A Short History of the Barcode From Grocery Stores to Passports and Plane Tickets Barcodes are a fundamental part of our daily lives. We scan them at the supermarket, present them on boarding passes at airports, and find them on identity documents such as driver’s licenses and ID cards. What many people do not realize is that barcode technology was once a revolutionary idea, far ahead of its time. Today, barcodes support global retail, secure travel, and automated identity verification. But their journey began with a simple question: How can products be identified faster and more reliably? The Birth of the Barcode The history of the barcode dates back to the late 1940s. American inventors Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver were searching for a way to automate checkout processes in grocery stores. Manual price entry was slow, inefficient, and error-prone. Inspired by Morse code, Woodland developed early visual patterns using lines instead of dots [...]
A Short History of the Barcode
From Grocery Stores to Passports and Plane Tickets
Barcodes are a fundamental part of our daily lives. We scan them at the supermarket, present them on boarding passes at airports, and find them on identity documents such as driver’s licenses and ID cards. What many people do not realize is that barcode technology was once a revolutionary idea, far ahead of its time.
Today, barcodes support global retail, secure travel, and automated identity verification. But their journey began with a simple question: How can products be identified faster and more reliably?
The Birth of the Barcode
The history of the barcode dates back to the late 1940s. American inventors Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver were searching for a way to automate checkout processes in grocery stores. Manual price entry was slow, inefficient, and error-prone. Inspired by Morse code, Woodland developed early visual patterns using lines instead of dots and dashes. This concept later became the foundation of the UPC (Universal Product Code). In 1952, the first barcode patent was granted.
However, while the idea was brilliant, the technology needed to read barcodes reliably did not yet exist. Computers were large, scanners were primitive, and the infrastructure was missing. The barcode had to wait.
Barcode-Patent_GooglePatents
Photo Credit: Barcode Patent 1952 - Google Patents
When Barcodes Entered Everyday Life
The breakthrough came in the early 1970s with the development of laser scanning technology and standardized barcode formats. In 1972, the first automated checkout systems with barcode scanners were installed. The scanning technology was provided by NCR, a key player in early retail automation.
Just two years later, in 1974, a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum became the first product ever scanned using a standardized 1D barcode in a supermarket in Troy, Ohio. From that moment on, barcodes spread rapidly across the retail industry. 1D barcodes proved to be fast, reliable, and ideal for linking products to digital databases. That is why they are still widely used on groceries and consumer goods worldwide.
From Products to Identity and Travel
As technology advanced, barcode technology evolved beyond retail. 2D barcodes, such as PDF417 and Aztec codes, can store significantly more information than traditional 1D barcodes. This made them ideal for identity documents and travel applications.
- PDF417 barcodes are used on U.S. driver’s licenses, encoding personal data such as name, date of birth, and license number in a machine-readable format.
- Aztec barcodes are commonly used on boarding passes (BCBP), especially on mobile devices. They are robust, readable even when partially damaged, and well suited for digital displays.
These barcode types enable automated identity checks, faster passenger processing, and reduced errors in data capture. Barcodes are no longer just about products. They are about people, security, and efficiency.
Innovation That Keeps Evolving
The barcode story is a powerful example of continuous innovation. It did not stop with the invention of the barcode itself. It required scanners, standards, databases, and global adoption to become what it is today.
For us as a young, innovative company, this story is deeply inspiring. It reminds us that progress is often built step by step. That even simple ideas can grow into global standards. And that innovation does not always mean inventing something completely new, but also improving, rethinking, and advancing what already exists.
Read more interesting stories about the Barcode and where it came from here:
Sources
- Google Patents Woodland, N. J., & Silver, B. (1952).Classifying Apparatus and Method (U.S. Patent No. 2,612,994) (https://patents.google.com/patent/US2612994A/en)
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History: The History of the Barcode (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/history-bar-code-180956704/)
- Barcoding: The History of the Barcode (https://www.barcoding.com/blog/barcode-history)
- BBC: The Weird History of The Barcode (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241018-barcodes-at-75-how-black-and-white-lines-went-into-space-and-stoked-fears-of-the-antichrist)
Need to Read Barcodes
