It's A Long Way From Bull's-Eye Barcodes To Quick Response Codes

Did you know that the very first barcode patented was round? The patent was issued in 1952 to a pair of inventors. They had experimented with UV-sensitive inks and other methods that proved too unstable.

Eventually they settled on concentric rings of lines, in a bull's-eye pattern. These rings, through their thickness and spacing, conveyed information when scanned with a machine they also patented. While it may sound nothing like our current-day codes and scanners, they're actually quite similar.

The first commercial use of the barcode began in 1966 and has carried on through today. By 1970, a company was formed to standardize and regulate codes, to make sure they would be universally accepted and interpreted.

This eliminated the possibility of regional differences causing products to not scan properly. In 1973, the company made the Universal Product Code, or UPC. The UPC is the barcode we know today -- lines of varying thickness translating into numbers that identify the product.

The very first barcode scanner was installed in a supermarket in Ohio, and the very first product to feature a barcode was a pack of Wrigley's gum. From those humble beginnings, it has expanded around the world to regular commerce in every developed nation. The original code was actually based on Morse code. In it, dots were thin lines and dashes were thicker lines.

Originally scanners were oscilloscopes reading the varying amounts of reflection when a code was scanned. They then upgraded to lasers, which measure light absorption and read the code that way. This technology has improved gradually over the years until computerization made it what we know today.

Laser scanners are found in every supermarket, emitting a familiar beep to let the user know an item has been scanned. Unique codes are scanned into computerized inventory to keep track of products automatically. Today, nearly every business, no matter how large or small, uses barcodes to keep track of inventory. There is no faster or more effective method.

These days you can even find smaller devices. Wireless scanners are compact but still connect to the same computer inventory. Likewise, cordless scanners function well to identify bulky or heavy items without needing to shift them. These sorts of innovations are still pushing the boundaries of current technology.

The next step in barcode technology, which you have probably seen, are Quick Response, or QR codes. While not adopted for shopping and product identification, anyone can use a simple application to generate a QR code. The code itself is a square box forming a grid of smaller squares, essentially a matrix of binary information.

Based on a common cipher, the QR code can contain anything from a short message to a URL for a smartphone to automatically visit. QR codes are the next evolution of barcodes, just as smartphones, or any device with a camera and an internet connection, are the next generation of barcode scanners.

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