The History of the Bar Code

The introduction of the bar code 35 years ago was a game-changer for retail and grocery stores. Its design – 59 black and white bars – allowed stores to speed up the check out process and more easily track their inventory. Now, everyone from airlines to medical labs use the tool – and it’s often used in music and movies to represent the future of identification for the human race. Here, some history of the bar code.

• Today, it’s scanned more than 10 billion times a day

• It was designed by a team of IBM engineers

• It’s “cheap, easy and reliable” – the reason it’s stayed strong after 35 years

• The 30 black and 29 white bars that convey up to 95 bits of data in binary code (known as the Universal Product Code, or UPC) went through several designs first (one being a circular design)

• At its introduction, many shoppers refused to buy bar coded-products for fear that a lack of a price tag would lead to being overcharged – others were suspicious of the social implications of this “tracking” device

Source:

The New York Times: Game Changer in Retail, Bar Code is 35