Barcodes were conceived as a kind of visual Morse code by a Philadelphia student, Bernard Silver, and his friend Norman Woodhead, in 1949, but retailers were slow to take up the technology, which could be unreliable.
The first use of barcodes was to label railroad carriages traveling across the United States in the 1960s. A colored barcode was attached to steel plates on the side of train cars and scanned as they entered and exited railroad facilities.
The first use of barcodes was to label railroad carriages traveling across the United States in the 1960s. A colored barcode was attached to steel plates on the side of train cars and scanned as they entered and exited railroad facilities.
Barcodes only became popular in the early 1970s, when Woodhead, then employed by IBM, devised the Universal Product Code. The UPC system was adopted by the food industry in North America.
In 1973 IBM offered its UPC bar code proposal to the grocery industry for free. The industry accepted a very close standard to their proposal. However, IBM also made the first technology capable of reading the bar codes, and made tons of money selling the equipment to grocery stores.
The first product to have a UPC barcode on its packaging was Wrigley's chewing gum in 1974.
The first place where a barcode was scanned was when a packet of Wrigley’s chewing gum was sold in June 1974 in Troy, Ohio.
The first product to be scanned in the United Kingdom was a box of Melrose 100 Century teabags in 1978.
 |
| Norman Joseph Woodland at IBM |
In 1973 IBM offered its UPC bar code proposal to the grocery industry for free. The industry accepted a very close standard to their proposal. However, IBM also made the first technology capable of reading the bar codes, and made tons of money selling the equipment to grocery stores.
The first product to have a UPC barcode on its packaging was Wrigley's chewing gum in 1974.
The first place where a barcode was scanned was when a packet of Wrigley’s chewing gum was sold in June 1974 in Troy, Ohio.
The first product to be scanned in the United Kingdom was a box of Melrose 100 Century teabags in 1978.
In 2015 an Australian woman named Chantelle put a bet on a horse called Prince of Penzance at 100-1 and won $825. She took a selfie with the winning bet slip, and posted the elated picture to Facebook, Somebody saw the post, put the barcode into an automated betting machine and stole her winnings before Chantelle could pick them up.
The world’s smallest ever scannable barcode was invented by Dr Stephen Buchmann and was used to monitor bees and their mating habits. Each separate line of the code was one thousandth of an inch (0.0254 mms) in width.
The bar codes of all newspapers and magazines anywhere in the world begin with the digits 977.
According to the barcode monitoring center, at least five billion barcodes are scanned each day.
Sources Risingsunoverport, The Independent November 3, 2007
All countries have their individual authority for numbering, and each uses the first two or three digits for the full sequence of 13 figures. In USA and Canada the prefix is 00 to 09 and in Britain it is 50.
Barcode readers actually scan the white parts and not the black parts.
It costs about a tenth of a penny or one cent to slap on a barcode.
Barcode readers actually scan the white parts and not the black parts.
It costs about a tenth of a penny or one cent to slap on a barcode.
The world’s smallest ever scannable barcode was invented by Dr Stephen Buchmann and was used to monitor bees and their mating habits. Each separate line of the code was one thousandth of an inch (0.0254 mms) in width.
The bar codes of all newspapers and magazines anywhere in the world begin with the digits 977.
According to the barcode monitoring center, at least five billion barcodes are scanned each day.
Sources Risingsunoverport, The Independent November 3, 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment