On the 50th anniversary of the birth of bar codes, the number of code scans worldwide reaches 6 billion times a day.
CTOnews.com, April 3 (Xinhua)-- Barcode celebrates its 50th anniversary on April 3. This method of representing data with vertical lines of different widths and intervals has played a huge role in the global retail industry, speeding up the checkout process, enabling retailers to track products and better manage inventory.
Bar code technology was patented in the United States in 1952, but it was not until nearly 20 years later, in 1971, that American engineer George Raul (George Laurer) perfected the technology and began to commercialize it. On April 3, 1973, several large retail companies agreed on the bar code scanning standard. The following year, a pack of chewing gum, the first item with a bar code in Ohio, was scanned, marking that the bar code has become a universal information identifier. At present, this pack of chewing gum has become a collection of the National Museum of American History in Washington.
Data show that at present, the number of bar code scans worldwide is as high as 6 billion times a day, and about 70,000 items are scanned and sold every second.
Today, the bar code system is managed by the International object coding Organization (Global Standard 1) established by the uniform Code Commission of the United States, which has about 2 million corporate members. It provides a unique "global trade item number" for each product and then converts it into a bar code. Each company must pay an annual fee of up to nearly $5000 (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 34400 yuan) based on its own sales.
However, with the rapid rise of QR codes, bar codes may eventually be replaced. The International Organization for object coding (GS1) is developing a new standard based on QR codes, which will be launched around 2027. Developed in 1994, QR codes can hold more information because they can be read horizontally or vertically like bar codes. And compared with the bar code, which can only be scanned by special equipment, the QR code can be used by ordinary users to scan the details of the goods through the mobile phone. In addition to providing information, QR codes can also be directly used for collection and payment, which are not commonly available in bar codes.
