The man credited with inventing the bar code, N. Joseph Woodland, died on Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012 at the age of 91.
The idea for the barcode originated from his studies of Morse Code when he was a Boy Scout.
The idea for using lines for a product code came when he drew lines through the sand with four fingers while staying with his grandparents in Miami Beach in 1948-49.
His first idea for a barcode was a circular design. He and a partner patented this bull’s-eye-type design on Oct. 7, 1952. The patent number is 2,612,994. Woodland and his partner eventually sold their patent to Philco for $15,000. It was all they ever made from their invention, which was unwieldly and languished for years. Over time, laser scanning technology and the advent of the microprocessor made the barcode viable.
In the early 1970s, I.B.M.‘s George J. Laurer, designed the familiar black-and-white rectangle, based on Woodland’s model and with considerable input from Woodland, who was working at I.B.M. at the time.
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