What Does The Travel Bug Barcode Read?

January 11, 2004

Just curious. Did a quick search of the forum to no avail.

1.7k · January 11, 2004

Someone once posted that it came up in her grocery store as peaches......

Edited January 11, 2004 by DustyJacket

January 11, 2004

If you have a super market around that is self checkout run it through the scanner once to see if anything comes up.

January 12, 2004

well the problem with just passing it through a barcode is that the bug design makes the entire barcode unreadable. If no one truly knows what it reads i might just grab the image and reconstruct the code to find out. Might be interesting.

4k · January 12, 2004

I think it reads "Paul is dead"

1.2k · January 12, 2004

If you work in a store, scan the bug into the main computer in the store and add the barcode to a new item named the TB's name.. Then call a fellow cacher and tell him: "You don't gonna believe what I just discovered... Come over!" and wait for him to show up in the store. Scan the TB and see his reaction when the display says "Travel Bug" or something like that :unsure:

Did it with a Swedish drivinglicense (they have barcode on the backside) and a friends name showed up when he scanned his license... He are most probably still wondering how it could do that :blink:

January 12, 2004

Sparky, you must be old.. not too many of the young ones will get that.

4k · January 12, 2004

Sparky, you must be old.. not too many of the young ones will get that.

Aye, but you did! :unsure: At least maybe it'll make someone young think about finding out more, and someone older remember a better time! :blink:

1.2k · January 12, 2004

I am young ( well under 30) but I got it. But then again my dad was/is a big hippie.

1.7k · January 12, 2004

With a little work in Photoshop, I've extrapolated from the image on the "track travel bugs" page to this:

However, this is not a standard UPC code (so the suggestion that it scans as "peaches" is unlikely.)

Every UPC code has features in common: each code starts with a dark bar of width 1, a light bar of width 1, and a dark bar of width 1. Every digit in a UPC code is the same width, 4 bars (dark and light) with a total width of 7 "modules." On the left side of the separator, each digit consists of a sequence of light-dark-light-dark. The center of the code is indicated with a 5-module sequence of light-dark-light-dark-light. On the right side, digits are the inverse of their representation on the left side: still 7 modules, but starting with a dark bar. Finally, the whole sequence ends with another 3-module dark-light-dark sequence. Your garden-variety grocery store UPC barcode begins with a 0 and is 12 total digits (The first digit is the type of product, the next 5 digits are the manufacturer's ID, the next 5 digits are the product ID assigned by the manufacturer, and the last digit is a checksum of the first 11 digits.)

If you attempt to interpret this barcode as a UPC code, the first thing you see is that it doesn't end (or begin, depending on which way you look at it) with the required 3-module dark-light-dark sequence. The second thing you see is that it consists of at least 18 pairs of dark bars, whereas a grocery-store barcode always consists of 15 pairs (one pair for each of 12 digits, plus one pair each for the start, middle, and end.) Also, you discover that the groups of bars are not the same widths, which is impossible in UPC. So it's not likely to be a product that your local grocery-store scanner will recognize.

The observation that the groups are not the same width also torpedoes Code 39, which is a common alphanumeric code (The fact that there are more than 2 widths of bars also works against Code 39.) It might be a 2-of-5 code, which is what is used on the envelopes you get when you take film in for processing, but I don't have any experience with 2-of-5 so I couldn't speak intelligently about that. If any of you have a barcode reader, feel free to print this and scan it and see what happens. I'll try that myself next time I find my Cue:Cat.

January 12, 2004

There are 30 some varieties of standard bar codes. Consumer goods like groceries use the UPC code (universal product code). Scanning it into your grocery store scanner won't get you far. It could be one of a large number of industrial codes. There are even a few proprietary codes out there. I don't know how you'd even find out unless you had some kind of scanner with a universal decoding language built into it.

January 12, 2004

Maybe try it backward..

2k · January 12, 2004

I think UPC code has been ruled out but this is a fun link anyway. :unsure:

1.7k · January 12, 2004

Maybe try it backward..

If you attempt to interpret this barcode as a UPC code, the first thing you see is that it doesn't end (or begin, depending on which way you look at it)

The neat thing about UPC is that it looks the same backwards and forwards, the only difference being that the combinations of modules you get when you scan it backwards don't correspond to any digits. The reason is that the dark-light-dark "start" code calibrates the scanner so it can compute how much color bleed there is due to the printing process, what the ratio in reflectivity between the dark and light bars is, and what the basic width of a module is. Since the scanner can encounter the code in any conceivable orientation, having it start the same way it ends makes the calibration process that much easier.

Upon examining a few film envelopes, I'm led to believe that the 2-of-5 and Interleaved 2-of-5 codes also have only two possible widths of bars, ruling them out as well.

I'd venture a guess that the most likely explanation of the bars on the travel bug tag is that the person tasked with creating it drew some random pixels that "looked like" a barcode. This is easy to do with the Photoshop noise, threshold, and motion blur tools (followed by a little antialiasing, for some reason I fail to comprehend. Perhaps it was scaled down after production.)

Edited January 12, 2004 by parkrrrr

January 12, 2004

Perhaps, just perhaps, it's a random sequence that has no likeness to any real barcoding scheme. Ya know, created at 2:59 pm, just prior to the deadline for artwork to be sent to the manufacturer. Then again, it could be the coordinates of the Beale treasure.

-E

January 12, 2004

It is a clue to the Mar's code.......

January 13, 2004

I have not actually tried it yet, but it looks an awful lot like 3 of 9 code to me. We have bar code scanners at work and the software to read most of the common formats. Next time I am down in the fab I will see what I can come up with.

1k · January 14, 2004

I tried scanning it several times, but all I keep getting is 666. :unsure:

January 14, 2004

I think UPC code has been ruled out but this is a fun link anyway.

That's cool! Unfortunately, since you have to have the UPC number, you probably also have the product as well, so it doesn't tell you anything that you don't already know...i.e., you have a box of Carnation Hot Chocolate....well...uh...duh!? :mad:

1.7k · January 14, 2004

since you have to have the UPC number, you probably also have the product as well, so it doesn't tell you anything that you don't already know.

Yes, but it might be able to tell your *computer* something it didn't already know. For example, I have a database of my DVD collection that was built by using Amazon's .NET service and a barcode reader. Sure, I know that I'm holding Season 3 of The Simpsons, but why type that into the computer if I can just scan the UPC on the back?

2k · January 14, 2004

I think UPC code has been ruled out but this is a fun link anyway.

That's cool! Unfortunately, since you have to have the UPC number, you probably also have the product as well, so it doesn't tell you anything that you don't already know...i.e., you have a box of Carnation Hot Chocolate....well...uh...duh!?

Just click the "search" link in the left hand nav bar.

Search: Carnation Hot Chocolate

7 items, displaying 1 through 7

Number Description Size/Weight Last Mod

050000120727 (*) Carnation Hot Cocoa Mix, Rich Chocolate 10 OZ 1998-01-01 00:00:00

050000121021 (*) Carnation Hot Cocoa Mix, Chocolate with Marshmallows 10 OZ 1998-01-01 00:00:00

050000121120 (*) Carnation Hot Mix, Milk Chocolate 10 OZ 1998-01-01 00:00:00

050000127122 Carnation Rich Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix, 737 gram containter 26 OZ 2001-06-19 17:32:21

050000127825 Carnation Milk Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix, 39oz, 2lb 7 oz, 1.10kg 38 oz 2001-06-19 17:32:39

050000138227 (*) Carnation Hot Cocoa Mix, Double Chocolate Meltdown 8 EA 1998-01-01 00:00:00

721182022429 CHOCOLATE HOT - CARNATION EACH 1999-10-11 11:29:13

8.4k · January 14, 2004

I think it reads "Paul is dead"

<Insert my best Steve Bucemi voice> I am the walrus. I am the walrus. </voice>

Koo-Koo-Ka-Choo

Sn :unsure: :mad: gans

4k · January 14, 2004

Or is that really "Goo Goo Ga Joob"? :unsure:

January 15, 2004

Or is that really "Goo Goo Ga Joob"?

Heh, yes you have it right.

4k · January 15, 2004

Or is that really "Goo Goo Ga Joob"?

Heh, yes you have it right.

Oompa oompa, everybody's got one....

Got one what? I'm sure you know, don't you?

January 15, 2004

The barcode is the number ID of the bug. This way it can be tracked. The code format is not that important, it could be 3of9, 128 or any other format.

January 16, 2004

Well... I have 2 suggestions of what it might scan as...

First is obvious... its the same barcode that appears on the Pearl Jam CD called Ten...

Second... it scan as "Whats the frequency kenneth"

January 16, 2004

I tried scanning it several times, but all I keep getting is 666.

heh heh!!

Anyone thought it might just say "Travel Bug"?

1.2k · January 16, 2004

Hasn't anyone seen a inkjet printer printing faded pages when the inkjet-level are low? Perhaps the designer was planning a whole solid figure but ran out of ink ikn the printer :unsure:

No, let's go caching. Anyone up for nightcaching in Sweden tonight? :bad:

4k · January 16, 2004

Hasn't anyone seen a inkjet printer printing faded pages when the inkjet-level are low? Perhaps the designer was planning a whole solid figure but ran out of ink ikn the printer

No, let's go caching. Anyone up for nightcaching in Sweden tonight?

I think this is the best theory yet! :bad:

Lemme book a flight on the company jet, Hedberg, and I'll be there by nightfall.....whenever that is. :unsure:

9.4k · January 16, 2004

I plugged the code into my Commodore 64 and it replied with, "All your cache are belong to us"

Edited January 16, 2004 by Team GPSaxophone

1.2k · January 16, 2004

Oh no, it contains a hidden message that our minds will read over and over again without noticing it, and the message says: "You must all obey Jeremy"

4k · January 16, 2004

Oh no, it contains a hidden message that our minds will read over and over again without noticing it, and the message says: "You must all obey Jeremy"

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!! :unsure: :bad:

5.7k · March 21, 2006

I thought I'd scare up this old thread and post this idea:

Assuming that a barcode reader in a store could actually read the barcode, wouldn't be great if the manager of a store scanned the barcode into the database and then made it so that if you scanned the barcode at a register, it would come up with the coordinates to a puzzle cache? Too bad it's not a scanable code...

--Marky

March 21, 2006

I thought I'd scare up this old thread and post this idea:

Assuming that a barcode reader in a store could actually read the barcode, wouldn't be great if the manager of a store scanned the barcode into the database and then made it so that if you scanned the barcode at a register, it would come up with the coordinates to a puzzle cache? Too bad it's not a scanable code...

--Marky

Wouldn't that be a 'commercial' cache then?

March 21, 2006

I think it reads "Paul is dead"

Maybe I'm too old - I thought it might read "Kilroy was here".

March 25, 2006

GC.com is part of a big Government cover-up. Those bar codes are info on you. You remember filling out a profile???? Then you get hooked and purchase a TB tag????

There was this movie where this kid plays a video game. Well he got the highest score so he was recruited by a space society to fly their fighter jet/rocket/ship. This "bar code" on TB tags is similiar. When the right combination of finds, TB releases and TB finds gets alinged that cacher will be recruited for area 51 projects.

10.1k · March 27, 2006

Tried running it through my AC Nielsen Barcode reader, and it did not recognize it, so it isn't a UPC. May have to take it to work, and run it htrough th military barcode reader...

Edited March 27, 2006 by Harry Dolphin

6.1k · March 27, 2006

With a little work in Photoshop, I've extrapolated from the image on the "track travel bugs" page to this:

It looks like it needs to be defragmented.

What Does The Travel Bug Barcode Read?

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