1. A computer implemented method to identify an unknown item presented to an optical code scanner based on the appearance of the item, the method comprising: capturing an RGB formatted digital image of the unknown item by the optical code scanner; converting the RGB formatted digital image from RGB format to a different format characterized by hue, saturation, and brightness data to produce a different formatted image; generating a transform from the different formatted image using the hue data, the saturation data and a weighted amount of the brightness data in the different formatted image; comparing the transform to transform data of a plurality of transforms for known items to determine the identity of the unknown item; wherein the transform is generated by quantizing the hue data, the saturation data, and the weighted amount of the brightness data to reduce an amount of image data associated with the unknown item and wherein comparing the transform includes comparing quantized image data for the unknown item to a plurality of quantized image data for known items where the comparing includes using a calculated signal to noise ratio (SNR) between the unknown and known quantized image data to determine when a match is found between the unknown item and one of the known items.