Long distance reading

[rsocor01]

The only thing that I could think of is that each item has a light sensitive switch and when you shine a laser light on it (from a custom handheld device), it sends a number to the handheld (user) with either RF or a high frequency sound?

Any ideas?

Using a handheld device and aiming a laser light at a barcode tag from a distance of 15m is kind of challenging. People with shaky hands won't be able to use your product. Just a thought .