17. A method for decoding an encoded candidate character of a symbology, the method comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of valid barcode characters of a symbology, each barcode character having n elements in conformance with the symbology; generating a seed codeword comprising n elements; computing a seed distance value from the seed codeword to each character in the symbology; generating a distance map comprising each character in the symbology and the associated computed seed distance value; arranging the plurality of seed distance values into a plurality of bins, each bin containing a subset of the characters in the symbology; selecting a candidate barcode character for decoding, the character comprising n elements; computing a candidate distance value from the candidate barcode character to the seed codeword; identifying the bin containing the candidate distance value; and attempting to decode the candidate barcode character by comparing the candidate barcode character with the valid barcode characters in the bin having the candidate distance value.
17. A method for decoding an encoded candidate character of a symbology, the method comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of valid barcode characters of a symbology, each barcode character having n elements in conformance with the symbology; generating a seed codeword comprising n elements; computing a seed distance value from the seed codeword to each character in the symbology; generating a distance map comprising each character in the symbology and the associated computed seed distance value; arranging the plurality of seed distance values into a plurality of bins, each bin containing a subset of the characters in the symbology; selecting a candidate barcode character for decoding, the character comprising n elements; computing a candidate distance value from the candidate barcode character to the seed codeword; identifying the bin containing the candidate distance value; and attempting to decode the candidate barcode character by comparing the candidate barcode character with the valid barcode characters in the bin having the candidate distance value. 19. The method of claim 17 , wherein each bin is characterized by a range of seed distance values.