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The Postal Alpha Numeric Encoding Technique (PLANET) barcode

Barcode

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...

 is used by the United States Postal Service

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

 to identify and track pieces of mail during delivery - the Post Office's "CONFIRM" services.

The PLANET barcode is either 12 or 14 digits long. This limitation is contributing to its supersession by Intelligent Mail Barcode

Intelligent Mail Barcode

The Intelligent Mail Barcode is a 65-bar code for use on mail in the United States. The term “Intelligent Mail” refers to services offered by the United States Postal Service for domestic mail delivery. is intended to provide greater information and functionality than its predecessors POSTNET and...

.

The barcode:

• identifies mailpiece class and shape
• identifies the Confirm Subscriber ID
• includes up to 6 digits of additional information that the Confirm subscriber chooses, such as a mailing number, mailing campaign ID or customer ID
• ends with a check digit
  Check digit
  A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for error detection, the decimal equivalent of a binary checksum. It consists of a single digit computed from the other digits in the message....
  
  

Like POSTNET

POSTNET

POSTNET is a barcode symbology that was used by the United States Postal Service to assist in directing mail. The ZIP Code or ZIP+4 code is encoded in half- and full-height bars...

, PLANET barcodes encodes the data in half- and full-height bars. Also like POSTNET, the barcode always starts and ends with a full bar (often called a guard rail) and each individual digit is represented by a set of five bars using a two-out-of-five code

Two-out-of-five code

In telecommunication, a two-out-of-five code is an m of n code that provides exactly ten possible combinations, and thus is popular for representing decimal digits using five bits...

. However, in POSTNET, the two bars are full bars; in PLANET, the two-of-five are the short bars. As with POSTNET, the check digit is calculated by summing the other characters and calculating the single digit which, when added to the sum, makes the total divisible by 10.

External links

• https://mailtracking.usps.com/mtr/resources/documents/Guide.pdf
• http://www.usps.com/strategicplanning/cs05/chp2_021.html
• http://www.bccsoftware.com/currentevents/articles/articles/bcc_wwm_article.asp