from To
this
But how does this relate to Python
But before Python, ZPL! (Zebra Programming Language)
None
Python! (writing ZPL)
These are important
None
X,Y coordinates
None
None
A “tall” number
None
None
None
None
None
None
Shipping labels are fun and all, but what else is
out there? QR CODES!
Quick Aside...
Quick Response Code?! • Uses our of alphanumeric representation ->
integer -> binary map • Data is encoded in a zig zag fashion • Level of error correction impacts the quantity of data that can be stored within the QR Code • Masking to appease the scanner
But thankfully we have ZPL (+ Python)
None
Unintuitive ZPL we didn’t have to write Easy QR Code
call
None
How about a demo?
Takeaway • A lot is hidden in plain sight •
Why type something, when you can just scan it? • Barcodes are cool
Thanks! Questions? @kruzinov