#Barcode July 16

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

In 1969 the BARCODE or UPC was invented in North Carolina that is part of almost every item sold in the world today.

The Universal Product Code (UPC) consists of 12 numeric digits, that are uniquely assigned to each trade item.

They are given out by GS1 US, a nonprofit group that sets standards for international commerce.

Here’s how it works: Businesses pay to join GS1 US, and in exchange, it assigns each member its own identification number that appears as the first part of its UPC.

Companies usually need different UPC codes for each product they sell, even if it is just a different size. So companies will add more numbers to their GS1-issued identification code to identify each of their products. Each UPC can be used to produce a specific barcode that can then be printed out and attached to products or, ideally, incorporated into the product design so that it is easily scanned at the register.

In 1969 IBM in Research Triangle Park just outside Raleigh NC assigned George Laurer to determine how to make a supermarket scanner and label. By late 1970, Heard Baumeister provided equations to calculate characters per inch achievable by two IBM bar codes, Delta A and Delta B. When February, 1971 rolled around Baumeister joined Laurer. By 1972 the scanner and UPC became a reality.

George Laurer started work at IBM in 1951 and was a 36-year veteran before he retired in June 1987. He also is the holder of 25 patents issued by US Patent Office.

There is a great article in the NY Times on Laurer and his invention. The one part of his story that I loved was he didn’t follow instructions. He was told to invent a round UPC but he found out that didn’t work as good the linear one.

Read the article below

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/magazine/who-made-that-universal-product-code.html?_r=0

The history of the BARCODE started in North Carolina.