Bar Coding

When you think of a bar code you most likely think of the UPC code or Universal Product Code found on almost everything in a retail store. Yet the concept of a bar code was developed years before the modern UPC was put to use. The Universal Product Code was first used in the mid 1970's whereas the actual bar code was developed in the late 1940's early 1950's by Bernard Silver and Norman Joseph Woodland. They were the first to patent the concept, referring to it as the “Classifying Apparatus and Method.”

The Modern UPC

The UPC seen on products today consists of 12 digits and is used to identify a product. When scanned by a laser scanner, stores are able to quickly and effectively identify what is being bought by the consumer, in essence, moving as many people through the store lines as possible.

By Jeanne Rongitsch