bar code scanners have been in use in local political campaigns for a decade and a half - we can enter massive amounts of data about the progress of our field campaigns in a fraction of the time. Not necessarily the same as information distribution about the moral acceptability of a bottle of dish soap, but it's an example of bar code scanning used for human good over human ill...

Really? How does that work? What do the codes stand for in that case?

good idea! The only thing I wonder is whether access to the information that bar-codes give is restricted somehow. I'm sure it would be possible to reverse-engineer or hack the software & hardware that lets you pick up barcode info, but could companies then nail you for that?

Sorry it took me so long to answer your question - We have a database of voters in a particular district that we purchase from a vendor. We have it print out 'walk lists,' lists of geographically similar households, with their voter registration and other information on them. We send out volunteers to talk to these households, and find out if they like our candidate. When they come back, we scan the code that references their household, and then we scan a code that indicates "supporter," "non-supporter," "declined to state," "not home," etc. That way we know what progress we're making and we know which voters we need to target as the campaign progresses.

Sylvie - to answer your question, all of the data we have in the database is legally obtained. We know what party people registered with, and we know whether or not they've voted in past elections, but we never know how they've voted (that part would be illegal).

It appears reverse-engineering barcodes is not as hard as we might expect! As a matter of fact, here's a web-based generator for it... http://www.milk.com/barcode/

I want a bar code scanner and database for pantry usage. E.g. scan products before putting into the pantry, laundry room, or refrigerator to have an inventory. Then scan again as products are used. Check the inventory list before shopping to see what is needed. The bar code company president said that there aren't a significant number of people organized enough to warrant such a product.