Barcodes find new delivery mechanisms

New technologies and applications will fuel the growth of barcode-identification systems.

In 1952, Bernard Silver and Norman Woodland of Drexel University patented a method for identifying products using graphical symbols. The idea, which was the origin of barcode technology, was not commercialized until 1967, when RCA developed and installed a proprietary scanning system based on a "bulls-eye" barcode at a Kroger department store in Cincinnati, OH, USA. After limited success, the National Association of Food Chains recognized that a universal coding scheme would be needed for the idea to proliferate. This resulted in the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code in 1970 and later the now-ubiquitous UPC symbol used worldwide.

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