Where Did Barcode Technology Originate?

The earliest predecessor to barcode technology originated in 1932 at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration

. Wallace Flint and a group of students developed a project that was founded upon the idea that a more efficient system for data collection and product delivery could be developed. It would be one in which customers select the merchandise they want from a catalog and remove the product's corresponding punched card. The checker would then place the card into a reader that would deliver the corresponding product from the storeroom to the checkout counter.

A bill was then produced for the customer and records of inventory was updated automatically. This system was used by some businesses for about a dozen years. Then things started to move again. The birth of the initial idea of the modern barcode could be said to have taken place in 1948 in Philidelphia at the Drexel Institute of Technology.

It was there that graduate students Bernard Silver and Norman Joseph Woodland put their heads together to devise a solution to the need for automatic product information reading during checkout at a local food chain store. The team's first idea was to create an identification system that utilized ultraviolet light sensitive ink. Unfortunately, after creating a prototype, they realized that the system would be both too expensive and also unstable. It wasn't until October 20, 1949 that the team filed their application for a patent for what they called a "Classifying Apparatus and Method".

They described the new invention as using "the medium of identifying patterns". Their barcode system was used commercially starting in 1966, but the system was quickly realized to be in need of an industry standard. So, Logicon Inc. wrote what they called the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code (UGPIC) in 1970. Retail trade use of the system began with the American company, Monarch Marking, and industrial use began with the British company, Plessey Telecommunications.

Later in 1973, George J. Laurer further developed the system into the Universal Product Code (U.P.C.), which was the standard symbol still used in the United States today. It was in 1974 that U.P.C. barcode scanners first appeared in stores and barcodes began to appear on regular products. Since its conception and regular commercial and industrial use, barcode technology has proven to be a revolution in the way information is transported, tracked, and controlled. Not only does barcode technology allow for previously unachievable levels of speed and efficiency, but barcode scanners also provide the security and accuracy businesses require.

Companies and manufacturers are able to track distribution and movement of every product with remarkable precision. Naturally, because of the smoothness of the system that barcode technology provides, companies are able to benefit from much greater profits. Furthermore, the widespread use of barcode technology has branched out beyond the typical chain store into warehousing, manufacturing, distribution, retail, health care, education, and even government. The advent of complex computer systems has taken barcode software to unparalleled levels.

by: Judy Hendershot

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