ISBN-13 represented as EAN-13 bar code showing both machine-readable and human-readable data

The term machine-readable (or computer-readable) refers to information encoded in a form which can be, read (i.e., scanned/sensed) by a machine/computer and interpreted by the machine's hardware and/or software. Theoretically, anything that can be read, can be read by machines, but not necessarily comprehended by machines.

Common machine-readable data storage and data transmission technologies include processing waveforms, optical character recognition (OCR) and barcodes. Any information retrievable by any form of energy can be machine-readable. Examples include:

• Acoustics
• Chemical
  • Photochemical
• Electrical
  • Semiconductor used in volatile RAM microchips
  • Floating-gate transistor used in non-volatile memory cards
  • Radio transmission
• Magnetic storage
• Mechanical
  • Pins and holes
    • Punch card
    • Paper tape
      • Music roll
    • Music box cylinder or disk
  • Grooves (See also Audio Data)
    • Phonograph cylinder
    • Gramophone record
    • DictaBelt (groove on plastic belt)
    • Capacitance Electronic Disc
• Optics
  • Optical storage
• Thermodynamic

See also

• Machine-readable medium
• Human-readable
• MARC standards
• MRZ

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