1. A method for the optical detection of a linear barcode pattern and for determining a symbol sequence which is coded by the barcode pattern, wherein the method proceeds from a blurred raw picture and comprises the following steps: taking a raw picture of the barcode pattern; pre-processing the raw picture for producing a single output pattern or a sequence of output patterns; comparing the output patterns or the single output pattern with stored reference patterns, wherein the reference patterns in each case correspond to blurred images of non-blurred nominal patterns, and at least one symbol is assigned to each reference pattern; determining, for the single output pattern or for each of the sequence of output patterns, in each case the reference pattern which has the greatest similarity to the output pattern; outputting, transmitting or storing the symbols which correspond to the determined reference patterns, according to the single output pattern or the sequence of output patterns, as a symbol sequence.