History of Barcodes
From 1950s patents to modern QR codes — the barcode story.
The Inspiration: Morse Code on the Beach
In 1948, a local supermarket executive approached the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, asking if they could develop a system to automatically read product information at checkout. Norman Joseph Woodland, a graduate student, overheard the request.
Woodland was inspired by Morse code. He famously sat on a beach in Miami, drawing Morse code dots and dashes in the sand. He extended the dots and dashes downward, creating thin and thick lines. The barcode was born.
1952: The First Patent
Woodland and his partner Bernard Silver filed a patent for a "Classifying Apparatus and Method." Interestingly, their original design was not a rectangle of parallel lines, but a "bullseye" shape made of concentric circles, designed so it could be scanned from any direction.
1974: The First Scan
It took over 20 years for laser and computer technology to catch up to the idea. By the early 1970s, the grocery industry agreed on a standard: the Universal Product Code (UPC), developed largely by George Laurer at IBM. Laurer shifted the design from the bullseye to the vertical lines we know today because the bullseye tended to smear during printing.
On June 26, 1974, at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a cashier scanned the very first barcode using a retail scanner: a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum.
1994: The Invention of the QR Code
Traditional barcodes could only hold about 20 alphanumeric characters. In 1994, Masahiro Hara, working for the Japanese company Denso Wave (a Toyota subsidiary), needed a way to track automotive parts more efficiently.
He invented the Quick Response (QR) code, a 2D matrix that could hold thousands of characters and be read ten times faster than other codes, thanks to its distinct square position markers.
Today
Today, billions of barcodes are scanned every single day. From tracking packages across the globe to linking physical posters to digital websites, this simple arrangement of lines and spaces remains one of the most critical foundational technologies of modern commerce.