subject: Get A Short History Of Bar Codes And Computer Scanners [print this page] It all began in a Kroger grocery store in Kenwood, Ohio. The year was 1970. Kroger and RCA Corporation had been working jointly for two years to develop a way to automate grocery store checkout and improve pricing and inventory accuracy. Together they had devised a system of coding product categories and prices using a tag that resembled a bulls-eye. An optical scanner, connected to a mainframe computer, would read this code and translate it into a cash register transaction. The experiment was a success, and the history of the computer scanner was born. Getting to bar codes took a bit longer.
Several months after Kroger's successful test, a committee comprised of grocery chain and food company CEOs began meeting to work out details of a universal system of product codes and development of the appropriate computer scanner equipment. This committee, which called itself the Ad Hoc Committee on a Uniform Grocery Product Code, began working in earnest, retaining the consulting firm McKinsey and Company to spearhead the project. Discussions were held regarding what form the code should take, and what equipment should be used to read it.
The idea of using a bar code came from representatives of IBM. It was developed by George Laurer, building on a concept innovated by two other IBM employee, Joe Woodland and Bernard Silver, more than 20 years earlier. A prototype bar code scanner had been developed in 1969. The Committee adopted this idea, and issued specifications for the scanner equipment necessary to implement it. NCR Corporation was the first to rise to the challenge, developing the first commercial bar code scanner.
On June 26, 1974, at a Marsh Supermarket store in Troy, OH, the first pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum emblazoned with a bar code was rung up using an NCR computer scanner. The Universal Product Code (UPC) was born. Soon, a wide variety of grocery items sported the now-familiar UPC symbol. More and more manufacturers and retailers jumped on the bandwagon. Shortly, it moved beyond the grocery store.
These days, bar code technology abounds. Not only in retail, but everywhere. Manufacturers use bar codes to pre-program their machinery and track inventory. Warehouses use bar codes to speed storage and loading. Toll booths. U.S. Mail. Just about everything you see nowadays contains a bar code to be read by some computer scanner somewhere.
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