A Standards Update - ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 31 - Automatic Identification and Data Capture Techniques

(NOTE: Some of the references in this article have changed, please check before using the reference numbers)

Welcome to this edition of a regular column about standards in the Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) industry. This column will be updated regularly to keep you current on news of standards and their impact on the industry.

In the coming months, we will try to educate you on the various technologies covered under the AIDC umbrella as well as bring news of the standardization process and its progress. If you have news about standards that you want to share, or questions you want to ask, send them to steve@hightechaid.com and we will try to incorporate them into the next column.

In last month's issue of this column, I gave the history of the formation of the ISO committee for standardization of AIDC technologies, as well as some reasons for the need for standardization.

This month we will look at the work of SC 31 in more detail, including the work load and the prospects for standardization from this committee.

The standardization process within ISO is broken into six stages as follows:

• Stage 0 (preliminary stage): A study period is underway.

• Stage 1 (proposal stage): An NP (New Project) is under consideration.

• Stage 2 (preparatory stage): A WD (Working Draft) is under consideration.

• Stage 3 (committee stage): A CD/FCD (Committee Draft/Final Committee Draft) is under consideration.

• Stage 4 (approval stage): An FDIS (Final Draft International Standard) is under consideration.

• Stage 5 (publication stage): An IS (International Standard) is being prepared for publication.

These six stages all include various rounds of voting that are conducted at an international level. This voting takes time and so the process of creating an international standard sometimes feels as if it takes forever. However, the positive side of all this is that when standard has completed all these phases, it truly does have an international acceptance.

Here are the work items identified for SC 31 and their progress to date:

Working Group on Data Carrier (WG 1) Convener: Mr. Sprague Ackley (US)
Work Projects Assigned:

• Bar Coding - Symbology Specification - EAN/UPC, ISO 15420 

• Bar Coding - Symbology Specification - Code 128, ISO 15417 

• Bar Coding - Symbology Specification - PDF417, ISO 15438 

• Bar Coding - Symbology Identifiers, ISO15424 

• Bar Code Symbology- QR Code, ISO 18004 

• Bar Coding - Symbology Specification - Maxicode, ISO16023  

• Bar Coding - Symbology Specification - Data Matrix, ISO 16022  

• Bar Coding - Symbology Specification - Code 39, ISO 16388  

• Bar Coding - Symbology Specification - Interleaved 2-of-5, ISO 16390 

Work Group on Data Structure (WG 2) Convener - Mr. Etienne Boonet (Belgium)
Work Projects Assigned

• EAN/UPC Application Identifiers and FACT Data Identifiers + Maintenance, ISO 15418

• Transfer Syntax for High Capacity ADC Media, ISO 15434

• Unique Identification of Transport Units

  • 1.  Technical Standard NP 15459.1

  • 2.  Procedural Standard NP 15459.2

Joint Projects assigned to Working Group 2 in conjunction with Working Group 4

• Application Requirement/Transaction Message Profiles ISO 15960 

• Data Objects, ISO 15961 

• Unique Identification of RF Tag and, ISO 15963 

Work Group on Conformance (WG 3) Convener - Mr. Christopher Swindin (UK)
Work Projects Assigned

• Bar Code Print Quality Test Specification - Linear Symbols, ISO  15416

• Bar Code Print Quality Test Specification - Two-dimensional Symbols, ISO  15415  

• Bar Code Master Test Specifications, ISO  15421

• Bar Code Digital Imaging and Printing Performance Testing, ISO  15419  

• Bar Code Scanner and Decoder Performance Testing, ISO  15423

  • Part 1: Linear

  • Part 2: Two-dimensional  

• Bar Code Verifier Conformance Specification, ISO 15426 

  • Part 1: Linear

  • Part 2: Two-dimensional

Work Group on RFID for Item Management (WG 4) Convener - Mr. Henri Barthel (Belgium)
Work Projects Assigned

• Air Interface, ISO 18000 

• Application Requirements Profiles, ISO 18001

• Data Notation, ISO 15962
  

Next month we will talk about the ISO process and how it works.