Quick Dips

Coast to Coast Bar Codes

In the recent Speight's Coast to Coast endurance race, a bar coding system was used to keep track of the competitors. Competitors wore bar code labels attached to the front and back of their bibs.

A "gun" was swiped over the bar code from a distance of up to 20 cm, with the competitor standing still while the scanner was run over the bar code. The longest it took to read any bar code during the event was eight seconds. This was when a large group of competitors went through the first checkpoint of the race.

Using the scanners allows information on competitors to be as accurate as possible. From this bar code swiping, the ranking of competitors was done.

By using this computer checking system, officials knew which competitor had passed a checkpoint as well as what time that competitor had made. The bar code scanner also allowed the time-keepers to review which competitors had not yet had a time recorded for that section.

The unit contains a full-line information system incorporating a scanner and a hand-held computer. With these machines, time-keepers can access information such as the group code of a competitor, the number of competitors in each team and a description of the event which a competitor is entered in.

The equipment for the bar code scanning was provided by Walker Datavision NZ Ltd, who sponsored and assisted with the event.

Viv Fisher