Barcode Scanners Now an Integral Part of Modern Commerce

Barcodes are small symbolic patterns that relay information about the identity of a product. We tend not to notice how pervasive barcodes have become, but it was not always that way.

Early use of barcode scanners involved labeling railroad cars. But barcodes didn’t become part of our everyday life until they were adopted by supermarkets.|But the barcode’s true commercial niche was in automating supermarket checkout systems.}

These days barcode scanners are used in every industry, organization and government agency imaginable. Barcodes got their start with the research initially done by Bernard Silver and Joseph Woodland in the late 1940s. Modifications to this system, developed by Woodland while he was at IBM were based on Morse Code.

The original dots and dashes of Morse Code were printed graphically on a piece of paper as narrow or wide vertical lines. The paper would then be passed in front of a photo cell and a bright light would be shone through the paper. By 1949, pioneers Woodland and Silver applied for US Patent 2,612,994 called Classifying Apparatus and Method.

At first, barcode scanning was unreliable and expensive as it required investments from large corporations willing to test the technology’s potential. Early tests were conducted on railroad cars in Boston, and then in 1967, the Associated American Railroads selected it as the standard used across the entire North American fleet. Right around the same time the idea was being discussed by the large grocery chains in the U.S.

Finally the Kroger chain of stores agreed to test a barcode system developed by RCA. In 1969 another company, Computer Identics installed test systems in a Michigan GM plant and a New Jersey warehousing company. These initial tests clearly showed that barcode technology had broad application to a wide range of industries and commercial applications. But the most common use for this technology is in the grocery and retail industry. It helps businesses to improve trade efficiency and as a result, the economy as a whole.

The Universal Product Code (UPC) became the barcode standard in the mid 1970s. This was an 11 digit code to identify any product, and since then, industry has not been the same. Barcodes really came into their with the development of the standard 11 digit UPC. The acceptance of barcode technology was assured with these developments, and since the early 1980s it has become virtually universally used throughout business and government.