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Hewlett Packard 82153A Optical Wand

• Type: Optional Calculator Accessory
• Size: 1 x 6 inches / 2 x 15 cm (less cable)
• Serial number: none
• Date of Manufacture: October 1983

The HP-41 series was so popular that soon everyone was writing programs for it, and there were any number of hobbyist and professional magazines and dedicated sections in general magazines to publish these programs. Of course, it was a pain in the behind to key in a 200-step program (and then go through it step by step to figure out where you inserted a typo.) And while the magnetic cards were nifty, they were expensive to produce, especially with canned programs on them.

Thus the optical reader. Magazines (and HP) could publish programs as barcodes, and you could scan them right out of the magazine. If it was a glossy magazine, the code would last for a hundred years, if you didn't line the catbox with it. HP also provided barcode labels. You could peel these off and stick them onto another piece of paper, or bathroom wall or something, and have a printed backup of your program. Or you could photocopy it and share with your friends. At one instruction per label, this was less efficient than what the magazine publishers produced.

(Dear Reader, did you ever do this? Or were you able to create barcode on your printer? Please share!)

The manual included several barcoded programs for your enjoyment.

Functions:

• WNDDTA Prompts user to input a barcode
• WNDDTX Prompts for barcode data for storage in registers
• WNDLNK Prompts user to read in a barcoded subroutine for execution
• WNDSUB Prompts user to read in a barcoded subroutine for storage
• WNDSCN Prompts to scan binary data
• "WNDTST" Tests wand by displaying raw scanned data directly