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Inventor's Quiet Grocery Store Pride
- George Laurer's wife would tell checkout clerks he invented the barcode while he stayed quiet at the store.
- Laurer proudly identified himself as the inventor of the UPC barcode in 1973 during interviews.
Requirements Shaped The Barcode
- Supermarket executives defined strict technical requirements that shaped the barcode's final design.
- Those specs forced designers to optimize size, read distance, and omnidirectional scanning capability.
Bullseye Idea Born On A Beach
- Joseph Woodland sketched concentric circles in the sand inspired by Morse code and Boy Scouts, creating the bullseye barcode concept in 1948.
- Woodland's circular 'bullseye' design proved impractical for later grocery requirements and was set aside for decades.