Asdiscussed here in more detail, data matrix is a highly secure and extremely reliable bar code symbology that is utilized whenever circumstances call for extremely accurate tracking of items. Data matrix is deployed by governments to encode visa information in passports, by pharmaceutical companies to prevent medication errors, by
surgical instrument manufacturers to track instruments, and even by the postal service to track and meter mail, among hundreds of thousands of other everyday industrial uses.
Since data matrix is an open standard with a worldwide user-base and not a proprietary technology like the majority of RF and RFID products, it is a mature and fully vetted technology that has been extensively tested, implemented, and validated by manufacturers and consumers.
CLINCAL STUDY AT OHIO UNIVERITY
The Center for Automatic Identification at Ohio University conducted a study, available here, to evaluate data integrity of selected two dimensional, high density, high capacity coding symbologies for use in selected automatic identification applications. The study was part of the US Army’s PMAMMOLOG project.
The statistical objective of the test was to determine if data matrix could be expected to exhibit one error or less in two million characters scanned and decoded. The level of confidence was set at 95%.
Results:
The study reported that in a worst case scenario, data matrix might make 1 error in 10.5 million scans for a 99.9999905% accuracy rate. The study also reported that in a best case scenario, data matrix would make 1 error in 612.7 million scans for a remarkable 99.999999904% accuracy rate.
